Strengthening & transforming policy frameworks to stop plastic pollution & marine litter through WPs participation & locally-led leadership
The Challenge
Globally, 20 - 40 million waste pickers recover up to 60 % of plastic collected for recycling. They play a unique and vital role at the forefront of efforts to mitigate plastic pollution and marine litter, particularly in developing countries where the capacity of formal waste management systems is low. However, there remains a striking lack of research that recognises and builds on the role of waste pickers, and less than 1 % of waste pickers are organised into associations or cooperatives that can enable their collective voice to call for change.
Waste pickers typically experience serious human rights impacts: low and unstable incomes, poor working conditions, lack of financial inclusion, and marginalisation. Transitions towards a circular economy that are not informed by systematic evidence on their realities, designed around their participation, their locally-led leadership, and uphold their rights only compound these impacts. Without a robust evidence base and a sufficient level of waste picker institutional capacity to drive their recognition as legitimate stakeholders, governments and businesses overlook their role and expertise, undermining both their rights and livelihoods, and the effectiveness of emerging plastic governance systems.
Across each of the target countries and at the global level, our consortium will embed the rights and locally-led leadership of waste pickers - especially women - at the heart of systemic change.
The Project
The goal of project JUST is to reduce plastic pollution and marine litter by promoting an inclusive and just transition for waste pickers - especially women - by strengthening national, regional, and global frameworks to embed their rights.
Led by GRID-Arendal, in partnership with Tearfund, WIEGO and the International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP), the project focuses on Kenya, Ghana and Indonesia, while connecting national experience with regional and global processes. By building an evidence base for inclusive finance and social protection mechanisms that can actualise waste picker rights, scalable ‘fit for purpose’ models to implement these approaches will be developed in partnership with waste picker organisations (WPOs).
Drawing on the evidence base, and enabled by increased waste picker institutional capacity, policy recommendations for advancing waste picker rights will be developed. As a result, WPOs will be enabled to influence policy and decision-makers across all levels of governance in the public and private sector, collaborating with consortia members. At the regional level, the project will work to create an enabling environment for strengthening national frameworks and driving South-South cooperation.
At the global level, consortia partners will jointly influence the global plastics treaty to embed waste picker rights. Concurrently, the consortia will also influence private sector actors to uphold waste picker rights through the Fair Circularity Initiative at the national and global level. A Global Just Transition Platform (GJTP) for waste pickers inclusion in policy frameworks will also be established to align national and regional just transition strategies with global plastic governance processes.
Our Transformative Approach
JUST moves beyond treating waste pickers simply as beneficiaries of environmental programmes. It recognises them as workers, knowledge holders, partners and leaders whose experience should shape the policies and systems affecting their livelihoods. The project combines evidence, organising, policy influence and systems change.
Why It Matters
By connecting change from the local to the global level, JUST aims to demonstrate that tackling pollution and advancing social justice can reinforce one another—contributing to a healthy and equitable planet where both people and nature can thrive.
The project is particularly relevant to SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
