Message-ID: <01BB9680.8E622E80@CHCM-0017.ias.unu.edu> Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 14:35:55 +0900 From: Jacky Foo <mailto:foo@IAS.UNU.EDU> Subject: Scavengers and waste recycling To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Announcement of UNU/IAS Electronic Seminar
Date: 16 Sept-15 Oct Title: Scavengers' cooperatives and grassroots development in developing countries By: Mr. Martin Medina. Inst of Advanced Studies, United Nations University
ABSTRACT
Up to two percent of the population in developing countries depend on salvaging, reusing and selling waste materials from garbage dumps, streets and landfills, etc, for their livelihood. These scavengers often work in hazardous environments and live in conditions of poor hygiene. Due to their daily contact with garbage and dirt, the public often perceive them as disease carriers, a nuisance, a symbol of backwardness or even as criminals. In many cases, buyers of collected materials and government officials exert economic and political control over scavengers, making their livelihood more difficult. Some developing countries like Indonesia, Egypt, Brazil and China have realised the socio-economic importance and environmental benefits of scavenging and have started to support the establishment of cooperatives and their collaboration with the formal waste management services. This paper presents a typology of different public policies toward scavengers; it argues that policies towards recycling by scavengers should be changed and analyzes recent experiences in the formation of scavengers' cooperatives. The paper suggests ways in which such cooperatives could be incorporated into formal waste management programs and as a means to promote grassroots development in their communities.
Keywords: Scavenging, Waste Management, Recycling, Cooperatives, Developing Countries, Sustainable Development, Grassroots Development, Public Policy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. Martin Medina is currently a Ph.D. Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies (United Nations University,Tokyo) and a Visiting Scholar at Tokyo University. He has worked and conducted research on waste management issues in the United States, Mexico, the Philippines, Central and South America. His dissertation attempts to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of scavenging of wastes in developing countries, industrialized nations and Eastern Europe. He is currently working on an innovative waste collection system for slum areas in developing countries. Mr. Medina has a B.A. in Community Development from Monterrey Technological Institute (Mexico), and received his M.S. in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Studies at Yale University.
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