Pepenadores: Scavengers Huiwon Jang Global Perspectives May 19th, 2022 Background Information The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were established in 2015 by the UN General Assembly. The SDGs are seventeen goals to be achieved by the year 2030. The goals present the tasks that humanity must accomplish in order to reach “peace and prosperity” (United Nations). The third among the seventeen goals is Good Health and Well-Being, which promotes the welfare of all global citizens. With the arrival of a global pandemic, this SDG has faced many challenges and step-backs. Some parts of the world where this goal has faced difficulties include the Republic of Sierra Leone, which is said to have only twenty-two physicians for every million people. In addition to this, countries like Myanmar have extremely low life expectancies that do not yet reach the age of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, 76.4 years. In addition to the above cases this SDG has not yet been met in Mexico. One of the causes is due to the mistreatment and ignorance that the Mexican government has shown to the trash scavengers. Trash scavengers, called pepenadores, are an integral part of Mexican Society. They scavenge the landfills of Mexico in order to sell recyclable materials to “middlemen” to receive meager pay. Some pick trash up from the streets in order to receive tips from facilities. It is estimated that 50,000 to 4,000,000 people live as scavengers in Latin America (Boston University), which translates to seven billion US dollars in cumulative economic impact (World Bank). Due to the nature of their work, which is closely tied with waste material, they face many detrimental health defects. Yet, compared to the impact that they have on Mexican—and further, Latin American—society, their health and well-being is not taken into consideration at all by the government. This is due to the fact that trash scavengers are considered to be the “poorest of the poor” (United Nations University…), and are an informal workforce that is easily ignored. Past Action The UN recognizes trash scavengers from around the world to be an important part of waste management in many countries. United Nations University's Our World, a magazine, has published articles regarding this topic multiple times. It also recognizes that Mexico’s landfills, as well as recycling centers, have been subject to unfathomable amounts of garbage. However, instead of also acknowledging the roles of the pepenadores and building a bridge between them and the government, the United Nations has not taken any action to alleviate this crisis thus far. There have been a few non-governmental organizations (NGO) that have stepped up to deal with this problem. The most notable of them is Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). WIEGO has, with the arrival of the recent pandemic, advocated for the welfare of trash scavengers. WIEGO created an assessment of human rights for waste pickers, and also held a photo exhibition at Museo de Tolerancia y Memoria to increase awareness on the poor working conditions of the waste scavengers. Furthermore, they created the Los Rifados de la Basura campaign, which advocates for public awareness and support for waste pickers. Martin Medina, a senior international relations specialist, is also a prominent figure in this issue. He is the author of The World’s Scavengers: Salvaging for Sustainable Consumption and Production, a book on the trash scavengers of the world. He started the chain of articles related to the trash scavengers of Mexico and the U.S. He traveled to various landfills of the world in order to accumulate data, and convinced the World Bank, as well as the Inter-American Development Bank, to aid the pepenadores. His research has been crucial to spreading awareness about the trash scavengers. Surprisingly, the works that especially stood out were not by NGOs, but by a trash-reclaiming company named Avangard Innovative. The company gathers 74,000 tons of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic a year, and half of that amount can be attributed to the work of trash scavengers (United Nations University...). Middlemen are reported to take up to 90 percent of the pepenadores’ profit from selling recyclables (Oscar Fergutz 2011). Unlike the pre-existing system that exploits trash scavengers, the company decided to exclude the middlemen and trade directly with the pepenadores. In addition to this, the company, in cooperation with the NGO Fundacion Mundo Sustenable, made changes to increase the quality of living for the trash scavengers. They built materials recovery facilities (MSF), which systemified the trash categorizing process. The pepenadores were equipped with protective gear as well, reducing the risk of adverse effects that toxic waste material could have on the workers. They also created Children’s Development Centres, in order to care for the children of the pepenadores and eradicate child labour from the picture. The centers provide the trash pickers’ children with education, opening up opportunities for them to have a better future. These steps that they had taken were all a part of their attempt to abide by the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s safeguards in order to receive a 24.5-million-dollar loan for the expansion of Petstar, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling plant. As a result, the use of child labor in Petstar has halved in recent years. Country Accountability Mexico has, over the years, more or less contributed to the crisis. Nowadays, governments around the world–including Mexico–are attempting to impose the Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) method, which does not include the hand-picking labor of pepenadores. In Mexico, due to the Ley de Residuos Sólidos del Distrito Federal, or the Solid Waste Law of the Federal District, waste pickers’ work is illegal. However, in Mexico, laws and regulations are not enough to control the waste management sector (The Governance of Waste…). Thus, local authorities become torn between the two methods, and this resulted in a hybrid approach. The informal conditions that the waste pickers are forced to work in has opened the door for the exploitation of the pepenadores’ labor. One scavenger in Morelos, Mexico has testified that “they do not help us, instead they require us to clean up municipal green areas”, (The Governance of Waste…). To the local authorities, using the existing system of scavengers is much easier and cost-effective than following the formal method. Most of the trash pickers, however, are not respected or appreciated at all, nor are they provided with appropriate subsidies that a government-affiliated organization usually has. The Mexican government has ignored this issue for a long time, but the rise of NGOs as well as human rights movements has propelled it to make a change. The Mexico City Commission of Human Rights (CDHDF) had established a recommendation on waste management services to alleviate the working conditions of the pepenadores. This recommendation introduced some rules that the municipalities must follow when utilizing the trash pickers’ labor. It included possible forms of social security and healthcare, in addition to a special state protection. A notable component of this recommendation was that the CDHDF admitted to the problems that the informal setting of the scavengers’ work was creating (WIEGO). This recommendation was issued in August, 2016. Six years have passed since then, but nothing much seems to have changed. Looking at an article published by the Mexico Daily Post in March of 2021, the waste pickers of Mexico City still do not receive a formal wage. They still do not have a formal contract, nor any recognition. Francisco Bustamante, a “volunteer”—another word for pepenadores—says that “it’s not that the Government or any other entity supports me financially for the sweep. According to me, all street sweepers should be basic, receive a salary, and now yes: I demand that you sweep everything and leave it clean,” (Mexico Daily Post). In the WIEGO article, they made the point that the recommendation did not, in fact, have binding effect, and was possibly a form of strategic litigation. Their prediction was proven to be correct. Personal Advocacy In order to advocate for change in this issue, I can email the WIEGO organization in order to let them know that I am interested in taking action and ask them if there could be any volunteering opportunities for me. I can also send emails to the Mexican waste management officials to let them know that they have not adhered to the recommendations proposed by their own human rights commission. I can raise awareness to this crisis by creating a club at school dedicated to supporting the informal trash pickers. Creating the club would mean that I have to publicize and also host fundraisers, which would be effective in letting the school know about this issue. In addition to this, I can repost articles related to the pepenadores on social media platforms.