Rights group, Pan African Vision for the Environment, PAVE, has said waste pickers are not accorded recognition despite their role as frontline warriors in addressing environmental waste including plastic pollution.

They stated this at the two-day capacity-building workshop – May 14 to 15 – designed specifically for waste pickers in Lagos State as part of a key activity of the Zero Waste Ambassadors Project and Capacity Building for Actors in the Waste Management Sector.

The two-day engagement formed an integral part of the Multi-solving Action to Methane Reduction in Nigeria (MAMRN) Project and targeted waste pickers on the aegis of the Association of Scraps and Waste-Pickers of Lagos State (ASWOL).

The workshop, which also had civil society and the media participants, sought to raise awareness and build the capacity of waste pickers to better understand organic waste and how it can be transformed into valuable resources such as compost and bio-inputs.

The engagement also provided the wastepickers the opportunity to shed light on the challenges of their profession and the need for urgent actions by government and other stakeholders to address them.

The participants recommended that “Waste pickers must be recognised as the most important stakeholder in the entire waste management value chain.”

They also said there is need to “Put an end to all forms of stigmatisation of waste pickers and identify and prosecute those who engage in such practice;

“Permit the unionisation of the waste management sector with priority on the waste pickers in the decision-making table;

“Ensure waste pickers are adequately protected from work hazards by making it a law that their employers provide them personal protective equipment
and kits;

“Gurantee social and economic opportunities for waste pickers including providing them training and skills acquisition opportunities;

“Identify and prosecute employers who subject waste pickers to anti-labour practices, and;

“Need for public education and enlightenment on the importance of the role of waste pickers in the waste management chain.”

The rights groups that participated were Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE), Association of Scraps and Waste Pickers of Lagos (ASWOL), Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria).