- Waste workers need recognition, fair compensation, and safer conditions beyond mere legal formalisation.
- Policies must reflect local realities, protect existing livelihoods, and integrate waste workers through inclusive support systems.
- Society must recognise waste work as essential green labour and address the stigma surrounding those who perform it, write the authors of this commentary.
- The views in this commentary are that of the authors.
From the moment a wrapper, a banana peel, or a worn-out piece of cloth enters the dustbin, it is loosely categorised as “waste”. Yet what we collectively call waste is, in reality, a microcosm of its own. It consists of multiple materials: plastics, paper, metal, glass, and more, each with a distinct destination. The responsibility of ensuring that these discarded items reach their appropriate endpoints rests largely on the shoulders of the informal workforce of waste workers.
For instance, a discarded plastic bottle or aluminium can is often identified by a waste picker from a roadside or a heap of garbage and sold to a scrap shop at predetermined rates per kilogram based on the type of material. These scrap shops act as intermediaries, collecting different kinds of waste either directly from waste pickers or from scrap buyers who purchase recyclables door to door or from local shops. The collected material is then sold to large aggregators, where it is dismantled, shredded, baled, and sent to its final destination, such as recycling units or industries, depending on its type and utility value.
In India, waste work has historically not been recognised as “decent work”. The burden of manually picking, segregating, and transporting waste falls largely on waste workers, much of it carried out informally, without government support or institutional recognition. As a result, they often endure poor working conditions, exposure to harmful waste, low pay, and exploitation by large aggregators, with their rights rarely acknowledged. They also work through extreme weather and often live in inadequate conditions. Moreover, waste work in India carries a deep social stigma rooted in the caste system, placing workers at the frontline of discrimination.
Yet, waste work is one of the most vital forms of green work. Poor segregation leads to waste mixing, making processing and resource recovery nearly impossible. This pushes waste into landfills, with devastating consequences for both the environment and human health. Unsegregated waste dumped in landfills is one of the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever segregation takes place in India is largely carried out by waste workers, who have been silently performing this essential “green work.”
Thus, given their existing role and immense potential in mitigating the impacts of climate change, the crucial work of waste workers must be adequately compensated, their working conditions improved, and their contributions formally recognised.
Looking beyond formalisation
Formalisation is often viewed as a solution, broadly implying that waste workers would be legally registered, receive standard pay, and have their rights recognised in local policies and bye-laws. However, in its current context, formalisation remains an insufficient answer.
Recognition of waste work is a crucial step, which is why formalisation receives the attention it rightly deserves. Yet, a policy on formalisation that is detached from existing informal ecosystem practices risks further marginalising those already at the margins. At Transitions Research, as part of the People’s Urban Living Lab initiative, we have been engaging with waste workers to understand the complex trade-offs that may arise from formalisation if it is not aligned with their local realities. Through these conversations, we learned that more than formalisation, waste workers seek support and recognition for their work — without disrupting their existing livelihoods.
Currently, informal waste workers are generally satisfied with their earnings, which typically range from ₹500 to ₹1,200 per day. Their income is further supplemented by additional earnings from selling recyclables. With formalisation, however, they risk losing this supplementary income, which could reduce their overall daily earnings.
Moreover, formalisation policies that emphasise direct affiliation with municipalities and eliminate aggregators often overlook the diverse demographics of waste workers in India and the nuanced roles aggregators play in their livelihoods. For instance, in Maharashtra, most waste workers are Marathi-speaking locals who are not dependent on aggregators and hold some influence within the local ecosystem. In contrast, in Goa, nearly all informal waste workers are migrants who rely on aggregators not only for work opportunities but also for housing and essential infrastructure that support the collection, procurement, and transportation of recyclables. Under formalisation, they risk losing these critical forms of support.
Formalisation also brings with it state- and national-level policies that often fail to reflect the lived realities of waste workers. For example, new programmes deploying small vehicles for door-to-door waste collection threaten the livelihoods of waste collectors who previously performed this work manually.
Therefore, the formalisation of waste work must carefully consider what workers currently gain from the existing system and ensure that reforms build upon these benefits rather than take them away. Too often, sustainability and inclusivity transitions overlook ground realities in pursuit of solutions that appear sound on paper. Without thoughtful interventions, formalisation risks repeating the same mistake.
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A roadmap for stakeholders
To effectively regulate waste work, we need more than legal status, standard wages, and social security. Policies must also remove barriers to work, ensure that workplaces — whether roadside or in scrapyards — are safe through the provision of proper protective gear and safeguards against extreme heat, and facilitate the smooth collection and transportation of waste from one point to another.
A well-coordinated effort is critical to achieving the desired outcomes of formalisation. National schemes and policies are important, but since the work is deeply local, municipalities and other local authorities must take the lead in implementing change. This approach allows for integration with both central and locally available welfare schemes, along with sensitisation and capacity-building initiatives by the concerned state departments. For instance, a door-to-door waste collector could be trained in driving, enabling participation in state- or nation-sponsored vehicle-based waste collection programmes.
While state pollution control boards may provide mechanisms for registering and formalising scrapyards and penalising defaulters, alternate land parcels must also be made available, ideally by the department of industries, to relocate displaced aggregators. Departments of urban development and panchayats must ensure the drafting of by-laws that facilitate the integration of the informal sector workforce into mainstream waste management by local bodies. In addition, setting up cooperatives of waste workers to enable better income realisation, providing financial assistance, or using CSR funds for basic machinery and incentivising the management of low-value recyclables can help sustain operations in the long term.
At the heart of all efforts lies the need to transform societal attitudes toward waste work and recognise it as a crucial contribution to reducing emissions. This requires policymakers, funders, activists, and waste generators alike to shed entrenched biases and listen to waste workers, aligning interventions with their real needs and aspirations.
Sushant Figueiredo is a waste management specialist and senior research fellow at Transitions Research; and Rushalee Goswami is a communications manager at Transitions Research.
Banner image: A municipal solid waste collector at work in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu. Image by P. Jeganathan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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