Plastic is a Multidimensional Issue
When we throw out our single use plastic, where does it go?
Waste Pickers, Chattogram, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh | Image by Mumtahina Tanni via Pexels
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When we try to wrap our heads around the extent of the global plastic crisis, it can be incredibly difficult. In the Western world, there is a lot of emphasis on the effects of plastic on our physical environment and the animals. We talk about plastic waste polluting our waterways and urban streets, we talk about microplastics in our food, we even talk about beached whales with bellies filled with plastic debris. It’s awful, but this isn’t the whole story.
Where does all our plastic go?
In 2024, 98% of plastic bottles are still being made from virgin plastic, despite the audible global commitment to recycling and increased awareness around separating our waste. This is because virgin plastic production remains more affordable than manufacturing with its recycled equivalent. But the reality is that the recycling and disposal rates simply don’t match production output (Patrick Todd 2024, Oceanworks). In fact, 90% of the time, our recycled waste takes a journey most of us don’t know enough about. After “siphoning the easiest to recycle plastics, many recycling companies end up sending large volumes of waste overseas, to developing nations where poorer economic factors and a lack of environmental regulations create perfect conditions for these regions to accept our trash and literally become the world’s” trashcan (Patrick Todd 2024, Oceanworks).
According to the World Economic Forum (2023), the top 10 countries importing plastic waste are:
Source: Fernandes, F. (2023) Charted: The Global Plastic Waste Trade, Our World Data
However, this presentation is still somewhat new and adjusting as up until 2017, China was one of the largest plastic waste importers in the world. Things changed in 2018 when they imposed import bans on 24 types of recyclable waste, and their plastic waste imports dropped by 95% overall within the year (Our World in Data 2023). Following this decisive move, in 2019, 187 nations signed an international treaty called the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
Image by A Greener Future
The goal of the convention was to address the gaps in plastic waste disposal, creating parameters that would restrict participating nations from trading plastic scraps internationally, unless they meet sufficient recycling criteria. In spite of this big move to disrupt the plastic trade industry, millions of tons of plastic are still being shipped and mismanaged internationally.
Who are informal waste pickers and what role do they play within the global recycling system?
Image by Hermes Rivera via Unsplash | Nicaragua
Globally, only about 10% of plastic waste is successfully recycled, the rest ends up in landfills, burned, or shipped abroad to then end up in unknown circumstances in many cases. The crazy thing is, of that 10% that’s recycled, 60% of it is sorted by informal waste pickers in the Global South.
Informal waste pickers are persons or groups informally engaged in collection and recovery of reusable and recyclable solid waste from the source of waste generation the streets, bins, material recovery facilities, processing and waste disposal facilities for sale to recyclers directly or through intermediaries to earn their livelihood (AIW 2022). A large majority of developing countries in the Global South lack formal or robust waste management systems, so informal waste pickers fill in that gap.
Image by A Greener Future
Waste pickers worldwide contribute significantly in preventing marine waste pollution by recycling and reusing materials that would otherwise end up in the environment (Dias,S. et al. 2022). In many countries, waste pickers supply that only form of waste collection at little to no cost to municipalities. Despite hailing from countries that produce substantially lower volumes of plastic waste, these countries are saddled with the responsibility of managing their own waste in addition to shipments of plastic waste that come from the Global North. Waste pickers divert tons of material from dumpsites and landfills. Though waste pickers contribute such a huge portion of the global labour involved in recycling plastic, they are inadequately compensated, often earning less than $1 USD per day. In Kampala, Uganda, waste pickers are paid 200 shillings per kilo of plastic waste they pick and return — about $0.05 USD (CBC 2022).
Image via Phys.org | Senegal
Waste picking employs people all over the Global South. For many communities in developing countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey, waste picking as a means of earning income and to combat the overwhelming volume of plastic waste has become a way of life (Patrick, T. 2024).
“Plastic is not, as packing manufacturers want us to believe, a valuable raw material. It is a problem to get rid of.”
There have been many critics in these receiving countries that call on the largest plastic producers to take accountability for the problem and to acknowledge and compensate the labour that waste pickers do for them once plastic ends up in the environment. Ugandan activists interviewed in CBC’s (2022) episode Why Plastic: Coca-Cola’s Plastic Promise called on the major plastic producer to thoughtfully respond to their criticisms and lack of accountability to the waste pickers who are left to manage the massive waste problem they have created. Though Coca-Cola does operate plastic sorting and recycling facilities to address the problems that have created in a number of developing countries, they often cite “insufficient numbers” to meet their targets for waste collection. A statement that challenges the very real, high numbers of plastic bottles collected by waste-pickers on a daily basis (CBC 2022).
Coca-Cola was quoted saying “Waste pickers are often some of the most vulnerable people in their communities, that can include child labour and other unacceptable practises. To help combat this, we recently developed a set of tools designed to help us understand and improve economic conditions for people working across the waste collection chain” (CBC 2022). Yet, despite their acknowledgement, people remain inadequately compensated for their labour, and are not offered adequate PPE to ensure their health and safety are protected.
Waste pickers “suffer the consequences of pollution more than most by inhaling fumes from burning plastic and breathing air and drinking water that is heavily contaminated with microplastics” (Patrick O’Hare and Lucia Fernandez 2021). In many instances, waste pickers are also vulnerable to abuse and exploitation as a result of their social status. Being a woman, child, migrant, Indigenous, or belonging to an ethnic minority or oppressed caste all add to the social and economic vulnerabilities that compound to define life experiences for informal waste pickers (Patrick O’Hare and Lucia Fernandez 2021).
In spite of their difficult circumstances, informal waste pickers are leading the charge, increasingly being included in larger critical discussion around the plastic waste problem. In Uruguay, “waste pickers are increasingly included in municipal waste management plans and services. Beyond collecting and sorting waste, waste pickers have also taken roles teaching people how to recycle waste properly” (Patrick O’Hare and Lucia Fernandez 2021). Civic engagement of waste pickers is a growing movement, often linked to the larger international organisation, International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAW), which was established in 2008. Further, organisations like WEIGO help us understand that,
“When better organised and formally integrated into recycling systems, waste pickers can increase their contribution to environmental protection.”
Image by Fiqri Aziz Octavian via Unsplash | Banjar, Banjar City, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Waste pickers offer so many benefits in the communities where they work. Despite the size of the problem, they have proven to have the capacity to improve public health and sanitation when they remove waste from urban areas not serviced by municipal garbage collection. In India, waste pickers provide huge value through their labour accounting billions of rupees of worth of social value through the informal sector.
Image by A Greener Future
When we consider the informal sector more generally, it’s important to recognise how much of an impact it has on urban life in the Global South. Without the informal sector, cities wouldn’t function as they do. Consider this article from WEIGO, Inclusive Public Spaces for Informal Livelihoods by Martha Chen with Jenna Harvey, Caroline Wanjiku Kihato and Caroline Skinner (2018). Waste pickers illustrate the impact that the informal sector in developing countries can have on a global problem.
The challenges for waste pickers are many, but one additional component to consider is the way that plastic packaging has made its way into the Global South. It’s no secret that there is a sizeable gap between a majority of citizens of the Global North vs. South, on account of population densities, access to vehicles and automobiles, transportation systems, diversity between urban and rural infrastructure, all in addition to levels of consumption beyond necessities. Simply, the carbon footprint of someone living in an urban setting in Dhaka, Bangladesh is generally smaller than a similar person living in Toronto, Canada for example.
Similarly, when we consider the way that plastic has infiltrated our lives through packaging, product design, and formulations, we can start to imagine how manufacturers have used plastic to appeal to different markets. For example, in the Philippines, particularly in urban areas, people tend to shop for smaller amounts of things, making it easier to manage them throughout the day and facilitating easier mobility. With this knowledge, and understanding a strong preference for their product in the Philippines, Coca-Cola created smaller and smaller sized disposable drink bottle to appeal to this market niche (CBC 2022). This manufacturing decision now makes the job of waste pickers and plastic management even more difficult, creating even more bottles to pick up once they are discarded after use (CBC 2022).
Image Source: Reddit | Tiny Coca-Cola Bottle in the Philippines
When single use plastic was introduced to many Global South markets in the 1980s onward, there wasn’t much consideration for the impacts it would go on to have on different countries and their populations. There was no obvious consideration for the impact that plastic waste would have in countries lacking the infrastructure to manage it. Just because we here in Canada and the US don’t see plastic waste accumulation, doesn’t mean it’s being dealt with properly. Generally, it means it’s somewhere affecting somebody else.
The reality is that when we look more closely at how plastic waste is managed all over the world, the notion of recycling is incredibly expensive and complicated, and when we specifically refer to plastic, the recycled material doesn’t live up to its promised potential. For example, in Germany, high performing plastic sorting machinery can cost up to €200,000 in addition to labor and assembly costs (CBC 2022). To fathom the cost and resources required to create these kinds of recycling equipment further emphasises the gap between the Global North and South on this issue.
There’s a lot to take away from this article, but the main idea we wanted to get across is how complicated the world of plastic really is. Our collective pursuit of convenience culture is going to continue to leave us with a waste problem we can’t manage. So when you’re thinking about purchasing items in single use plastic that could be avoided, consider the journey that plastic will go on once you discard it. But even more importantly, we have collective power to hold manufacturers and corporations responsible for creating such a crisis with their decisions to prioritise profit over our planet.
At A Greener Future, we try to express the size of the problem through each of our programs, The Butt Blitz, Love Your Lakes, and Nurdle Hunts. If you’re interested to learn more about the plastic waste problem in Canada, and want to volunteer with us this summer in the Great Lakes Region, check out our events page to find a clean up near you!
Learn more about our events and about our organisation by checking out our website and social media: @agreenerfuture on every platform.
Written by: Mara Mahmud