Abstract
All recycling in India is undertaken by (and via) the informal sector. This sector includes waste-pickers, small middlemen, transporters, larger middlemen and Anally, reprocessors. These self-employed people play a very important role in urban waste management as they provide a service which the urban municipalities cannot provide given their current institutional framework.
Although the sector of informal waste managers is critical to solid waste-handling in India, the sector is unable to optimise its work due to lack of social legitimacy or legal rights over waste-processing, which makes it vulnerable to intimidation. Additionally, due to lack of awareness and specific skills, as well as very poor working conditions and poor access to basic facilities, this sector has so far been unable to make its recycling efficient and profitable. With certain changes in the policies relating to recycling and ownership of waste, there can be a synergetic relationship between the recycling sector, the existing relevant laws, and waste-handling in India that can significantly improve the efficiency of the sector and enhance financial returns to the waste-pickers and reprocessors. Such policy changes as provision of legal rights over solid waste to waste-pickers and organisation of waste-pickers into cooperative groups, can further the interests of these marginalised groups and maximise their profits, in addition to substantially improving solid waste management in the city.
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