HELFEN

 A waste picker, recycler, binner, informal resource recoverer, poacher, or a scavenger, is a person who picks out recyclable elements from mixed waste wherever it may be temporarily accessible or disposed of. A person who scavenges for junk, food, materials, or other items is also referred to as a scavenger. India’s booming urbanization brings the problem of waste management. As more people are migrating towards the cities, the amount of waste is increasing at a high pace and waste management is likely to become a critical issue in the coming years. 

Waste pickers today often work alone, seeking financial value of the recyclable elements to sell or use. They are usually unequipped to disassemble the products they find on dump sites. In India, over a million people find livelihood opportunities through waste picking. Researches shows that “as many as one in a hundred persons in a large city in India could be employed in waste recycling, starting from waste picking to operating small junk shops and even operating reprocessing factories. Of these, most are marginalized waste pickers and small waste dealers.”