Inclusion of Waste Pickers Into Municipal Waste Management Systems: A Comparison Between Colombia and Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to identify and comprehend the challenges and strengths behind public policies on integrating waste pickers (WPs) within waste management systems in Colombia and Brazil. In both, WPs started to come together and found organisations and external agents such as NGOs began to support organised groups of WPs. After 10 years of judicial court actions in Colombia, WPs organisations were finally recognised in legislation, while in Brazil, they were recognised in 2007 in one of the national policies through lobby. Today, there are almost 700 WPs organisations formalised in Colombia and 1700 in Brazil. Their public policies’ main achievements and challenges are exposed to supply knowledge to other countries interested in this theme. A Roadmap for the organisation and formalisation of WPs within waste management systems was created. This constitutes a source of information for policymakers in other emerging economies to address this in their territories.