Suggested citation:
IAWP (2026). IAWP’s Position on Waste Pickers in Reuse. International Alliance of Waste Pickers.

As reuse gains ground in plastics policy, from the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations to national legislation in Chile, Germany and the European Union, waste pickers risk being left out of systems they have long sustained. Developed with IAWP’s Advocacy Subcommittee and based on case studies from India, Ecuador, Italy, Kenya and North America, this position paper sets out how reuse can be built with waste pickers rather than around them.

The evidence shows that waste pickers are far more involved in reuse than official figures recognise. In Italy, they sell between 197,000 and 230,000 tonnes of second-hand goods every year, a volume comparable to the country’s entire officially reported reuse sector. In Ecuador, reuse generates between 1.5 and 10 times more revenue per unit than recycling.

IAWP calls for reuse to sit above recycling in the policy hierarchy and for inclusion to be designed in from the start: open-loop systems, deposit return schemes that anyone can use without accounts or apps, financing that reaches waste picker organisations, and mechanisation that complements rather than displaces labour. The paper also sets out recommendations by type of reuse and by stakeholder, from policymakers and producers to financiers and local governments.

Without a just transition, reuse risks becoming another form of exclusion. With it, reuse can protect the environment and create dignified livelihoods for the workers who already make the circular economy work.: