Facts, not Fallacies
Misconceptions and myths about waste pickers and the work they do are common in our communities. This leads to stigma and even hostility towards these contributing members of society. Below, we lay out some of the most common fallacies and explain the facts.
FALLACY: Waste picking isn’t work—it’s easy cash for lazy people.
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​FACTS: Waste picking is definitely work—hard and important work that helps improve recycling rates and keep our communities clean.
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​There is nothing easy about finding, collecting, hauling and redeeming materials that have value, especially in places where there are limits on how many containers can be redeemed at a designated location. Most waste pickers travel several miles each day on foot or bicycle, carting heavy loads to make their income. In doing so, they clean up their communities, divert tons of material from overburdened public landfills and contribute to environmental sustainability.
Waste pickers create their own jobs. This work is informal, flexible, and accessible to many people who are for a variety of reasons shut out of the formal job market.
FALLACY: Waste picking fuels the drug crisis—these people just want money to buy drugs.
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FACTS: There is no evidence that waste picking or deposit return systems (bottle bills) increase or even enable drug use. There is evidence to suggest waste picking may decrease drug use.
CDC data on drug-related deaths shows absolutely no correlation or pattern to suggest states with Bottle Bills are more impacted. Most waste pickers are not drug users—rather, they use the money they earn from redeeming recyclables to buy the same necessities everyone needs. A 2023 study on canners in New York found that the vast majority spend their canning income on food, other basic needs, household expenses and family/community support.
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By offering a legal and dignified way to make money while contributing to community, waste picking may actually decrease drug use. Multiple studies have demonstrated that employment aids recovery from drug addiction.
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While it does happen that some people struggling with addictions use their waste picking income to pay for drugs, the truth is that in the absence of this income, those individuals would get money another way, including through criminal activity. In fact, a 2012 study found petty crime rates in states with bottle bills were 11% lower than in states without.
FALLACY: All waste pickers are poor and homeless.
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FACTS: Most but not all of the people who do this work live in poverty, and rely on the small income they receive from waste picking. However, some choose to do this work to supplement other income, and because they want to contribute in a positive way to their community and the environment.
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A 2021 study in Montreal showed that most valoristes are using the income as an alternative or supplement to social assistance. Waste picking often provides income that helps pay rent and other expenses. A 2023 study on canners in New York showed that most are housed, but face barriers to employment due to physical or mental health issues, and most are over age 50 (as is the case in many American cities).
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Homelessness and affordability are growing problems in communities throughout Canada and the US. While waste picking is not synonymous with homelessness, many waste pickers are unhoused. For this reason, NAWPA affiliates often advocate for better policies to tackle homelessness.
Photo: Sure We Can, Carlos Rivera
FALLACY: Deposits on containers are just another kind of tax.
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FACTS: When the deposit is fully refundable, the cost is not a tax. It is an incentive to ensure containers get into the recycling system, lessening the burden on taxpayer-funded waste services like landfills.
To prevent this misconception, it is important that a DRS is well designed. It should provide a full refund on deposit (NAWPA stresses that handling fees should be separate, and paid by the producers as part of EPR) and be effectively communicated to the public.
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FALLACY: Canada and the United States are too rich to have people who need to rely on waste picking.
FACTS: While both the United States and Canada are considered wealthy countries by global standards, millions of people in both countries live in poverty, and inequality has been growing for decades.
With the job market declining, informal work increasing, the cost of housing and food out of reach for many and social assistance completely inadequate, waste picking is an important source of income.
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Despite the fact the solid waste industry is highly privatized, waste pickers in North America collect materials, from scrap metals to second-hand goods that can be sold or repurposed. The most important source of income for our waste pickers is beverage containers. Ten US states and nine Canadian provinces have a Deposit Return System, which requires consumers to pay a monetary deposit on beverage packaging that people can later redeem when returning empty beverage containers.
FALLACY: Recycling doesn’t work—almost nothing gets recycled.
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FACTS: Fortunately for our environment, that’s not true. Both Canada and the United States recycle a huge volume of materials. Recycling not only reduces waste but creates far fewer emissions than making new material.
Aluminum, which can be recycled over and over again, supports a huge recycling industry. Glass is also infinitely recyclable, and used to make new bottles as well as fiberglass insulation and other products. Plastics also get recycled. According to a 2025 report by the Association of Plastic Recyclers, there is more than enough capacity to recycle many types of plastic into new products in North America. There are issues, however, of not having enough material to recycle and not having a high enough market demand for recycled plastic. The report notes these could both be addressed through better public policies.
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An impediment to recycling in North America is contamination. Curbside recycling contains mixed materials that are costly to sort and process, so many of those materials get sent abroad and are not recycled. However, when materials are returned through a bottle bill system, they are presorted. Thus it is a cleaner stream and more affordable to recycle domestically.
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More recycling should happen. If it isn’t happening in your area, that’s a lack of will on the part of policymakers or industry, and we encourage you to demand a change.
FALLACY: Digging through trash is always illegal.
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FACTS: This depends on where you live.
In most places, trash put curbside is considered public property. However, some local ordinances make it illegal to harvest recyclables from trash cans and dumpsters. NAWPA advocates for an end to such punitive laws, which get in the way of recycling. For example, Ground Score in Oregon helped influence city codes to make it legal to harvest recyclables from trash.