Policy Advocacy
Both social and environmental policies can directly impact the working conditions of waste pickers in North America, but these policies are often designed without a focus on livelihoods generally, or waste pickers specifically. NAWPA works to identify policies - like Bottle Bill legislation and homelessness policies, for example - that could be reformed to improve waste pickers’ conditions. In all cases, our proposals for policy reform in favor of waste pickers are also opportunities for wider societal and environmental benefit, and cost savings to governments.
More Inclusive Bottle Bills
Legislated bottle deposit return systems (commonly referred to as “Bottle Bills”) are an especially important area for policy advocacy for waste pickers. Bottle Bills establish a deposit amount that consumers pay for covered beverage containers to incentivize the return of those containers at designated sites for a deposit refund. Bottle Bills can be effective at increasing recycling rates and reducing litter, but to work well, they require public participation in the collection and redemption of recyclable materials. In North America, waste pickers play a critical role in making these systems work, despite the lack of research quantifying our contribution.
NAWPA members are active in advocating for Bottle Bill reform that makes redemption easy and accessible, and that builds power for waste pickers. We believe a just transition away from an extractive economy is critical to addressing the climate crisis, and that the work of waste pickers in promoting circularity - or the reuse of waste - is a core part of this effort that should be recognized and supported in the design of these systems.
Bottle bills that promote accessibility include measures that make redemption easy and convenient, ensuring that waste pickers have multiple locations where they can redeem materials, that redemption sites are required to accept high quantities of materials, and that sorting requirements on individual waste pickers are not onerous.
Bottle Bills that build power include handling fees that create economic opportunity for waste pickers to be able to advance in the value chain, from individual redeemers to operators of depots or redemption centers.
Sure We Can and the Campaign for a Bigger, Better Bottle Bill
New York State’s Bottle Bill was groundbreaking when it was first introduced in 1982. But over 40 years later the bill has not been significantly expanded or updated to keep up with inflationary pressures. The bottle deposit amount of 5 cents has never been changed, and the handling fee of 3.5 cents initially allowed for a network of independently owned redemption centers to form, but has not been raised enough for most of these small businesses to stay in business; most have closed as of 2025. Canners and redemption centers depend on each other, and less redemption centers means less access for New York’s canning community, for whom canning is an economic lifeline.
This system has presented a unique opportunity for canners (primarily people of color), and redemption center owners, (many of whom are white, native-born New Yorkers), to find common cause around the need for bottle bill reform. As a result, the Bottle Bill Coalition has taken shape as a multi-racial coalition of environmental advocates, small business owners, and canners (primarily represented by Sure We Can and more recently, the Alliance of Independent Recyclers).
The coalition’s proposal, which is now reflected in a piece of draft legislation, would double the deposit amount and handling fee, and would expand the types of containers eligible for redemption. The campaign has faced heavy resistance from the producers’ lobby, who have tried to frame the bottle bill as a tax on low-income consumers.
The campaign’s messaging has focused on the win-win-win potential of a better bottle bill for the public, the state and the environment. For example:
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Increasing the deposit amount through a higher deposit would make an immediate material difference for canners, many of whom are shut out of the labor market or elderly, which, in complement with other reforms, could have a sustained positive impact on reducing economic precarity for some of New York’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents. This is especially important at a time of skyrocketing costs, increased competition, strained/insufficient social safety nets and increasing precarity
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The state government would benefit from the millions of tons of waste diverted from landfills at no cost, and increased revenue from unredeemed deposits.
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Local governments would benefit from reduced strain on municipal recycling systems, and would see local economic development benefits through the boost to struggling redemption centers that the increased handling fee would provide
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Future generations would benefit from the significant decrease in litter clogging streets and waterways, and the increase in recycling that is so critical in working towards a more circular economy.
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While passing an expanded Bottle Bill is a win-win proposition, neglecting, eliminating, or not implementing Bottle Bills presents risks. Rather than maximizing the clear, existing benefits of the Bottle Bill, inaction to update the Bill in NY state would lead to a reduction in all the positive impacts listed above, as litter would increase, recycling rates would go down, and circular economy workers - both canners and those at redemption centers - would suffer. This would, in turn, increase the strain on social support systems that are already pushed to the brink, especially in NYC.
Homelessness policy that strengthens existing livelihoods
Bottle Bills are not the only area of policy advocacy that is important for our members. Because many waste pickers are unhoused, homelessness policies also present opportunities for advancing the rights of waste pickers. When homelessness policies address livelihood, it is often in the form of job training programs, rather than meeting people where they are in terms of enhancing and supporting existing forms of livelihood. In their advocacy with the city of Portland, Ground Score has put forward a new model.
Ground Score as a strategic partner in responding to the housing crisis
Until recently, Oregon’s Bottle Bill was a beloved policy among mainstream society. But, starting in 2019, a dramatic rise in fentanyl use, coupled with steep increases in homelessness during and after the COVID019 pandemic, mainstream Oregonians have come to falsely blame Oregon’s Bottle Bill for rising drug use and homelessness. Stigma became punitive action in 2024, when during a ninety day “fentanyl emergency” period declared by the Governor of Oregon, bottle redemption services were suspended at two major downtown Portland retailers.
In contrast, Ground Score provides a safe space for redemption where canners interface with canners, and where operations are set up to accommodate their unique needs. While advocating for broad access to redemption services (e.g. keeping retailers open) Ground Score has simultaneously worked to position itself with the government of Portland as a strategic partner in responding to the fentanyl and housing crisis. When the Oregon Liquor Control Commission announced it would no longer enforce the state’s Bottle Bill during the pandemic, Ground Score fought for and secured funding from the city to open the People’s Depot.
Over time, many retailers have come to see Ground Score as an asset, capable of serving the canner population and relieving retailers of this requirement.and have become unexpected partners in arguing for increased support for Ground Score.
Also during the pandemic, Ground Score secured support from the City’s Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program Portland’s Impact Reduction Program (IRP) to launch a litter collection service called GLITTER, Ground Score Leading Inclusively Through Environmental Recovery. Founded in February of 2021 as a pilot funded by the City of Portland’s Impact Reduction Program, GLITTER is a program where waste pickers can access shift work providing litter collection and tentside waste collection services for houseless camps across the Portland Metro Region. Collection crews go out on foot or bike on various routes through Portland to provide much-needed collection services to Portland’s encampments. Because many Ground Score members have ties to encampments - with past or current experience living in one, or knowing people who do - they are uniquely placed to provide encampments services in a way that is respectful and trauma-informed. Where many cleanup crews have struggled to build the trust to enter encampments, Ground Score crews are able to do so with relative ease. GLITTER now has contracts with the City of Portland, Multnomah County, Portland Bureau of Transportation, and a handful of organizations and Enhanced Service Districts.