Just Transition for Informal Waste Workers in the Circular Economy

Image Source: Getty

India generates approximately 160,039 tonnes per day (TPD) of solid waste, with half of it being processed, while a significant amount remains unmanaged or is handled informally. Waste workers play a vital role in closing the gap in urban waste management through material recovery, segregation, and the sale of recyclables from landfills, street garbage points, and bins. They aid in lowering landfill loads and bolster municipal systems that are otherwise overburdened and underfunded. Up to 20 percent of municipal waste in many Indian cities is collected and processed by them, often at no cost to the state. 

Can a policy framework that does not necessarily oppose caste-based structural oppression succeed in securing and dignifying waste livelihoods?

As India strives for Viksit Bharat 2047, aiming for a just transition into a circular economy, there have been growing policy discussions and pilot initiatives aimed at integrating informal waste workers into formal systems. For example, the revised Solid Waste Management Rules (2016), along with the Municipal Solid Waste Manual under the Swachh Bharat Mission, advocate for organising waste workers into self-help groups (SHGs) or cooperatives and empowering them to collectively manage scientific and hygienic recycling facilities. 

These policies are a welcome step forward, providing better economic and legal provisions, safety nets, and reducing economic vulnerability. However, since these measures do not adequately consider the caste-based discrimination and the social stigma that continues to taint waste work, it is imperative to ask: Can a policy framework that does not necessarily oppose caste-based structural oppression succeed in securing and dignifying waste livelihoods? Without addressing the graded inequality and systemic oppression that situates Dalits disproportionately in the waste sector, formal integration risks reproducing existing inequalities, even under the most well-meaning policies towards inclusion. 

The Labour(ers) Behind the Loop: Circular City Custodians

Cities are critical geographical arenas where the forces of neoliberalism intersect. Urban cleanliness, now central to the multi-scalar pursuit of crafting ‘world-class cities,’ has brought about transformations in the waste management sector in India. Invisible, but at the core of this transition, is the indispensable labour of the informal waste workers that sustains the material flow underpinning circular economies. When seen from the lens of David Harvey’s “accumulation by dispossession,” the precarity of waste work(ers) unfolds along three axes – the informality of the activity, denial of access to waste accumulation sites, and extraction of value from waste collection being a female predominated activity - making them particularly vulnerable to structural changes in the waste chain.

An estimated 2 percent of urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations are engaged in the informal waste sector, recovering up to 20 percent of municipal solid waste in cities, which contributes to reducing both landfill use and greenhouse gas emissions.

In cities of the Global South, waste pickers are informal recyclers who collect and segregate recyclable materials, selling them to local scrap dealers for a subsistence livelihood. Operating at the fringes of the urban economy, they bridge gaps in municipal service delivery in areas with inadequate recycling infrastructures. Their nature of work exposes them to hazardous waste materials, earning them meagre and unstable income while enduring social stigmas, reflecting their marginalised status in both economic and social hierarchies. An estimated 2 percent of urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations are engaged in the informal waste sector, recovering up to 20 percent of municipal solid waste in cities, which contributes to reducing both landfill use and greenhouse gas emissions. A significant constitutional victory was achieved in Bogotá, Colombia, when the waste pickers were legally recognised as formal service providers in the city’s recycling system. Comparably, since 2012, the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has hired 12 waste picker cooperatives, employing over 6,500 people to recycle, educate the public about environmental issues, and recover 400 tonnes of recyclables every day.

In India, the intersections of caste, class, and gender identities, which are intertwined with the material nature of waste, as well as the symbolic and ritual notions of purity and pollution associated with untouchability, further reinforce the social and economic marginalisation of waste pickers.

However, in India, this labour is entangled with caste-based occupational hierarchies, where waste work is not just economically undervalued but also symbolically stigmatised. Thus, for circularity to be sustainable and inclusive, policies must recognise, remunerate, and empower this labour, ensuring that the transition to a circular economy is not only ecologically sound but also socially just. Such an ideal transition raises a pertinent question: Can these two progressive objectives be independent of each other? 

Caste at the Core: The Persistence of Occupational Segregation

If the formalisation of waste work were to raise wages significantly, could one expect increased participation from unemployed individuals across social groups, including those from upper castes?

India is a caste society where the caste system, rooted in the notions of purity and pollution, constructs a hierarchical ordering of people, spaces, occupations, and knowledge. This social and ecological stratification has resulted in the systematic segregation of bodies and behaviours, enabling the upper castes to dominate access to natural resources. For the Dalits, their relationship with nature is marked not by stewardship but by alienation and forced proximity to pollution and scavenging work. Earlier initiatives to recognise sanitation and waste work have unfortunately not been able to overcome caste-based labour segregation. For example, Sulabh International’s work on sanitation and manual scavenging is celebrated for its efforts to improve sanitation but criticised for recasting caste-based labour in moralistic terms without dismantling the caste logic underpinning it. The Swachh Bharat Mission has also been criticised on similar grounds.

In India, the intersections of caste, class, and gender identities, which are intertwined with the material nature of waste, as well as the symbolic and ritual notions of purity and pollution associated with untouchability, further reinforce the social and economic marginalisation of waste pickers. In Maharashtra, for instance, the informal waste economy is sustained by waste workers from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who face systemic discrimination, resulting in the intergenerational continuation of waste-related occupations. 

If marginalised waste and sanitation workers—key contributors to circular city processes—continue to face social stigma and economic underpayment, despite legal efforts to improve their status, then the supposed temporal fix becomes a social one. In effect, a significant share of the cost is not deferred to a future generation, but rather externalised onto certain social strata across generations.

Women experience double marginalisation due to the interplay of caste and gender. For example, approximately 80 percent of the 100,000 informal waste workers in Maharashtra live below the poverty line, 30 percent of whom are women. They earn less than men and also perform physically demanding roles such as retrieving and sorting waste. On the other hand, men are involved in the ‘transactional’ aspects, like buying and selling recyclables. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, around 50,000 informal waste pickers—the majority of whom are Dalit women—struggle for formal recognition of their work despite providing critical recycling services that often come at no financial cost to municipalities.

The financial viability of integrating a large informal workforce into formal municipal systems also warrants careful consideration. For example, while recognition and dignity of informal waste workers are paramount, given the current state of municipal coffers, a reasonable question to ask is: Are the conditions conducive for policymakers to balance urban budgets with such integration?

Formalising the Informal – Can Policy Transform Social Hierarchies?

Informal work generally refers to casual, temporary, and seasonal work lacking social protection coverage and legal status. A change in the status of waste workers from informal to formal, which is primarily a legal transition, is likely to reduce their vulnerability. However, here’s the catch: what determines the wage or return for a service? Mainstream economics posits that under competitive conditions, labour and capital tend to gravitate towards activities offering relatively higher returns. If the formalisation of waste work were to raise wages significantly, could one expect increased participation from unemployed individuals across social groups, including those from upper castes? In India, the perception and social valuation of work are deeply shaped by who performs it. As B. R. Ambedkar argued and later, development economists such as Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze also echoed, India is marked not merely by a division of labour but by a ‘division of labourers.’  Work, therefore, is not just economically stratified but socially segregated, making inclusive transitions difficult despite economic incentives.

A ring-fenced budget within urban programmes such as the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), dedicated to supporting waste worker self-help groups (SHGs) or cooperatives and tied to deliverables such as formal registration, provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), health coverage, and social security, could serve as a nascent step.

As we envision a just transition to a sustainable and circular urban future, inter-generational and intra-generational equity must serve as core guiding principles—the present generation must not deplete the ecological and social capital of future generations. And as we strive to balance these inter-temporal trade-offs, who bears the cost of sustainability within each generation? If marginalised waste and sanitation workers—key contributors to circular city processes—continue to face social stigma and economic underpayment, despite legal efforts to improve their status, then the supposed temporal fix becomes a social one. In effect, a significant share of the cost is not deferred to a future generation, but rather externalised onto certain social strata across generations. Thus, despite the best intentions of policymakers, this would entail a disproportionate distribution of benefits and costs along the class-caste axes, which is the antithesis of just transitions. 

Towards a Just Circular Transition

In India, the distribution of costs and benefits within the circular economy is not simply a function of marginal productivity, marginal utility and willingness to pay under a perfectly competitive market set-up. It is shaped by embedded social stratification where divisions of labourers, not just labour, define access, value, and mobility within the urban economy. Waste and sanitation workers, who are historically marginalised communities, have long been subsidising the circular waste economy by bearing the costs in the form of underpayment and social stigma – two conditions that reinforce each other. As we strive for a just transition and build pathways to sustainable urban futures, this embedded social logic must not be overlooked.

A ring-fenced budget within urban programmes such as the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), dedicated to supporting waste worker self-help groups (SHGs) or cooperatives and tied to deliverables such as formal registration, provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), health coverage, and social security, could serve as a nascent step. However, the social arrangements that underwrite the material flows need to be reimagined as well. Our urban futures must be just, inclusive, and built on the principles of dignity and equity for all those who sustain them.

Soma Sarkar is an Associate Fellow with the Urban Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.

• Climate, Food and Environment
• Sustainable Development
• Climate Change
• India
• circular Economy
• circular Economy India
• circular waste economy
• informal waste workers
• solid waste management rules 2016
• viksit bharat 2047

The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.

PREV NEXT