In Session 6D, Sonia Dias from the global network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) reported on informal workers in urban settings, particularly waste pickers. She said waste pickers are contributing to the value-chain through finding recyclables, and helping the environment through reducing greenhouse gasses. They are environmental stewards who are helping city budgets and in coastal areas are stopping plastic pollution from going into the sea.
Nevertheless they are stigmatised.
The first slide below highlights elements of the waste picker informal economy, while the second shows how waste pickers prevent marine pollution.