About
Waste Pickers
Waste pickers collect discarded materials like bottles and cans, scrap metal, or other materials that can be reused or recycled for earnings. In North America many waste pickers redeem the materials they collect for cash under bottle deposit systems. Our work protects the environment. In addition to reducing litter in streets, parks and other public spaces, we prevent greenhouse gas emissions by recycling bottles and cans that would otherwise end up in landfills. We create our own jobs, which not only generate income and environmental benefit, but can also provide meaning, purpose and community, often for people who have been shut out of the formal job market. Millions of waste pickers work all over the world, and waste picking has deep roots in the North American region.
Most waste pickers are informal workers. Informal workers have no legal or social protections through work. Globally, most workers are informal workers - 2 billion people, or 60% of the world’s workforce.
Even though waste pickers in North America lack proper recognition, compensation and support, the formal waste sector depends on our labor. For example, states and provinces with legislated bottle deposit systems rely on our work collecting bottles and cans, notably in the public domain, to achieve high return rates.
Defining terms
Waste picker is a global term, adopted at the First World Conference of Waste Pickers in 2008, and now used by the International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP) and in some official statistics.
In North America, as in the world, preferred terms vary by place, and in some cases, different terms are used to indicate the different types of materials workers are involved in collecting. In our region common terminology includes:
Type of waste picker
Terms used
People who collect and/or sort discarded, recyclable materials in places with bottle deposit systems, where these materials can be redeemed for cash. Canners, lateros (common US terms)
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Canners, lateros (common US terms)
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Binners (common term in West Canada)
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Valoristes, ramasseurs (common terms in East Canada)
People who collect materials (recyclable and non-recyclable) that others have thrown away, sometimes for redemption or sale, sometimes for personal reuse or consumption.
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Dumpster divers
People who collect metal waste for redemption or sale (outside of bottle deposit systems).
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Scrappers
People who collect only food waste for sale or consumption.
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Gleaners
Broad category for people who collect recyclable materials for redemption, reuse or sale.
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Independent recyclers, récupérateurs informels, recicladores independientes
History
As in most of the world, governments in the North American region don’t collect official statistics on waste pickers in labor force surveys. Data is critical to understanding the contributions of waste pickers, to defining organizing strategies and to developing responsive, supportive policies. As a result, we have developed our own studies, and documented our methods for use by other waste pickers’ organizations interested in collecting data on their sector.
University of Victoria in collaboration with Cooperative les Valoristes
Ground Score (as part of the Informal Sector Small Equity Work Group)
Sure We Can
Independent Recyclers in New York City: Sector Profile and Pathways to Inclusion
2023
WIEGO Statistical Brief No 39
Statistics on Waste Pickers: A Case Studies Guide
Statistics & Data
Very little has been written on waste picking in North America compared to the global south. A lack of research and documentation, historically and now, contributes to the invisibility of the sector.
What research does exist shows that waste picking has a long history in North America, in both rural and urban areas. In addition to collecting goods to sell second hand, a common practice was for waste pickers to collect rags in exchange for coal. Immigrants and people of color played a central role in both formal and informal waste systems, as recyclers but also as owners of small recycling enterprises. Automation, global outsourcing and structural racism have all impacted these small businesses and made it so that waste sector services that specifically support low-income individuals and communities are now rare.
Resources on the history of waste picking in North America:
Cash For Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America
By Carl Zimring
Listen to a lecture about the book
Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago
by David Naguib Pellow
