A Gender Perspective on Recycling
Sonia Dias
WIEGO/ Visiting Professor UFMG
Solidarity Centre - Gender
Conference
Waste picker in Puna, India – driver for the
SWaCH
Cooperative.
Waste Pickers – Vital actors
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Millions of people worldwide – a large number of them
women – make a living collecting, sorting, recycling, and
selling valuable materials that someone else has thrown
away.
Vital actors in the informal economy, they provide
widespread benefits. In many countries, waste pickers
supply the only form of solid waste collection.
A significant number of waste pickers are women, and
some are children. In some cities in India, for example,
about 80 per cent of the waste pickers are women; in
Brazil, a small-scale study found that 56 per cent of waste
picker organizations’ members are women.
Despite the growing strength of women in the waste
picking profession, a gendered approach is important ...

Women might not be allowed access to recyclables with the highest
value.

Women may not occupy positions of authority within their
communities, or may not be respected fully when holding those
positions.

Asymmetrical power relations at the household level affect women’s
abilities to take part in public committees or to exercise leadership
within their representative organizations due to barriers that prevent
women from involvement in the public realm.

Women are responsible for raising children and maintaining the
household, limiting their time and energy for taking up leadership
opportunities.
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When waste picking activity is formalized, women often do not enjoy
the same opportunities as men for fair earnings.
Formalization & Gender -Women Waste Pickers and
Labor Statistics in Brazil - Facts
Waste Pickers according to PNAD 2006:
 Number of waste pickers: 229,568;
 67% are men and 33% are women;
 25% are between the ages of 50-65 and 7% are older than 65;
 Only 14% of the men and 6% of the women are enrolled in schools;
Waste pickers with regular employment (RAIS)
 There are 11,781 waste pickers in regular employment;
 95% are in regular employment for an undetermined time;
 80% are men and 20% women;

98 % of those who receive between 3 and 4 minimum wages are men
and only 2% are women;
 80% of waste pickers in regular employment have an average schooling
beyond the 4th grade and more than 60% have an average schooling until
the 8th grade or more.
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Source: Crivellari, Dias et al (2008)
Waste and gender an invisible issue…
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Women waste leaders from Latin America
Despite the growing number of
studies that focus on solid waste,
there are very few that seek to
understand the gender dynamics and
sexual division of labor involved in
waste picking activities.
Leadership empowerment of women still largely ignored at the national
movements of waste pickers: “we are
very active at our coops but when it
comes to power positions at the
national movement we face
constraints”.
BUT… In Nicaragua 2012 the LA
network of waste pickers raised the
issue and a pilot Gender & Waste
Research Action Project was born.
Changing Mindsets in Nicaragua
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Nicaragua
2012
Gender committee formed at the
2012 LA conference of RedLacre empowerment of women does not
mean the exclusion of men. It
means to contribute to the
emancipation of all people -- men
and women.
It was with this idea in mind that
the Red Lacre, the National
Movement of Waste Pickers in
Brazil (MNCR), WIEGO began
discussing in 2012 the importance
of opening up a dialogue about
gender in the context of waste
picking, or informal recycling.
A participatory process from the outset
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Taking advantage of an existing relationship with the Center for Study and
Research on Women (NEPEM) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais
(UFMG), members of the previously mentioned groups decided to start a
pilot project in Minas Gerais that would explore themes for a future
program about gender for Brazil and Latin America.
The development of the gender project in 2012 was participatory. Over the
course of that year, several meetings were held with women waste pickers
from various cooperatives throughout the state of Minas Gerais.
Participants decided that exploratory workshops throughout the state
should be held. In 2013, as a result of this participatory process, the gender
project was born as a partnership between MNCR, ANCAT, WIEGO,
NEPEM, and the NGO INSEA.
Gender Waste Project Timeline
Informal talks with
women from Redesol &
Cataunidos
Half day workshop with
women at Insea with
women from Redesol &
Feedback
Cataunidos
session at
L&C Festival
First talks with women
' 11
feb
2011
may
aug
nov
Nicaragua meeting
feb
2012
may
aug
' 12
Informal talks at the national women´s meeting in Curitiba
Various meetings with women
leaders" - June 2012 till Aug
2012
Participatory project drafting June –Sept 2012
Literature review: June-August 12
Made with Office Timeline 2010
www.officetimeline.com
Project goals
1. To provide women with the tools to work
towards equality in the workplace and
their personal lives in order to strengthen
their capacities and voices;
2. To increase women’s leadership roles in
waste picker representative
organizations; and
3. To contribute to the economic
empowerment of women waste pickers.
Methodology & Team
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Participatory Research Action:
• knowledge production via direct envolvement;
• Participation from the outset: from project drafting to implementation and evaluation;
• platform for participation/engagement: follow up commitees;
•Knowledge production not as an end in itself but with the view to contribute to social
changes;
• respect for the pedagogical time of communities – ongoing process – it takes time;
• involved communities/groups: from “objects” to “subjects” – producers and owners of
knowledge.
• participatory tools:
-Team:
Executive team: Waste picker representative from Redlacre/MNCR + Wiego waste
specialist + Nepem´s staff (Prof.Marlise Matos and Prof. Ana Ogando) and 4 trainee
students + rep from NGO Insea.
Consultative committee: 3 waste pickers´ rep from the MNCR and the director of the
NGO Insea + 1 external reviewer.
Project Phases
Phase 1- Learning & Participatory drafting + literature
review
Phase 2 – Regional Workshops with women pickers
in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Phase 3 – Specific toolkits for mainstreaming gender:
at the national movements of Redlacre and at the
academia (teaching)
Phase 4 – Process evaluation with the MNCR and
Redlacre.
Phase 1 – Participatory Drafting
Snapshots
Participatory Drafting Workshop
Phase 2 – Exploratory Regional
Workshops:
Workshop 1 – Metropolitan
Region of Belo Horizonte 13 May,
2013
Session one: Women autonomy is....
“Women need to be united if they want
to fulfill their potential” (Maria Aparecida)
...Autonomy: at home, sexuality, at the
workplace, at the national movement
Session: Gender Roles...
Working towards a gender workplan
at the movement...
The women discussed at the closing session: difficulties/obstacles faced;
habilities/knowledge required to fight these obstacles; changes within society as a
whole and the movement in particular. The ensuing phases of this exploratory project
were presented and the role of these women in bringing about changes towards gender
equity.
Women´s Voices...
• “When are we going to have more workshops like this?”
• “We need all our comrades to come...”
• “Enlightening, it opened my mind”
• “We felt welcomed by the team...”
• “We are connected to each other”...”
An ongoing process...but some findings from
the workshops...
• Reports of discrimination and violence suffered by women …but
yet women are no longer victims (or poor little creatures) like in
the past…women’s voices today are stronger…Good stories of
women struggles were shared.
•
The desire for knowledge and to learn more. Skills required: how
to read and write; Computing skills; Speech skills; Political
formation…
• The recognition of the cooperative as a space of refuge that
helps women waste pickers confront domestic violence. Yet,
women need to make their way upward in the power hierarchy of
their national movement.
Women as a Historical Agent in the
Struggle for Emancipation …hardly
A new phenomenon..
“Frequently women have been the
initiators of revolutions. We know
that in 1693 many women went to
the market in Northampton, with
“knives” hidden in their girdles to
force the sale of corn at their own
rates” (Thompson, 1979)
Working to empower women
does not imply in excluding
men, it means contributing
to the emancipation of all,
both Men and Women – this
is what the women waste
pickers hope to contribute to
 E-mail:
sonia.Dias@wiego.org e
soniamdias2010@gmail.com