Wastecare research claims the importance of informal recycling in Barcelona
Wastecare is a project led by researchers from the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona and funded by the Barcelona City Council through the call for grants for young and emerging research projects 2022, which aims to study the relationship between people engaged in informal recycling in Barcelona and its impact on the city. A webinar was held on Thursday 30 May to share and discuss the results of this research on the conditions of informal waste pickers in Barcelona.
More than 3,000 people are engaged in informal recycling in Barcelona. Most of them are specialised in metal waste and play a relevant and complementary role in formal waste management by collecting and recycling several tons of metals every day. According to the results of Wastecare’s research, 94% of informal waste pickers are male, recently immigrated, and 63% are under the age of forty. Collecting scrap metal from the streets and dumpsters of the city is a survival measure for these people, who do not have legal status and therefore cannot access the labour market.
According to the study, these people in Barcelona collect approximately 100 kg of scrap metal per day, and earn an average of 20 euros per day (around 500 euros per month). This represents some 380 tonnes of scrap metal collected in a day in Barcelona by these people as a whole, and more than 100,000 tonnes a year. In addition, this collective achieves community integration, as the interdependent relationships between households and the informal recycling community are structural to the waste management system. In fact, according to the study, 75% of the households surveyed believe that scrap dealers contribute to environmental sustainability and expressed their willingness to support them.
To address this issue and its effects, the seminar on 30 May was attended by the project’s main researchers, sociologist Julian Porras, political ecologist Daniele Vico and ecological economist Federico Demaria. The session was moderated by anthropology professor Susana Narotsky.
The Wastecare project
Wastecare is a research project funded by Barcelona City Council that aims to collectively rethink care inside and outside the home in relation to waste management in Barcelona. In particular, it focused on the relevant but invisible relationships of two actors in the city’s waste management system: households and informal recyclers. The aim of this project is to analyse and design together with households and informal recyclers a feminist and environmentalist public policy for municipal solid waste management in Barcelona.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to know who and how the care associated with waste is carried out inside and outside households in the city. The research team conducted surveys with 100 informal waste pickers and 300 households, as well as interviews with these stakeholders and other persons of interest.
Source: University of Barcelona