By Sophia Nabbossa

On Monday, the World observed International Environment Day under the theme—"solutions to plastic pollution"— resonating with the President's April 19 Executive Order 2, in which he voiced support for a circular economy and expressed concern about cleanliness and waste management in our cities, municipalities and towns.  On the same day, an environmental non-profit organisation, the Environment Shield published a report calling for sustainable development and a transition to a circular economy as a solution to climate change.    

The circular economy offers 4.5 trillion US dollars (roughly 16.8 quadrillion shillings) in economic opportunity by reducing waste, fostering innovation, and creating jobs on a global scale. 

Informal workers: street vendors, waste pickers, home-based workers, and market vendors, if provided with financial and technical assistance, are better placed to keep our cities, towns, municipalities, and communities clean.  

We can learn a lot from the Zabbaleen community in Cairo, Egypt, who has been a pioneer in recycling and waste management for decades and has succeeded where multinational corporations have failed. Their ability to innovate, their in-depth knowledge of the local context, and their strong sense of civic responsibility have all been cited as reasons for their success. 

Zabbaleen is loosely translated in Egyptian Arabic means garbage people. For decades, have been collecting and recycling garbage - creating one of the most efficient waste management systems in the world. 

At one point, Egypt awarded contracts worth $50 million to four multinational garbage disposal companies in 2004 to formalize garbage, but they failed. Instead, as opposed to the 25% recycling rate of the multinational corporations, the Zabbaleen recycled up to 80% of the waste they collected. When the contracts of multinationals expired in 2017, the Egyptian government reverted to the traditional system of garbage collection but this time it was informal worker-led. 

Together with the Zabbaleen Union, the Ministry of the Environment has overseen the registration of over 44 regional waste management businesses that employ 1,000 families. However, to have a great, inclusive circular economy like the Egyptian one, we need to work together with informal workers.

Like the Zabbaleen, our waste pickers, street and market vendors, home-based workers, and their communities have the potential to run waste management systems for our bulging population through an informal worker-centred approach.

First, organise and integrate informal workers into the national waste management system. Cities, municipalities, and towns should work with informal workers' unions, umbrella associations, and cooperatives to run waste management systems.

Introduce an informal worker-led and incentive-backed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as a waste management approach through comprehensive policies and legislation.  Here, a manufacturer or producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle, but the system design is informed by the views and participation of informal workers like street vendors, waste pickers, and home-based workers to guarantee its efficiency. The informal worker-led EPR approach can incentivize waste management practices among informal workers.

We should shift from an elitist and classist-leaning financing and extend green financing to informal workers, women and their associations.

Invest in circular tourism. By 2022, 96.3 percent of every dollar or shilling spent by tourists went on transport, accommodation, food, and shopping. Women informal workers like vendors, home-based workers, and waste pickers who recycle, neaten, craft, and weave circular products, and who sell foodstuff, stand a chance to benefit from our budding circular tourism.

Secure international markets for circular products. Worldwide sales of circular beauty products are predicted to increase at a 5.8% CAGR and reach a market size of USD 4.2 billion by the end of 2032. This is a gold mine for our informal workers that we can tap into; to improve their livelihoods and widen our tax base and contribute to a more sustainable future.

We cannot gainsay the role of informal workers in waste management and a circular economy. We either evolve to realize this potential and run an efficient, rewarding, and informal worker-led circular economy or mimic one.

The writer is the Executive Director of Juakali Initiative, an organization advocating for informal workers' rights and a food vendor.