The Fundación Avina, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the IDB Group, the Water and Sanitation Division of the IDB, and The Coca-Cola Company, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, last month launched a regional programme to integrate informal waste collectors into the formal recycling market. The initiative brings together recyclers, consumer products companies, municipalities, educational institutions, and civil society organisations to discuss proposals and develop action plans for incorporating informal workers into local value chains.
The programme will make use of lessons learned from projects underway in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and other developing countries, and provide these experiences as models for stakeholders. It is estimated that more than four million people in Latin America live on income earned from the collection of recyclable waste materials. These people, including entire families, work in unhealthy conditions with materials that may pose risks to health. "It is critical to support the transformation of the market and the organisation of informal recyclers to improve their economic and social situation," said Nancy Lee, MIF general manager.
"Greater coordination among recyclers, businesses and municipalities will improve the quality of life of people engaged in this business." The programme seeks to improve the socio-economic status of waste collectors, involve the private sector as an active partner in facilitating their access to the formal market, and improve the regulatory framework to facilitate market functions."Despite their key role in a new market such as recycling, informal waste collectors and their families remain isolated from society and the economy," said Valdemar de Oliveira Neto, Fundación AVINA's Director of Continental Initiatives. "This project will enable us to bring together all stakeholders to create an environment that respects their work, demonstrating that it is not only honorable, but also valuable to society."
Informal collectors
"The experience of the past 20 years in the region has shown the need for including the informal sector as an integral part of the formal system of municipal waste management in a process led by municipalities themselves and as a means for achieving economic sustainability of such activities," said Federico Basañes, chief of the IDB's Water and Sanitation Division. "The pursuit of such integration is one of the main objectives of the present initiative." "This programme provides us with the opportunity to contribute to the development of sustainable communities in two areas of particular relevance: social and economic inclusion of people living under very adverse conditions, and environmental protection," said Jose Octavio Reyes, president of Coca-Cola Latin America.
"This programme also contributes to our vision of 'zero waste' for our packaging, where increased use of recycled materials in our bottles constitutes a central part of this vision." In some cases, informal collectors are responsible for recovering up to 90 per cent of recycled consumer products materials. But the benefits they receive represent only a very small percentage of the value generated in the value chain. MIF is providing US$4 million in financing to the project, which will complemented initially with $1 million from the IDB Water and Sanitation Division's AquaFund, US$1.4 million from the Fundación Avina, and $2 million from The Coca-Cola Company.
(iadb.org)