Women in waste collection and recycling in Hochiminh City

Women in Waste Collection and Recycling in Hochiminh City

Rekha Mehra International Center for Research on Women

Thai Thi Ngoc Du Nguyen Xuan Nghia Nguyen Ngoc Lam

Truong Thi Kim Chuyen Bang Anh Tuan Pham Gia Tran

Nguyen Thi Nhan Open University of t-lochiminh City and

Ftochiminh City University

The generation and management of urban solid waste is an urgent and growing problem in Hochiminh City, as elsewhere in the world. An important contribution to solving the city's waste management problem is made by the recycling industry. The well-organized private system of collection, trade and recycling includes door- to-door itinerant buyers, entirely women, who buy solid waste products from households; a range of small, medium, and big shopkeepers who purchase waste from the buyers; middle-men who link the shopkeepers with the recyclers; and the recycling or production units that transform products for sale to consumers. Earn- ings of itinerant buyers are low and may be declining. However, their self-employment is critical because they are often the main economic support of their families. Shopkeepers enjoy better standards of living but economic competition and recent environmental regulations threaten the survival of the industry. Policy options are offered for attempting to ensure the survival of recyclers and itinerant buyers, those who are most immediately vulnerable.

Please address correspondence to Dr. Mehra, International Center for Research on Women, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Suite 302, Washington, DC 20036.

Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Volume 18, Number 2, November 1996 �9 1996 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 187

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POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT

The generation and management of urban (municipal) solid waste is an urgent and growing problem. The World Resources Institute estimates that in 1990 daily per capita solid waste generation ranged from 0.5kg in low income countries to 1.9 kg in high income countries (Beede & Bloom, 1995). While current rates of waste generation are relatively low in developing countries, economic development and rising incomes are likely to contribute to increases in solid waste generation. Already, rapid increases in urban populations from 25% of total population in 1970 to 46% in 1990, have created a serious problem for waste management in the cities of developing countries. Hochiminh City in Vietnam is no exception. Be- tween 1987 and 1993, the amount of garbage generated in the city qua- drupled from 198,000 to 893,000 tons annually.

As in other cities around the world, the municipal public works ser- vice is primarily responsible for solid waste disposal in Hochiminh City. The waste is collected by city employees and is transported to suburban dumps to be buried. However, the two existing dump sites for the city are full and the disposal of accumulating garbage is a continuing problem. One of the dump stations, moreover, is located in a densely populated area and because processing facilities are poor or non-existent, the dump is a major environmental pollutant.

Under these circumstances, waste recycling offers a practical alterna- tive for alleviating the city's waste collection and disposal problems, and for mitigating pollution. Some of the nonperishable waste is currently purchased by private handlers and recycled through a well-organized system of trading and processing. Components of the waste recycling industry include door-to-door itinerant buyers who buy solid waste products from households; a range of small, medium, and big shopkeepers who purchase waste from the buyers; middle-men who link the shopkeepers with the recyclers; and the recycling or production units that transform products for sale to consumers.

Women represent about half of the 10,000 people employed in the industry, about 4,500 as itinerant buyers, and 500 as shopkeepers. About 40% of workers employed in the recycling factories are also women. Women's employment in the recycling trade is somewhat unique because, although women are actively employed in various aspects of waste collection and recycling as pickers, sorters, and packers in many developing countries, waste collectors and traders are generally (though not exclu- sively) men, and women's roles are often "invisible" (Bubel, 1990; Furedy, 1990). Yet, through employment in the waste trade, women in Hochiminh City make important contributions both to waste disposal and to the eco-

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nomic support of their families. The number of women involved has, moreover, increased significantly since 1979, fueled in part by the general in- crease in the labor force and by the rising numbers of migrants and the poor. This study was undertaken to describe the structure of the waste recycling industry in Hochiminh City, to document women's contributions to waste recycling, and to assess the impacts of women's activities on women and their families.

THE RECYCLING TRADE

Figure I illustrates the organization of the waste collection and recycling trade. The trading structure described below is mainly depicted on the right-hand side of the figure. The process is initiated by itinerant buyers, virtually all women, who purchase directly from households solid waste products such as waste paper, plastic, glass and aluminum. They work sin- gly, plying their trade by walking from door to door in residential neighbor- hoods. They sell their collection to shopkeepers, determining their own purchase price from households on the basis of the price they are likely to be paid by shopkeepers. A second group of buyers, termed buying agents, work for big shopkeepers or serve as go-betweens. They buy waste such as aluminum cans, glasses and bottles, mattresses and clothes from restaurants and hotels.

The next step in the recycling trade are three categories of waste shopkeepers: small, medium and large. Small shopkeepers operate in low- income areas close to the canals that are a source of waste supply for waste-pickers from whom they buy some of their waste products.' Small shopkeepers often sell their waste purchases to medium shopkeepers who may also buy waste products from itinerant buyers. Medium shopkeepers sell further up the chain to big shopkeepers or their middlemen, but rarely directly to the producers who recycle waste products. Big shopkeepers operate on main streets where transportation is readily available, buying from itinerant buyers, small and medium shopkeepers, restaurants and hotels, and from traders in other parts of the country. The shops may be general (dealing with various kinds of waste) or specialized (trading in one or two specific kinds of waste).

Middlemen serve as intermediaries between shopkeepers who resell collected waste products and producers of recycled goods who buy them

' Waste pickers are a group of waste collectors different from waste buyers.

FIGURE 1. Structure of the waste collection and recycling industry, Hochiminh City, Vietnam.

Sources

Collection and transportation of

garbage

Household. hospitals, restaurants, markets. streets -.

Garbage (perishable and non-perishable)

pedshab l~

Households /

canals

Collectors I Collection I

(government workers, individuals)

\ i First selection pickers__

Intermediatesites dump 't ,1,

Selection by garbage ~ . . pickers

I Dump stations in I the suburbs

Selection $

UserS I Fanmers J buy organic (perishable) garbage to use as fe~ilizer

Waste trade and r6tycling

Households, restaurants, hotels

,

I Door-to-door b u y e r S ,~ ~,

Shopkeepers employees or middle-men

N, Small, j ;

medium ~ wasteshops.~ 1

i i

1 Large waste shops I

i

4/

Midde-men Agents

I Reuse and recycling tactones I

Products

I ConsumpUon .=rket I

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REKHA MEHRA ET AL.

as inputs. Middlemen play a very important role in influencing markets and prices: they maintain regular contact with waste sources all over the country; and because they have ready access to market information, they are instrumental in ensuring that the supply of waste products matches market demand.

The final step in the trade involves the processing and transformation of collected waste products into reusable ones in various kinds of production units. Transformation can involve minor repairs or adjustments to products such as old bottles, books and packaging materials; or somewhat more processing in traditional factories; or even more complex transformation to produce semi-finished or finished goods. Most factories that rely partially or wholly on recycled products for raw material are family- owned; a smaller number are associated units or cooperatives. Some modern factories also use recycled products as raw material, but they were not included in this study.

Within this structure, women play key roles in collecting waste products as itinerant buyers and as shopkeepers. These two activities are described in greater detail below.

TRADER CHARACTERISTICS

Data for this study was obtained through survey questionnaires, in- depth interviews, and group discussions with buyers and shopkeepers. The sample consisted of two hundred itinerant buyers, eighty-eight shopkeepers, and thirty recyclers.

Itinerant (Door-to-Door) Buyers

The survey showed that itinerant waste buyers worked seven days a week. They started at 8 a.m. and worked 6-8 hours per day with a midday break (usually taken at home, if it was near the workplace). They walked from door to door on an established route, calling out their presence as they went. On average, buyers walked about 15km per day, although some walked as many as 30 km or more per day. They used very simple equipment, usually just two panniers with ropes hung on a long pole carried over the shoulder, and an old-fashioned weighing scale. Most buyers did not use bicycles because they were cumbersome in the narrow densely populated lanes in which they worked. However, some used carts because they enabled them to carry heavier loads and make greater sales.

They collected from 5kg to 144kg of solid waste per day, the average

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buyer collecting 41 kg/day. Forty-one percent of buyers, however, collected less than 20 kg/day. Most commonly, they collected various kinds of paper (newspapers, books and magazines), old shoes and bags, raincoats, glass bottles and broken glass, and aluminum cans. Less commonly collected, although more valuable, were products such as plastic, duck leather, and copper--the waste product of highest value.

Buyers paid their customers in cash, pricing waste products by weight or unit, according to type of waste. They charged customers prices set in accordance with their determination of prices that shopkeepers were will- ing to pay them for the various categories of waste products. Prices varied widely according to demand, being highest during the dry season and before important holidays, and lowest during the rainy season.

Although buyers required no particular skill to engage in the trade, experience and good relationships with clients were valuable. They sought to establish steady relationships with their customers, who over time grew to trust them and waited for their customary buyers to trade their waste products.

Roughly half of buyers (52.43%) had started their activity without capital, usually obtaining cash by borrowing on a daily basis from the shopkeepers to whom they sold their collection. Thus, they borrowed money in the morning, and paid it back at the end of the day from revenue earned from the day's collection, retaining a small profit. Shopkeepers generally did not charge interest on loans made to their regular suppliers.

The majority of women surveyed (82.04%) had become waste collectors after 1979, following the failure of several "new economic zone" proj- ects outside Hochiminh City. Returnees with limited capital and skills be- came waste buyers with the help of friends in the community. More than half (55.5%) were introduced to the waste trade by friends, 27% by family members, and 17.5% through the guidance of "others."

Another important determinant of their "choice" of occupation was the relatively low level of education. The survey showed that, although few buyers were illiterate, the majority (66.83%) had attended school just up to the fifth grade, and only 1.46% had finished the ninth grade. Given the level of education, few other employment opportunities were available for them. Factory work was one option but the buyers surveyed said they pre- ferred to be self-employed because they had greater time flexibility and were able to earn income daily rather than monthly or bimonthly as in factory work. In fact, 17% of the sample had left such employment for waste buying, citing low pay and stressful inflexible work schedules inap- propriate for their childcare responsibilities.

Most buyers (58.33%) said they had other occupations such as street

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vending (31.9%) and farming (26.9%) before they started in the waste business. More than half of them were migrants to Hochiminh City, having moved there for economic reasons or because of the war. 2 The largest group of migrants (22.33% of the sample) had come from Long An prov- ince on the Mekong Delta bordering Hochiminh City, whi le 14% came from other parts of the Mekong Delta, and 4.36% from provinces of the Eastern Region. They chose to enter the waste trade because it required little capital and the flexibility cited above.

The survey showed that about half of the buyers in the sample (48.5%) were between 25 and 40 years of age-- in their prime productive and reproductive years. Sixty percent were married. More than half of the respondents (57.5%) had 2-4 children while 23.9% had more than five2 Most were mothers of young or very young children. Older women above the age of 55 (the legal age for retirement among women) represented 14% of the sample, and 7.77% were over the age of 60.

On average, buyers earned a daily income of VN$14,000 (approx- imately US$1.30), with most (83.16%) earning between VN$10,000- 20,000 daily. 4 Although, buyers' income was equal to or higher than a factory worker's salary, half of them considered themselves poor. Almost 12% reported doing additional work (e.g., washing and ironing for other households, farming, sewing) to supplement their incomes.

Significantly, the buyers were the main income earners in their households, contributing about 60% of the total in about two-thirds of the households surveyed. In fact, in about 20% of the households they were the sole income earners, being separated, divorced, or widowed and with depen- dents.

With an average household size of 6.3 persons, buyers' earnings were barely sufficient to meet basic survival needs. They spent 79% of their income on food, more than the city average of 68%. They spent very little on clothes, health care and entertainment, with 3% of households openly acknowledging they lived in debt.

Sending children to school was a high priority. Nevertheless, they reported 40% of their children between the ages of 6 and 15 had dropped out of school for economic reasons. Many of the drop-outs worked in

2 The two major migrant influxes into Hochiminh City occurred during the intensification of the war between 1965 and 1974, and during the. socioeconomic restructuring that started in 1985 and is ongoing. Rural to urban migration is a continuing phenomenon.

3 As so many women were still of childbearing age, these numbers may not accurately reilE,:t actual completed family size. Nevertheless, they had fewer children than rural women of similar age.

VN$ represents the Vietnamese dong. The exchange rate in October 1994 was U.S.$I.00 = VN$I0,769.

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waste purchasing or construction to supplement their mothers' incomes. While 61.2% had finished elementary school, only 27% finished ninth grade, effectively hindering their future upward mobility.

Despite low returns and the arduousness of their work, most of the women buyers (62.81%) did not expect to change their occupation. They felt that they could survive if business was steady, and they perceived themselves as having few other alternatives, given their limited skills and lack of capital. However, 92% of the buyers stated that they did not want their children to pursue the trade because of the low returns, the arduous nature of the work, and the health hazards.

Waste Shops and Shopkeepers

There are about 259 officially-registered waste shops located in Hochiminh City. 5 Eighty-eight owners of shops were interviewed for this study. Since waste shops function as family enterprises, involving husbands, wives, and children, the respondents included both women and men. Thus, although 53% of the sample were women, the information provided below on the waste shop trade and shopkeepers represents a mix of responses obtained from men and women.

As noted above, waste shops vary by size, type of product in which they deal, and types of activities. Thus, small shops serve as collection points, buying waste from pickers in the slums or poor areas and reselling it to medium shops. Most medium shops trade in all waste categories, sell- ing to middlemen and the big shops. Big shops, themselves, are of different types, including general shops trading in all wastes, those trading in waste metals (iron, copper, aluminum), and shops specializing in aluminum cans. Shops are also differentiated by location, with many big shops located at the gates of the city and at key waterway and road intersections because much of their trade is from other parts of the country. Other shops are located close to waste recycling units or to dump sites.

They survey showed that on average 2 to 4 people worked in a waste shop, whether family members or hired workers. Tasks were generally shared between husband, wife, and children. If husbands were poorly educated, they worked closely with their wives; if well-educated, they left almost all the work to their wives. Tasks included trading with the itinerant buyers, managing financial affairs, supervising workers, interacting with the

They are registered with fiscal authorities which collect taxes from big and medium- sized shops. The small shops are tax-exempt.

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local administrators for taxes and licenses, sorting, and transporting the waste to clients or middlemen.

Medium-sized and large shops often hired workers--men for loading and unloading goods, and women for washing and sorting them. Workers were paid on a daily basis, provided meals and, sometimes, shelter. Half the workers earned no more than VN$10,000 a day. Women's salaries were a little lower than men's, on the assumption that women's work was easier than men's. Worker safety measures were minimal--only 3.45% of workers used masks and gloves, and most shops lacked fire prevention equipment.

Waste shops were open for business every day from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., with the busiest time being from noon until evening. On average, 15 people visited the shops daily to sell waste, and each shop bought an average of 523kg of waste and 115 bottles. Big shops purchased substantially more--up to several tons a day--much of it coming from outside Hochiminh City. Although it was difficult to make an accurate esti- mate, the collection of itinerant buyers constituted a small part of the overall trade.

Shopkeepers were introduced to the business in a variety of ways, including inheriting the family business and having worked previously as waste buyers (15%). Half of all shopkeepers reported being involved in other kinds of work before entering the waste trade, and 85 had another skill but chose to be shopkeepers because it yielded a good income, and permitted personal independence. However, business success varied, the most successful shopkeepers being those who inherited shops from their parents, thereby gaining assets, experience, a trade network and a ready customer base.

Entry into waste shopkeeping required space for a shop, capital, a tricycle, a balance, and baskets for carrying waste. The shop served as both a warehouse and a place to conduct business. Two-thirds of shopkeepers reported having shops in their residences, with owners of medium and large shops setting up shop in front of their houses, or on the ground floor, and small shopkeepers in slum areas operating directly from their homes. Almost one quarter (22.73%) of shopkeepers (mostly medium-sized) rented space for their shops; one-tenth (mostly big shopkeepers) owned shops sep- arate from their homes.

Half of the shopkeepers reported that the minimum capital required to set up a shop was between VN$2-5 million, while another 39% stated that an investment of VN$10-50 million was required. Small shopkeepers stated that they could set up business with as little as VN$500,000. Aver- age daily working capital requirements were VN$1,500,000, although half

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the respondents reported using no more than VN$300,000. 6 Most shopkeepers (84.09%) used their own capital--only 16% needed loans. More than half of the shopkeepers (53.49%) lent money to itinerant buyers in order to ensure their supply of waste products, the average loan being about VN$25,000. On average, shopkeepers made about eight or nine loans per day. In general, their relationship with itinerant buyers was fair and based on mutual interest. (Any danger of exploitation or oppression is minimized by the fact that itinerant buyers are able to choose their shopkeepers.)

About half of the shopkeepers were born and raised in Hochiminh City, the rest immigrated, as did the itinerant buyers, during the war (1960- 69) and the failure of the post-war economic reconstruction (1975-79). Almost three-fourths of shopkeepers were between the ages of 25 to 45 years old. The majority had finished secondary school, their educational level being higher than that of the general labor force of Hochiminh City. On average, men were somewhat more educated than women. Neverthe- less, there was no illiteracy among women shopkeepers--most had completed ninth grade, and about 30% had finished high school.

Most shopkeepers (85.06%) were married, and had from 1-3 children. Although older than the women buyers, shopkeepers had fewer children, perhaps reflecting the impact of greater education on reproductive behav- ior.

The data suggest that shopkeepers' net monthly income ranged from VN$600,000 to VN$10 million, with an average of VN$3-4 million. Aver- age monthly expenditures among shopkeeper households was VN$1.34 million of which VN$1 million (75%) was spent on food. It was note- worthy, however, that expenditures in 20% of shopkeeper households to- taled less than VN$600,O00 a month, or about the same as those in itinerant buyer households. They were also able to save up to one-fourth of their earnings. Overall, shopkeepers enjoyed a good standard of living, well above the city average.

As compared with itinerant buyers, fewer shopkeepers had financial difficulties, and only 1.15% reported being in debt. Also, there was less joblessness among adults and lower school drop-out rates among children. Their better standard of living was reflected in their children's education: most children of shopkeepers were literate and attended school up to age 15; 17.5% went on to attend university. Among children over age 16, only 17.5% were engaged in the waste trade; and up to 30% were in school or attended college.

6 Shopkeepers tend to underreport income, profit and capital investments for tax reasons.

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Most shopkeepers (89.19%) describe the waste trade as an acceptable occupation although others felt their work was held in low esteem by soci- ety. Thus, the majority of shopkeepers (78%) did not want their children to be in the same trade. They worked toward that goal by investing in their children's education, and encouraging them to adopt professional occupations.

WASTE RECYCLING AND WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

This study shows that the waste recycling industry of Hochiminh City makes important contributions both to the urban environment and to the economy. Waste recyclers directly purchase about 51 to 62 tons of nonperishable wastes per day. This represents about 7% of the total nonperishable garbage produced in Hochiminh City daily--a not insignificant amount considering the city's rapidly growing solid waste disposal problem. Additionally, the industry provides self-employment for at least 5,000 women, 99% of whom have no marketable skills and few other options for employment. This is significant in a city with a rapidly growing labor force and increasing unemployment. Further, although the study showed that earnings from waste buying are low and the women and their families are poor, women's earnings are important to their households because, for the majority, it represents the main income.

The recycling industry, however, is facing a number of challenges that could have serious implications for how solid waste products are handled in Hochiminh City, for environmental and sanitary conditions in the city, and for the people employed in the waste trade, particularly the relatively large number of low-income women who are itinerant buyers. In the last three years, the industry has been shaken by a number of factors. First, imports of cheaper and higher quality consumer goods and raw materials, especially plastics and polyvinylchloride, have driven down prices of waste products. Therefore, households have fewer incentives to sell to itinerant buyers and the prices the latter obtain are falling.

Second, recycling factories face increasing economic competition from a growing number of newly-established modern factories. Third, their survival is threatened by city environmental regulations and protection measures issued in 1993 that bar waste recycling factories from urban districts if they are contributing to pollution. In fact, many older recycling factories are located in populated areas of the city and, because they use obsolete equipment and methods, do contribute to urban pollution by

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emitting dust, smoke, and polluted water. The new regulations require pol- luting establishments to relocate in suburban districts or to shut down. However, relocation is not currently feasible because suburban land-use policies do not permit it. If the recycling factories are shut down, the entire chain will be affected and this, in turn, will affect waste disposal and employment.

Parts of the recycling industry may survive these challenges more readily than others. For example, 39% of shopkeepers reported that they were considering shifting to other occupations, perhaps in response to im- pending changes. In fact, shopkeepers may be fairly well-equipped to ad- just because they are well-educated, possess other job skills, and have access to capital. On the other hand, itinerant buyers have none of these advantages, and are likely to be more seriously affected. Already, 96% of itinerant buyers surveyed stated that their businesses were either stagnant or declining, while only 4% thought that they were growing. Falling prices and lack of demand (from the closing of waste recycling factories) could deal their occupation a serious blow.

ENSURING A FUTURE: POLICY OPTIONS

It is not too late, however, for policymakers to attempt to meet the challenges facing the waste recycling industry. The first and most important step is to recognize the value of the industry and the contributions it makes to alleviate the solid waste disposal problem of Hochiminh City. Many developed countries have increasingly turned to recycling because they recognize its importance in a multipronged approach to solving urban solid waste disposal problems and because recycling addresses broader environmental problems such as the rapid depletion of natural resources (Beede & Bloom, 1995).

However, as recycling is a relatively new phenomenon in developed countries, they have had to invest a great deal in devising and instituting policies and systems to operationalize recycling goals. Hochiminh City, on the other hand, has the advantage of having in a place a relatively sophisti- cated and well-functioning recycling system that can be built upon. The danger, however, is that because it is regarded as a "traditional" industry, its contributions and potential may be overlooked.

Once policymakers recognize the importance of investing in the recycling industry, several options are available for supporting it. Two areas of immediate concern are (I) the survival of the waste recycling factories and (2) the need to enhance itinerant buyer earnings. Policy support for the

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waste recycling factories requires changes in land-use policies to enable them to comply with the current requirement to move, and to reduce pollution emitted by them. The latter, in turn, requires improved access to financial resources (credit) and to technical assistance to enable them to upgrade and modernize their enterprises.

Possible options that can be explored to support itinerant buyers' enterprises include education, skills and business training, the organization of cooperatives and other techniques that have been successfully adopted elsewhere. For example, the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India has been successful in assisting paper pickers enhance potential earnings through financial and business intermediation, skills training, and the formation of a cooperative (Furedy, 1990). Education, training, mecha- nization, and better cooperation have also contributed to improvements in the recycling industry of Mokattan Garbage village in Cairo, Egypt. Young girls and women were instrumental in this process (Kamel, 1994). From among the available options, the selection of specific policies to support itinerant buyers in Hochiminh City would require additional research. Given the environmental and economic contributions that itinerant buyers currently make, this would be a worthy investment in the future of Hochiminh City[

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Richard Strickland and Radhika Rao Gupta for editorial assistance and Annelies Drost-Maasry for research assistance. They would also like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The views expressed are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their respective institutional affiliations or of the funder.

REFERENCES

Beede, David N. & Bloom, David E. (1995). The economics of municipal solid waste. The World Bank Research Observer, 10(2), 1 ] 3-50.

Bubel, Anna Z. (1990). Waste picking and solid waste management. Environmental Sanitation Reviews, 30, 53-66.

Kamel, Laila R. Iskandar (1994). Mokattan garbage village: Cairo, Egypt. Heliopolis, Cairo: Stallion Graphics.

Furedy, Christine (1990). Social aspects of solid waste recovery in Asian cities. Environmental Sanitation Reviews, 30, 1-52.

Women in waste collection and recycling in Hochiminh City

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