Waste Rag Pickers: Local Management of Waste, Plastics for Income Generation and Recycling - a step towards better

environment practices in cities of Delhi and Bhopal.

Leonard Sonnenschein, President

World Aquarium and Conservation for the Oceans Foundation

and

Prabhjot Sodhi, National Coordinator

GEF Small Grants Program, United Nations Development Program,

Centre for Environment Education

Increasing urban migrationHigh density of populationLack of waste management infrastructure

The issue of urban poverty is inextricably linked with waste.

Over 1 million people in India engaged in waste collection

Waste pickingSortingRecyclingDoor to door collection

The Informal Sector

PRAKASH KUMAR, is a social activist, working for the most downtrodden section of society. In 2005, he and his team volunteered for Ridge Bachao Andolan. The sad uprooting of slums from the ridge area and being replaced by environmentally unsound shopping malls motivated him to fight for justice. He left his job and has formed the first ever union of Rag Pickers called Kachra Kamgar Union in Delhi.

Rag pickers are individuals with no rights. They have a difficult life, working hard to clean the cities. They recycle wastes that they collect. They are mostly ignored by the government and are harassed by the police, even being put into jail for no reason.

Rag pickers union2,000 members representing 2,000 families (6,000

people)Local identificationSchoolingHealth careCommunity recognitionRegistration for community partner for recyclables

Rag Pickers Rights

The city of Bhopal, consisting of 70 urban wards and a population of two million people, generates 420-460 tons of waste daily. The waste is dumped at Bhanpur Kanti, the local dump. This excess waste generation is exacerbated by the people’s habit of littering. Rag pickers and garbage dealers aide in the recycling of the city’s plastics through its resale to cement factories who use plastics as fuel. This project, which started in 2010, has been funded by UNDP’s Small Grants Programme for its prevention of pollutants.

GEF SGP Projects - Bhopal

1. Education: Getting children admitted to Delhi government schools and keeping them there.

2. Health camps: Utilizing public resources and volunteers, these create awareness of hygiene, sanitation and provide some basic health care. 91 women and children were immunized in one camp. 225 people had their eyes examined and treated in another. 70 people were provided free check ups and medicines in another camp. The beneficiaries also contribute by providing for tables, chairs, tea, refreshments, etc.

3. Women’s Self Help Groups: Three SHGs, Shakti, Muskan and Lakshya, have been set up in the three busties. Each member saves Rs. 200 per month. Savings accounts have been set up with the banks.

4. Vocational Training (Rangpuri Pahari): 24 women are learning sewing. There are plans to start training for making candles and for turning waste materials into bags, baskets, coasters, etc.

5. Scholarships: Got the state to grant Rs.1000 scholarships to 39 children of rag pickers.

6. Family Planning: Women are provided input and access to various options. Fellows have facilitated tubal ligations in those desiring such intervention.

7. Life insurance for the rag pickers. Also, getting the government to subsidize half of the Rs. 200 premium.

8. Anganwadis: Pressure the government to set up these welfare centers for the children and women.

9. Shelters for the homeless: Fellows helped petition the Supreme Court that resulted in the Court directing the Delhi government for setting up homeless shelters during the extreme winter. Against the court directed requirement of one shelter for every 1,00,000 people, Delhi had only nine! The Fellows were instrumental in getting 84 such shelters of which one (Nilothi Extension) is actually managed by the Fellow, Parmod Kumar.

10. Slum Clearance: During the Commonwealth games, Fellows brought together various NGOs to ensure that adequate alternative facilities were provided during the slum clearance drive.

11. Emergency assistance: The Fellows are often involved in helping individual rag pickers such as getting their confiscated rickshaws released, providing legal support when they are unfairly picked up by the police and raising funds during times of need such as death, severe illness, etc.

GENERAL WELFARE MEASURESNew Delhi

Youth Voices in Conservation’s GreenLeaf Program

The intent of CEE in the partnership with the Youth Voices in Conservation Program is: 1) To involve, inspire youth to get involved in local

and global ecological and conservation initiatives for the purpose of protecting the environment and learning about those environments; and

2) To establish a marketplace to create, measure, self certify and store carbon credits generated by localized community actions and then convert them into services and goods for use by the communities that created the savings in the first place.

Conservation for the Oceans Foundation

Started In: 1978 Total Projects: 200 Average Grant Amount: 100,000

Centre for Environment Education-India & Small Grants Programme

SGP will normally consider grants up to USD 50,000 for each project. In special cases, where co-financing commitments are more, slightly higher budgets may be considered, if the project activities justify this. More emphasis is placed on leveraging local contributions in-cash and in-kind from communities.

Small Grants Programme

GreenLeaf Program distribution of funding for future needs Examples (send e-mails to project leaders to get examples of future

needs) The GEF SGP in India is implemented country wide as a Full Scale

Project (FSP). The proposals for accessing the grants needs to be submitted by Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and Community based organizations (CBOs) and the Non- profit Organization as per the template to the respective regional offices of the CEE.

The GEF SGP program anchored through the National Project Manager (NPM) of the SGP based in New Delhi is supported through a more decentralized system of Regional Offices of CEE in order to reach out locally to the remote, un-reached and inaccessible poor degraded areas of the country, forest tribal communities by the national parks, protected areas and wildlife sanctuaries etc. It aims to provide a countrywide coverage and to also address the local issues and national priorities more appropriately.

Small Grants Programme

Completely privatized centralized systems

Versus

Decentralized local community-based initiatives

DATA

Give #s/amounts/types of waste

Plastic Waste Management, check burning of waste plastics and Increased Livelihood of Rag Pickers in 5 Wards of Bhopal Municipal Cooperation Develop a sustainable system of proper waste

management in 5 wards of Bhopal, ensuring the burning of waste.

Develop a public- private partnership model of waste management

Increase socio- economic status of 400 rag pickers families.

Establishing vermicomposting, plastic waste collection units.

Bhopal

 Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan (SGP –India partner) won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008 in India ·   Nidan is developing sustainable businesses, cooperatives, trade unions and “people's institutions” led by the most excluded categories of the poor in Bihar ·In India, the Social Entrepreneur Year of the Award is an initiative of The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the UNDP. Nidan is developing sustainable businesses, cooperatives, trade unions and “people's institutions” led by the most excluded categories of the poor in Bihar. It has promoted and built 20 independent profit-making ventures governed and owned by the urban poor including waste workers, ragpickers, vegetable vendors, construction labourers, domestic helpers, micro-farmers, street traders and other marginalized occupation groups

Mr. Arbind Singh, Director, Nidaan, Patna, made a presentation on ‘A systems sustainable business model approach to waste management’. The success story of his organization in Patna is because of the full support of the Municipal Corporation. Solid waste management can be sustainable only by promoting the livelihoods of ragpickers, who are the backbone of the system. The positive outcome of the initiative in Patna was that the image of the ragkpickers had changed. The organization has initiated quality education programs for children and this has decreased the involvement of children in ragpicking. The residents are willing to pay the ragpickers in Patna. Problems did exist in terms of late payments from the Municipal Corporation or dearth of land for recycling of waste however they were all temporary in nature. Making a direct link with the main agencies recycling waste has helped decrease the middle man in the recycling of dray waste and has directly contributed to increasing the income of the ragpickers.

Arbind Singh, Executive Director, Nidan (SGP –India partner)

GEF-SGP Project Funding

Biodi-versity

47%Climate Change

24%

Multifocal Area14%

Land Degradation9%

Persistent Organic Pol-lutants

4%

International Waters2% no focal area

1%

INDIA

Biodiversity

Climate Change

Multifocal Area

Land Degradation

Persistent Organic Pollutants

International Waters

(blank)

0 2000000 4000000

3423673.94

1737528.98

1031359.75

643304.07

281660.7

109273.7

20397.34

INDIA

Addresses localized sustainability issues as well as provide a methodology for decreasing carbon footprints and increasing financial sustain abilities within each community and consequent environmental effects from the wide scale adoption of these plans may be expected

Creates a conditional exchange program based on carbon credits enables a higher probability of project self-sufficiency

Youth Voices in Conservation’s GreenLeaf Program

Youth Voices in Conservation

Project Coordinator:

701 North 15th Street, 2nd Floor, St. Louis, MO 63103 USAinfo@worldaquarium.org

Changing the Future of Planet

Earth

U.S.A.: Earth Savers ClubWHO? Charles Orgbon III

WHAT?

• Elementary and high school students doing conservation actions such as:o creating a recycling web siteo creating the Earth Savers Club o tree plantingo composting o reusing, reducing, and recycling at school.o Began a “Green Living Newsletter” that was sent home to

each family once a month. The newsletter featured articles about how to reduce energy, water, and waste consumption.

India: Climate Change and its Effect on Marine EnvironmentWHO? Jamila Patterson

• WHAT?• The Tuticorin coast on the southeastern coast of India is biologically

important area with resources like corals, mangroves, seagrasses, pearl oyster beds etc and is in the Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve and northern part of the coast is under Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park Area (Marine Protected Area).

• Total active fishermen are 85,000 and total length of the coast is 163.5 km. 23 fishing villages are located along the coast.

• The one day workshop was in September, 2010. The lectures are 1. Global Warming – an introduction; and 2. Climate change and its implications on marine environment. The workshop was attended by over 1,000 students and 20 teachers.

Kenya: African Youth Initiative on Climate Change

WHO? Margaret Akinyi Demba

WHAT?• Chiromo Environmnetal Awareness

Club which focuses on environmental education, environmental monitoring and environmental activities.

Belarus: Bioindication of Air Pollution with the Help of Lichens

WHO? Andrew Savenko

WHAT?• Due to the deterioration of ecological conditions in Minsk from an increase

in number of vehicles and industry enterprises. Thus, it is necessary to define the most polluted areas and sources of pollution for possible further solutions of a problem. Belarus is a «green» islet in the center of Europe, therefore it is very important to keep its ecosystem natural.

• Conducts research for the purpose of: To develop and put into practice a new effective method of bioindication

(lichenoindication); To conduct ecological research and to create an ecological map of one

of Minsk districts with the help of the developed method of lichenoindication;

The aim of a theoretical part of my work is development of completely new technique of lichenoindication. The practical part consists of two aims. The first- conducting ecological researches of air condition in Minsk districts using the developed technique, and the second- drawing up an ecological map of Minsk districts on the basis of the conducted researches.

Pohnpei: Youth Environmental Ambassadors Club

WHO? Iakop Ioanis

WHAT?•The Conservation Society of Pohnpei (CSP) Education and Awareness Program works with all the residents of Pohnpei to educate the islanders about the importance of our surrounding environment and encourages the residents in conservation activities. •Implemented the Youth Environmental Ambassadors Club (YEA Club) for all high school students (9-12grades) in the school year 2004-2005. •YEA Club Activities: presentations on environmental issues in Pohnpei; doing awareness messages on the island radio station; picking up trash; participate in coral identification, forest and fish monitoring; GPS techniques; exploration of Marine Protected Areas; learning about Watershed Forest Reserves, Ethno botany, bird surveys; and hiking Nahnalaud the highest mountain in Pohnpei.  

Tanzania: Tanzania Environmental Conservation and Social Economic Development Association

WHO? Justin Damian

WHAT?• TECSEDA is a small development Non Governmental Organization

fromTanzania, East Africa. TECSEDA was established in 2008 by youths.

• Activities focus on grassroot communities aimed at environmental conservation, social and economic development.

•  In view of the above, environmentally we support in the maintenance of the healthy ecosystems and natural environment that provides sustainable benefits for the present and future generations of both local and international community who also understand and actively care for its biodiversity and ecological integrity.

• We assist the government to deal with environmental problems especially by building the capacity of local people on how they can participate in conservation of natural resources.

India: Threat to Our Aquatic Ecosystem – A Case Study

WHO? Sunitha Rajeev & Mary Teresa Miranda

WHAT?• The coastal waters of the maritime states are under the constant threat of pollution from a number of

sources including the shoreline, especially in Kerala. • Kerala is now a developing state and on her way towards being an industrialized one by the year 2020, most

of her industries and urban areas are located on the coastal region. In addition, the offshore area of the coast is a busy shipping lane. These two phenomena make the intertidal and offshore areas of the coast of Kerala interesting for scientific studies in Southern Kerala as an environmental hotspot.

• Veli coast is heavily polluted by industrial effluents and sewage, making them unfit for survival of marine life based on a report by KSCSTE(Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment). The report states that the aquatic environment in the near-shore region is endangered by the presence of heavy metals in industrial effluents. The near-shore region was found to be devoid of fish species. Primary productivity of marine species showed a marked decrease.

• The worst pollution is up to 5 km from the coast. Increased sewage dumping is a major cause for pollution of the near-shore waters of the southwest coast. Besides, tonnes of garbage has been washed up on the beach from Valiaveli to Thumba in the city, raising a stench and posing a health hazard to people living in the coastal belt.

Youth education Public awareness via the Low Carbon Lifestyles model

(http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/toolkit-sgp.pdf)

Encouraging green lifestyles and business practices in tandem with green education and public awareness brings a holistic approach to each society impacted and tends to have long-term results.

Environmental Project types include: biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, protection of fisheries, prevention of land degradation (primarily desertification and deforestation), and elimination of persistent organic pollutants through community-based approaches

Youth Voices in Conservation’s GreenLeaf Program

Youth Voices in Conservation’s GreenLeaf Program

Youth Voices in Conservation’s GreenLeaf Program

RAG PICKER PROJECT STRATEGY Identify the stakeholders and develop and define their roles

and responsibilities, keep evolving the processes which enable the same.

Involve, institutionalize the local rag pickers and link them to social security measures, giving them equal dignity and respect among the society and relieve them from the title of waste scavengers.

Segregate, collect, transfer, re-segregate, using the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and reprocess the remains which cannot be recycled and have to go to landfills. The aim is to reduce the landfills.

Ensure that the waste reprocessing units are handled by the local rag pickers and their skills, knowledge and practices are enhanced. The products manufactured by local rag pickers need to be linked to markets.

Global Scale Implementation Diagram

We have certified and verified credits for corporations that require carbon offset credits as part of their business practice.

Purchasing these carbon offset credits can produce a significant public relations boost.

Each major carbon offset credit purchaser will get special promotional recognition from the Conservation for the Oceans Foundation’s Youth Voices in Conservation’s GreenLeaf Program.

For Sale Now

We also have verified carbon credits for third-party verified voluntary carbon offset credits supporting the implementation of small projects to improve: Climate Change Adaptation Tree Planting Recycling Biogas Generation Reduction of Persistent Organic Pollutants Energy Conservation (i.e. use less gasoline, electric power, etc.) Cleaner Cookstoves Rainwater Gardens Create a home gardens Improved local food distribution Organic foods production Support others who engage in the Low Carbon Lifestyles including schools

These credit purchases are to help continue the sustainability of these projects.

Other countries worldwide such as Nepal, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Egypt, South Africa, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand have these types of projects. Although the Youth Voices in Conservation project is starting in India, the program can easily be replicated in other regions of the world.

Project Replication

Where there are communities that lack infrastructure for waste management, there are possibilities of working with groups that can benefit from recycling wastes in an organized way that can provide income generation, waste processing and recycling at the same time. In working with these community partners, it is clear that providing benefits such as health care, education, access to water, and sanitation can provide sustainability for these groups.

Summary

We are currently seeking interested buyers of 1,041,916 carbon offset credits.

Carbon Credits Available

For more information, please contact

Thank You!

Leonard Sonnenschein,

PresidentWorld Aquarium and

Conservation for the Oceans Foundation

701 N. 15th Street, 2nd FloorSt. Louis, MO 63103

info@worldaquarium.org

Prabhjot Sodhi, National

CoordinatorGEF Small Grants Program,

United Nations Development Program, Centre for Environment Education

C-40, South Extension IINew Delhi 110049. Ph 00 91 11

26262878, prabhjot.sodhi@ceeindia.org