What Life Is Like For 20 Million Waste Pickers | World Wide Waste Marathon | Insider Business

globally trash Pickers outnumber official waste workers 4 to one they collect more than half of all the plastic that gets recycled around the world they are essential but most of them are unpaid and many live in [Music] [Music] poverty now a 30-year fight for fair wages and legal protection has given wasti Pickers their first International Union this push to organize follows efforts in places like Colombia and Brazil where workers fought and won to be recognized by the government but what will it take to organize ize more than 20 million people across dozens of countries and how will it impact the way the world handles trash the bantar bang landfill near Jakarta is the size of 200 football fields it's one of the largest in the world around 6,000 people live in slums at its base indan has been living here for two [Music] years at first he was afraid to eat the food he collected from the mountain but now [Music] spe a few houses away is getting ready to go out for the day [Music] speee for Fore [Music] for [Music] 1300 trucks arrive here every day mostly from Indonesia's Capital Jakarta people doing this work call themselves B which translates to scavenger they work independently but need permission from the government to enter the landfill the biggest dangers on the job are the excavators they are owned and operated by the Jakarta provincial [Music] government they move the trash around so that this mountain doesn't collapse Dan Kwan has been operating one of them for 18 years rine had a close call [Music] once [Music] but he continues to work near them because they usually operate where new trash arrives yeah recycling facilities mostly take bottles cardboard and metal but local Artisans will pay good money for bones to make jewelry methane's an invisible threat at barar giang the gas comes from rotting food wood and paper when there's too much of it people can suffocate and it can cause deadly eruptions in 2005 trapped methane exploded at a dump site in Java and triggered an avalanche that buried dozens of homes and killed 143 people most of them were scavengers living near the landfill but nothing stops theine from coming [Music] work he makes around $25 a week that's about a third of Indonesia's minimum wage but still more than what Farmers make sells his Goods to middlemen like ADI who then sells them to another trash buyer as many as 20,000 families here depend on barar bang to make a living this land used to be mostly forest and rice fields until the 1980s trash has been piling up ever [Music] since Ridin has five children and he dreams they might one day make it out of [Music] here [Music] for and indan has a message for the wealthy waste Pickers in many places have no other way to earn money Scavenging for rusted crap metal is one of the only ways widows in Jakarta can make money the women search for Iron and Steel from used ships in one of the most polluted Waters in the world that is 63 years old but she has been the main bread winner for her three kids since her husband died everything she touches has poisonous layers of rust ship recycling is a multi-billion dollar Global industry and massive yards across the world break down everything from cruise liners cargo vessels and oil tankers to Naval warships but these women make only about $2 a day selling small pieces so why are so many widows stuck Scavenging like this and what makes it such a risky business every morning dri leaves her 10-month-old granddaughter behind and goes to work she has always had a job even before before she got married at [Music] 19 but things have been tough since her husband passed away 13 years ago widows often struggle to find jobs in Indonesia because many believe they can bring bad luck but the owner of this shipbreaking company lets widows scavenge for [Music] free the women are only allowed to collect small pieces like these the larger chunks belong to the ship owners to sell or reuse most of the valuable pieces are underwater near the ships the three uses a magnetic stick to find the metal 13 Rivers empty in to Jakarta Bay carrying with them sewage toxins and all kinds of trash the three's thick gloves and socks don't always protect her once she stepped on a nail that went right through her foot one welders are constantly sewing off hot pieces of metal so she has to be careful dri says even though the job is dangerous she's still proud of making her own money around noon the women escape the heat with a quick l lunch break there are about 10 million widows like them across Indonesia and most live in extreme poverty some turn to sex work to survive others are forced to send their children to work to make ends meet Amina wanted to avoid that so she took this job at the scrapyard 37 years ago for today at 61 years old she has many health issues including severe arthritis and she's afraid she will run out of breath and drown because she has heart problems on a really good day she collects as much as 200 kg and sells it for almost $3 with that she can buy about four cups of rice for dinner her salary isn't enough to pay for her treatments but she's too sick to find another job nowadays her children work but Amina still helps with all the bills and she'd rather scavenge than go into debt the widows sell The Rusted scraps to narwin a middleman this is one of two shipbreaking yards in Jakarta it takes 20 workers at least a week to cut down an entire ship depending on its size most ships have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years after which they're retired but they have hazardous materials inside things like Asbestos and pipes heavy metals and paints biological hazards from sewage tanks radioactive material from gauges and the list goes on left unchecked they can seep into the soil Beach and water near shipbreaking yards and Destroy local Marine habitats but there are also many usable parts of a ship including metal bars and plates those are recycled and sometimes used to make new ships or heavy machinery experts say this is a Greener alter alternative to producing new steel which uses a lot of energy and it also saves the planet from more metal mining so while workers like dri and Amina play a crucial role in building a more sustainable industry the profits and the praise are not trickling down to them both widows live in this Colony it's one of the poorest areas in Jakarta most of their neighbors also break down ships at the scrapyard or fish along the coast that raised her Three Sons here mostly on her own her husband died when the youngest was just 11 and she never considered marrying [Music] again now her kids are all grown up but she shares her home with one of her sons and helps support his wife and their [Music] baby her other kids rely on her too dri says her faith in God has helped her through the tough times [Music] for globally many waist Pickers are children and teens in India students break down E-Waste after school to earn cash most of India's electronic waste ends up in Northeast delhi's cumur neighborhood nearly 50,000 people dig through the trash here every day many of them are teenagers all searching for old cell phones computers and video game controllers gulzar's hands are so damaged from years of prying them apart that that his fingerprints have worn away few have gloves or other safety equipment the health risks are one of the reasons why gar hasn't told his mother he still works here most of his friends also scavenge for a living like alen who stopped going to school because his father got tuberculosis 3 years [Applause] ago that's why his family sent him to work even though he was just [Applause] 16 now Alim breaks down up to 150 of these phones every day old electronics have high levels of mercury cadmium and Lead which can harm the kidneys but they also hold precious metals usually Alim can collect up to 11 lb of mix crap which he sells for $6 a day to a middleman at gafar Market it's famous for cheap electronics and many e-w devices are refurbished and sold here China the US and India are the biggest generators of e-w but only 177% of electronics discarded globally were recycled in 2019 much of it is illegally shipped to developing countries where it's sorted by informal workers but they don't have the knowledge or the tools to safely handle it so a lot of it ends up in landfills sustainability expert Pani Verma says that's contaminating the environment air water soil all three of them are getting badly affected sometimes they burn the waste that they cannot resell this is going into the nostrils it's leading to stunted growth in children it's leading to miscarriages in women it's leading to organ damage it's leading to bone density loss and most electronics are coded in flame retardants that release poisonous gases when burned it's also affecting the human body skin diseases different types of cancers they are happening because of the contaminations the waste has also polluted water sources like the nearby yina River they acid wash the motherboards to take out the metals the precious metals and then they just drain it into any kind of a water body with global E-Waste expected to increase 38% by the end of the decade India implemented new rules to regulate recycling facilities but they don't impact informal workers nor do they address child labor in the industry children as young as 14 are allowed to work in India but not in hazardous conditions like these it kind of has become a work of generations you know one generation to next to next to next there has to be a talks of these young children working to go study but going to school is not an option for alen his mother gulan Bano sells vegetables to get by alim's friend gar still goes to [Music] school and he has dreams of a better [Music] life thousands of people risk their lives collecting trash in one of India's largest landfills they sort all kinds of waste even used syringes in recent years fires have become more and more common threatening people who work here and live nearby the balwa landfill burned for 2 months starting in April when temperatures soared over 110° F in New Deli sahab lost plastic and scrap metal he'd been collecting for years firefighters extinguished the open Flames after about two weeks but people here are still struggling to breathe because they've lived next to the smoldering plumes the whole [Music] time as garbage piles up and the planet warms landfill fires are expected to get worse we went to India to meet the people who make their living next to a flaming mountain of worldwide waste every day the tens of millions of people that live in the city of Delhi generate 10,000 metric tons of waste nearly all of it ends up in one of three surrounding landfills now most of these dump sites have gone beyond their capacity and they're overflowing with waste and that's the real problem today Bala was supposed to close more than 10 years years ago but it keeps accepting garbage up to 600 truckloads every day backhoe operators like Rahul move the waist to make Pathways for the trucks to drive to the top around 75,000 people known in India as rag Pickers make their living in deli's dumps the average rag picker earns 200 to 300 rupees a day about 3 to 4 $4 with plastic and metal being the most valuable items collected even when they're not on fire the landfills pose major health risks Dr jasa has been treating patients who work at the bossell landfill for over 20 years Daily balwa doesn't have a proper drainage system so runoff from the landfill makes its way into the groundwater already [Music] scientists use the air quality index or aqi to measure air pollution and India has one of the worst measures in the world one study said air pollution led to more than 1.6 million premature deaths in 2019 then there's the odor not to mention the everyday dangers of rag picking so how did the landfill fires start lithium ion batteries which are increasingly entering the waste stream can spontaneously explode but in India the brutal Heat Wave was the most likely culprit in addition to plastic and other trash the methane from decomposing garbage fuels fire and these f FES contain all kinds of chemicals which can cause tuberculosis in the short term and cancer if inhaled over a long period of time the fires make a bad situation worse sah has lived and worked at bwell all his [Music] life he set aside a large pile of scrap metal and plastic as a kind of life savings he was planning on trading in then the fires came putting out these fires requires a lot of Manpower and Equipment it took 80 trucks and 2005 firefighters to quench the Flames that burn from April to June but mostly these fires fizzle out on their own is only improves in certain months which are in and around Monson after the monsoon you'll find that you know because of the heavy rainfall it subsides and your particulate matter goes down and the air quality just comes up a little bit so the respite is for a brief period locals want these sites removed and the local government was finded nearly $65,000 for for not taking proper measures to prevent the fire the Delhi government told us it's working to remove all 8 million metric tons of waste from this site by the end of 2023 since 2019 the government has operated what are known as trls that separate recyclable trash from what can be burned to create energy the rest of the leftovers are supposed to get moved to a different dump site Deli plans on opening another waste processing facility here by 2025 and is supposed to expand services for ragpickers activists say one solution to the ever growing landfill is separating the waste before it gets there if you can reduce the waste amount by taking away the recyclables and the weight waste or the bowte very small quantities will go to the landfill despite the increasing garbage problem the amount of waste Indians create per person is far lower than richer countries every day the average American throws out eight times as much plastic garbage as the average Indian but India's recycling industry is kept afloat by informal rag Pickers who make pennies a day for years India's federal government has tried to crack down on waste with tougher laws Banning most single-use plastic I think everything has been prescribed but unfortunately it's the state government and the municipal people who are not following the rules at this point of time while these Solutions are debated and parts of the landfill continue to smolder the people dependent on it go out for another day of work because they have no other choice [Music] for millions of mines and unexploded grenades are scattered across Afghanistan now people like Saleem pandel scavenge the ground for weapons that contain treasure Saleem sells the copper to scrapyards from there it's transported to factories in Cobble that process and recycle it locals have to be careful because this land may never be fully cleared of explosives this boy was s years old when a bomb shattered half of his [Music] skull so how did such a risky business become the only option for so many in Afghanistan s lives in a small village Northeast of Cabo he finds most of the weapons in Tangi Valley one of Afghanistan's most heavily mined areas this was always an important passageway for troops because it connects two major provinces close to the capital kab Saleem carries the explosive scrap six miles away to his own little Hideout to do the dangerous work of taking them apart these are bases of mortar shells the six spin design shows that they belong to the Soviet Army who fought here from 1979 until 1989 Saleem breaks the copper off the weapons he can sell it for about $2 a pound his some of these pieces can also cause status since they are covered with Decades of rust High Caliber bullets like these can be explosive for years s has had some close calls [Music] most countries have already banned landmines but the Russians planted hundreds of thousands of them here and the Taliban used some of those old mines to fight against the US when it invaded in 2001 the US Military says it did not use any over the 20year war but it left behind other lethal military waste like unexploded grenades and mortars a lot of that ends up at scrapyards like this Muhammad Amin runs the biggest one in the valley he buys everything from old buckets to tarps and rubber to one of the most valuable things he trades in am says about 25 people come to him daily some even find weapons around their homes like bullets that contain lead and can cause rashes and even cancer collectors like Saleem sometimes bring their scrap here they can get just over $3 for about 15 lb then it's transported to factories in Cobble since fuel costs are rising they try to load up as much as possible in one trip [Music] omed Basher works for one of the biggest steel mills in cabble that turns scrap into metal bars the factory does not accept weapons because it's too dangerous but it does process metal Parts if they're already separated from the explosives they dump the scrap metal into the furnace but sometimes mistakes happen the melted scrap is turned into steel bars used for construction the rest of this potentially explosive scrap is collected by De mining organizations that safely dispose of it over the Years official efforts to remove landmines in Afghanistan have been few and far between NOS like the Halo trust have stepped [Music] in about 160 people are killed or injured by explosive remnants of War every month in Afghanistan and in 2021 nearly 80% of the casualties were children last salahudin has worn this hat for almost 3 years he was just throwing stones around with his cousins when one of them hit a bomb the explosion fractured his skull and damaged his brain he had to learn how to walk again so Salah has warned his friends to be [Music] careful but Saleem has to take his chances with this job because poverty has been on the rise since the Taliban took over in 2021 Western countries cut forign a and a financial crisis pummeled the country 97% of the population is expected to fall below the poverty line before the end of this year even this simple meal Saleem and his family are eating today is rare [Music] and if he didn't collect scrap he says they'd have no food at [Music] all by trying to survive waste Pickers are providing an essential service activists argue we don't want our waste we reject our waste but there is a lot of value in it Luc Fernandez is the General Secretary of the International Alliance of waste Pickers an organization that represents workers from 35 countries we are hoping for way speakers to have their own Union and to for normaliz in order to have a proper recognition of the profession and recognition with protection doing this job requires a lot of time on the road and she's collected souvenirs along the way as you can see it's like a patchwor so it's recycled from the damsite and my mom transformed this in the in the curtain for my children's bedroom Lucia says that just a few policy changes can transform life for waste Pickers for example if you get retired you have a pension because you have been cleaning your city for 40 years or something like that so social protection is very important at home in Mont videoo uguay she does her best to make sure to sort her own trash for the waist Pickers so you see my sister say that I am a rich hipster recycling girl and I pay an extra fee for some private company but still the problem is that this shouldn't be something that I need to be paying for in order to recycle my food it should be a public system but it isn't okay here we go so far the movement to organize has had success in many countries in Colombia in Brazil in Argentina in South Africa in India in some places in North America they they start being recognized by their governments or by the municipality which is great in Brazil Pickers have worked as part of municipal waste collection since 1993 this crew was trained to sort trash after the 2014 World Cup in Colombia workers successfully amended the Constitution now they're paid as formal workers within the recycling system in parts of Mexico waste Pickers wear uniforms but receive no salary survive on tips in November 2023 Lucia will head to Nairobi Kenya to take part in negotiations for the first ever Global treaty that could restrict the production and disposal of plastic waste she's pushing to include recognition of the huge contribution made by informal waste Pickers our plan is to Lobby the government's Lobby in a good way but to convince the governments that there are good models and good cases that we want to advocate for and if they want to do something meaningful uh to reduce the plastic pollution they need to partner with wa peers the best possible outcome is that the waste Pickers are mentioned in the text once people learn more about the lives of waste Pickers Lucia hopes that they'll focus on things that can really make a difference so to recognize them and to help them to fight for the rights and the proper uh decent living income it's something that ideally we need to have governments in our side to help us to achieve that goal

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 395,656

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News

Id: w4DO1_ClyNk

Length: 52min 11sec (3131 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 20 2023