Waste and status: What affects government and public perceptions of ‘waste pickers’ in

Cape Town?

PhD research by Teresa Perez

tpz031@googlemail.comDepartment of Sociology,

UCTCitation:Perez, T. (2015). Waste and status: What affects government and public perceptions of waste pickers' in Cape Town. African Climate Development Initiative Seminar, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Seminar structure

• Aim of the seminar (5) • Thesis overview (10) • Extracts from literature review (20) • Discussion (remaining time)

What is a ‘waste picker?’

“people who sustain themselves and their families by reclaiming re-usable and recyclable materials from what others have cast aside as waste” (Samson, 2009: 1).

Street vs landfill

World Bank (2013) Ending the vicious cycle of open dumps; Improving waste pickers’ lives

Photo on Wikipedia entry for bergie

What is the place of stigma in the agency of individuals in their interactions within the work of waste picking in Cape

Town?

(Goffman, 1959; 1963)

Qualitative approch

•Impression management•Seen and unseen•Front and back region•Public and private•Image•Discourses•Ideas•Perceptions•Power

What is the place of stigma in the agency of individuals in their interactions within the work of waste picking in Cape

Town?

Taken from a photo exhibition titled ‘Prison Ink’ by Araminta de

Clermont, 2008

What is the place of stigma in the agency of individuals in their interactions within the work of waste picking in Cape

Town?

‘Bergie’ Artwork by Basil Colin Frank, 2009 as part of an online competition

What is the place of stigma in the agency of individuals in their interactions within the work of waste picking in Cape

Town?

groundWORK/SAWPA (2014) South African waste pickers call on the government to build recycling facility

SAWPA (2013) South African waste pickers call on their government to stop incineration projects

What is the place of stigma in the agency of individuals in their interactions within the work of waste picking in Cape

Town?Househol

d

• Residents

• Caretakers

Government

• National• Local

Field work

Trying to make a headscarf out of a winter scarf: A photo of me from the back so that I could see what it looked like

• Every Thursday morning

• December 2013 to December 2014

• Every last Thursday in the month January 2015 to date

Key themes

1.Names matter2.Globally people have been able

to market waste picking as a sustainable livelihood which has enable them to raise their status

3.Residents response to waste affects how they see waste pickers

4.Government policies and ideology affects how waste pickers are interpreted

Studies in South Africa

Different interpretations of the same action

Dumpster Divers (New York)

• Dumpster divers• Dumpster diners• Freegans• Urban gleaners• Urban scavengers• Urban mining • ‘Bergies’• Street people• Trolley brigade

Freegans (Vancouver) Bergies (Cape Town)

Key themes

1.Names matter

Waste pickers around the world

(Global Alliance of Waste Pickers, 2015)

India

Location Earnings data SourceSWaCH members in Pune, India

Annual earnings per capita: R14,780

(Chikarmane, 2012)

Cape Town, South Africa

R10 to R1000 per day

(Benson & Vanqa-Mgijima, 2010)

Cape Town, South Africa

R400 a month (R4,800 annually)

(Benjamin, Ciaravola, & Willenz, 2012)

Key themes

1.Names matter2.Globally people have been able

to market waste picking as a sustainable livelihood which has enable them to raise their status

Household waste

“dirt or rubbish in the wrong place are ‘emphatically visible and extremely

embarrassing’ “O’Brien (2008) quoting Thomson (1979)

“Its completely ridiculous. Just think of how much bums would like that, they don't have to dig as much they can just walk along and see where the garbage they want is... Lol good luck with the bum population now”

“I don’t want to display my life”

“I do not want people looking at or rummaging through my garbage”

Quotes from resident in an online petition against compulsory clear plastic bags

The waste crisis?“Consumerism breeds gluttony, gluttony breeds profligacy, profligacy breeds waste, waste poisons the planet., therefore consumerism is the cause of the crisis of waste in both its excessive and toxic guises” (O'Brien, 2008: 174).

Residents and rubbish

“moving on was seen to offer the opportunity for all to shed things from their perceived to be past lives…undergraduate notes, clothes, small pieces of furniture and furnishings”(Gregson, Metcalfe, & Crewe, 2007)

Students arriving at students residences at the University of Cape Town

Modernity vs development

Front region image Back region reality

A woman carrying a child walks down an alleyway in Blikkiesdorp (“Tin Can Town” in Afrikaans), a settlement of corrugated iron houses about 25km east of Cape Town.

Key themes

1.Names matter2.Globally people have been able

to market waste picking as a sustainable livelihood which has enable them to raise their status

3.Residents response to waste affects how they see waste pickers

Privatisation of waste

…the legal status of waste changes…Governments or private companies who now have the responsibility or the access then enforce this new status, barring scavengers from taking something which used to be open to anyone (Anschütz et al., 2004: 22)

National government targets (2016)25% of recyclables diverted from landfill sites for re-use, recycling or recovery.

All metropolitan municipalities, secondary cities and large towns have initiated separation at source programmes.

Interaction between government policy and public behaviour

• Both want to maintain an impression of a modern city

• Both have opinions about the environment, recycling, job creation, development

• Can policy change individual attitudes and behaviour?

• Give responsibly campaign illustrates the everyday dilemma of how to interact with ‘bergies’ and the impact of government

Key themes

1.Names matter2.Globally people have been able

to market waste picking as a sustainable livelihood which has enable them to raise their status

3.Residents response to waste affects how they see waste pickers

4.Government policies and ideology affects how waste pickers are interpreted

What is the place of stigma in the agency of individuals in their interactions within the work of waste picking in Cape

Town?HomelessAlcoholic

Ex-convict

Not “white”

Poverty

Third world

Product of capitalism

Tik addict

Gang member

Choice? Bergie

Which ideas have the power to change perceptions?

1.Names matter power of language 2.Globally people have been able to

market waste picking as a which has enable them to raise their status sustainable livelihoods discourse

3.Residents response to waste affects how they see waste pickers environmentalism

4.Government policies and ideology affects how waste pickers are interpreted privatisation

ConclusionDespite the successes of other waste pickers and informal workers, the homeless stereotype continues to be the image most closely associated with waste pickers in Cape Town. The work of environmentalists and government have not improved street waste pickers position in the social hierarchy. What are your thoughts?

PhD research by Teresa Pereztpz031@googlemail.com

Department of Sociology, UCT

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