What socioeconomic realities and challenges do informal waste pickers in Kathmandu experience daily?

 Informal waste pickers in Kathmandu face a range of challenging socioeconomic realities daily, often working in precarious conditions despite their significant contribution to waste management.

Demographics and Background

• Dominant Origins: The informal waste sector in Nepal is largely dominated by waste pickers of Nepali origin (90%), with a smaller percentage (10%) from neighboring India, especially in the Kathmandu Valley and bordering regions. People from the Terai region of Nepal are also prominent in this sector.
• Migration: A majority (66%) of waste pickers are migrants, with 59% coming from surrounding districts in Nepal and 7% from India, seeking better opportunities. Some itinerant buyers of Indian origin travel to Nepal daily for work.
• Education and Poverty: Most waste pickers are drawn to this work due to poverty and illiteracy, with many having been orphaned at a young age. A significant number are illiterate (16%) or have not completed secondary education (52% completed lower secondary, 14% secondary).
• Family Structure: Some waste pickers, especially men, are the sole earners for their families, while women often engage in the work to provide an extra income for their households.
• Ethnic Diversity: While traditionally associated with certain "untouchable" castes in Nepal like Pode and Chyame, the current informal waste sector includes diverse ethnic groups, predominantly Janjati (44%), followed by Brahmin and Chhetris (18%), Madhesi (15%), and smaller minorities of Dalits and Muslims (7% and 5% respectively).

Economic Realities

• Livelihood and Survival: Waste picking is often the only livelihood option for many of the poorest individuals, serving as a survival strategy.
• Unstable Income: Income is highly dependent on the volume and type of recyclable materials collected, which fluctuates based on market demand and waste availability. Earnings are comparatively lower during the rainy season.
• Low Wages and Exploitation: Waste pickers generally earn low wages for their hard work. Street waste pickers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, often paid unfairly; for example, they might receive NPR 5 per kg for PET bottles, while the market value is NPR 25 per kg.
• Income Ranges: Daily wages can range from NPR 400 to NPR 1,500, with a maximum of NPR 45,000 per month for continuous work. Those on fixed monthly payrolls earn between NPR 9,000 and NPR 28,000. Experienced waste pickers can earn around USD 150 (NRs 17,000) monthly.
• Lack of Financial Access: Most informal waste pickers do not have bank accounts, which reduces transparency in salary distribution, particularly when they are paid in hand cash.
• High Expenses: A significant portion of their income goes towards living expenses, as 59% live in rental housing and 4% in slums or temporary shelters, often having migrated to urban areas with higher living costs. They live below their means to save money for future needs.

Working Conditions and Health Hazards

• Hazardous Environment: Waste pickers work in extremely hazardous and unsanitary conditions. Workplaces, including scrap centers and landfills, are characterized by pungent smells, sickening toilets, and roaming flies.
• Lack of Protection: They often work without proper protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, masks, or appropriate clothing, exposing them to toxic substances, sharp objects, medical waste, and dust and fumes from open burning. While some receive PPE, it's often used infrequently due to inconvenience.
• Injuries and Health Issues: Workplace-related injuries are common, including cuts from metal and glass scraps, needle-stick injuries, road traffic accidents, and dog bites. Although many report surprisingly good health, they rarely consult doctors for injuries and few have received tetanus shots.
• Long Hours: Informal waste pickers, especially those sorting recyclables, often work long hours, up to 12 hours a day, with little break to maximize their income.
• Lack of Basic Facilities: Their living and working conditions often lack basic infrastructure such as continuous access to water, electricity, and sewage. Many live in informal settlements or squatter settlements along riverbanks, making them vulnerable to natural disasters like floods.

Social Stigma and Discrimination

• Low Social Status: Despite their vital role in keeping the city clean, waste pickers face frequent misbehavior, humiliation, and a deeply entrenched social stigma. Their work is often considered suitable only for those at the lowest socioeconomic level.
• Harassment: They face harassment from officials, middlemen, and police personnel, and are often verbally abused.
• Perception: The public's perception is generally negative, associating waste workers with dirtiness, disease, backwardness, and even criminality. This stigma is often linked to their language, color, and costumes.
• Gender and Caste Bias: Waste work in Nepal carries strong social and cultural associations with caste and gender, perpetuating the stigma. Women are predominantly involved in lower-paying, physically lighter roles like sweeping and sorting, while men engage in all types of waste-related work.

Lack of Recognition and Support

• Legislative Neglect: Informal waste pickers lack legislative recognition in Nepal's Solid Waste Management Act of 2011, and their significant contributions are not formally acknowledged by the government.
• Exclusion from Policy: They are often excluded from policy discussions and development programs aimed at improving waste management systems, and lack access to formal training and financial support that could enhance their work efficiency and safety.
• Limited Organizational Support: While some organizations like private companies, social enterprises, and non-profits provide varying degrees of support (e.g., job security, health benefits, education on bank accounts, or safety training), these efforts are often limited in scope or temporary.
• Unorganized Sector: Most informal waste pickers in Kathmandu remain unorganized and scattered, lacking systematized support mechanisms like member-based cooperatives or associations. This prevents their collective voice from being heard and their demands for better conditions from being formally addressed.

Challenges to Integration/Formalization

• Trust Deficit: Informal sector operators often avoid contact with city officials due to a lack of trust and fear of taxation or bureaucratic hurdles.
• Government Policies: Government approaches tend to focus on regulation and taxation rather than inclusion. There's a prevailing attitude of indifference and neglect from authorities.
• Competing Interests: There is a gap between the local government's interest in a modern, smart waste system and the realities and interests of the informal waste sector, whose concerns are often overlooked. Large-scale Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) envisioned by the government also pose a threat of displacing existing informal sector actors.
• Price Volatility: The price volatility of recycled materials and the lack of proper treatment and regulatory capacity are significant challenges to promoting a circular economy from the informal sector.
• Sustainability of Efforts: One-sided support from social enterprises and NGOs, without sustained backing from local authorities, faces challenges in terms of long-term sustainability.

Despite these challenges, the informal waste sector in Kathmandu plays a crucial and often unseen role in collecting, sorting, and recovering valuable materials, thereby contributing significantly to the city's recycling rates and the broader circular economy.