Paper short abstract:

A survey among waste pickers in Brazil shows their understanding of the impacts of climate change and how they can respond. Waste pickers receive limited support in dealing with the challenges of climate change, despite their proven role in delivering urban resilience and sustainability.

Paper long abstract:

Waste pickers are at the front line when facing climate change impacts. Waste pickers face direct impacts on their lives and employment. Lack of access to services and infrastructures, precarious employment, and lack of social support increase their vulnerability to climate change impacts. Empirical evidence has shown that waste picking activities reduce the vulnerability to climate change impacts, improve urban resilience and reduces waste, hence making a substantial contribution to urban sustainability (Dodman et al, 2023). However, there are few studies that engage with the perspectives on climate change expressed by waste pickers themselves, partly because of the assumption that there is limited climate change awareness of climate change among waste pickers and the organizations that represent them.

To fill this gap, Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) conducted an exploratory survey with 61 waste pickers in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil to understand waste pickers’ perceptions and knowledge of climate change, in collaboration with the ERC project Low Carbon Action in Ordinary Cities (Urban Institute, University of Sheffield). WIEGO also conducted semi-structured interviews and participatory focus groups, to capture the heterogeneity of perspectives across contexts. The analysis explores how waste pickers experience climate change impacts at home and at the workplace, their adaptive strategies, and the specific actions and actors needed to address these impacts.

The analysis demonstrates the difficulties in linking waste pickers’ understanding of climate change with current adaptation planning. Specifically, the survey shows that waste pickers have practical knowledge and experience that is already shaping how they respond to climate change events. The qualitative analysis also shows that waste pickers perceive significant gaps in the way their activities and risks are understood among decision makers, which results in their exclusion from formal adaptation planning.