At the start of every workday, Cristian Jay Briones receives a list of schools, restaurants and shopping malls scattered across the Philippine city of Batangas. His job: travel to each location, collect everything that can be recycled, which always includes plastic waste, then sort and weigh his cache.
The work is challenging and fulfilling, says Briones, who is part of a waste pickers collective known as the San Jose Sico Landfill Multipurpose Cooperative.
We know we're contributing to the environment, not just for our own benefit but also helping others, says the 26-year-old.
Briones is one of an estimated 20 million people around the world who earn a living by collecting, sorting and selling waste, including plastic. In developing countries without formal reuse and recycling systems, these waste pickers are on the frontlines of the effort to tackle plastic pollution, which experts say is a mounting threat to the environment.
This years World Environment Day, celebrated on 5 June, will focus on solutions to end plastic pollution, including how to spur what experts call a just transition towards a circular economy for plastics and the role often-marginalized communities, including waste pickers, have in that future.
Informal waste pickers play a crucial role in plastic waste management, especially in many developing countries, says Elisa Tonda, Chief of the Resources and Markets Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The success of the global fight against plastic pollution depends on our joint commitment to not leave anyone behind and to integrate waste pickers in designing the solution to address plastic pollution.
In 2024 alone, humanity generated an estimated 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, contributing to an ongoing plastic pollution crisis experts say is damaging fragile ecosystems and exposing people to potential risk of exposure to harmful chemicals in plastics and also pollutants, like microplastics.
Waste pickers like Briones, whether informal or part of a cooperative, are responsible for almost 60 per cent of all the plastic waste collected globally, according to one study. But waste pickers often have few employment rights and no access to health insurance, the latter especially problematic in a field where cuts and infections are common, experts say.
As we move toward a more sustainable future, it is vital that this transition is just and inclusive, and that waste pickers are guaranteed Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work including the right to a safe and healthy working environment, says Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Director of the Action Programme on Just Transition at the International Labour Organization. A just transition must leave no one behind, and that includes the millions of waste pickers and workers whose labour underpins recycling systems around the world.
Experts point to cooperatives, like San Jose Sico, as a model for the just transition. The organization has 500 members who receive a regular income, accident insurance and paid sick leave.
Briones says he is grateful for what the job has given him. Some people might view our work as dirty or unpleasant, but we choose to ignore such opinions, says Briones, who joined the cooperative when his father suffered a stroke and could no longer support the family. I've been able to establish my own home, small as it may be, and can support my family, my father, and ensure my child receives a good education.
A growing number of countries are exploring laws that would require those who place plastic products on the market to be responsible for the end-of-life management of their products. Waste pickers could play a role in operationalizing these so-called extended producer responsibility schemes.
The manufacturers will eventually look for those who can do the work, says manager of San Jose Sico Landfill cooperative Sherryl Hernandez, who took part in a study conducted by SEA Circular, a UNEP-supported initiative designed to prevent marine plastic pollution with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Who has that capability? Its waste workers, adds Hernandez.
For UNEPs Tonda, extended producer responsibility schemes could create opportunities to integrate informal waste pickers into solutions across the life cycle, including waste management systems. The schemes are being rolled out in countries around the world. Fees collected through the schemes could support waste management operations by creating jobs, providing training for workers and promoting safer working conditions, including by reducing exposure to potentially hazardous materials.
The millions of waste pickers are a strong ally in the quest for solutions as the world seeks to end plastic pollution, says Tonda. Recognizing waste pickers role to achieve this will allow them to continue supporting themselves and their families through their work.
