Kenyan waste pickers unite to bring about meaningful change

This event falls under the AFRIPAC project: Effective Plastic Treaty Capacity Building for Africa, a 2-year project in which GRID-Arendal and IUCN partner to support Small Island Developing States and developing countries for increased capacity in the global plastics treaty negotiations. 

A group of waste pickers from Nairobi had the opportunity to perform a piece of carefully orchestrated legislative theatre to delegates ahead of the INC-3 meeting. The drama piece, co-developed by the waste pickers, raises awareness of the challenges that waste pickers face and highlights the need for a just transition to end plastic pollution for the informal recycling sector.  

The performance offered Plastic Treaty negotiators a unique opportunity to engage with the waste pickers who are at the front line of the plastics pollution crisis. Between 13-19th November 2023, Member states came together for the third session of the INC, which took place at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-3). 

People who earn their living by collecting and sorting waste, known as the ‘informal waste sector’ are responsible for recovering 60 percent of post-consumer plastic waste globally and diverting huge amounts of plastic waste from polluting the environment. It is estimated that 15- 20 million people worldwide work in the informal waste sector, and depend on it for their livelihoods. However, the work is generally badly paid, hazardous and has low social standing.

Although waste pickers have now been recognised as formal stakeholders in the global plastic treaty process, access and inclusion in treaty dialogues is not equitable. More needs to be done to ensure meaningful participation for the informal sector in shaping the future of waste management. 

Principal Investigator Dr Cressida Bowyer, Associate Professor in Arts and Sustainability and Deputy Director of Revolution Plastics at the University of Portsmouth, worked with the waste pickers to help coordinate the drama piece.  

“There is a real risk that stakeholders and communities most impacted by plastic pollution and any potential outcomes of the global treaty are in danger of not having their voices heard, and this includes the informal waste sector,” said Bowyer. 

“We aimed to get the attention of negotiators with something a bit different from the reports, speeches and panels that they will be used to. The participatory nature of legislative theatre offers a unique opportunity to interact with waste pickers and gain insights into the daily challenges they encounter. Subsequent to the performance, there was an opportunity for audience members and waste pickers to engage in meaningful dialogue and share their valuable insights.” 

Co-Investigator Dr Erika Hughes, Interim Head, School of Film, Media and Communication and Reader in Performance at the University of Portsmouth, added: “Legislative theatre is performed for audiences consisting of not only the public but also policy makers, business owners, political leaders and others who can affect systemic and institutional change.  

“Typically, a short play is created around a main character who experiences key struggles within the community. The play is then performed again, but with stakeholder audience members joining the cast onstage to try out other, more positive strategies in order to bring about a different outcome. In this way, the actors and the audience ‘rehearse life’ within the safety of ‘play acting’.”

The play was co-developed during a five-day workshop (6th-10th November 2023) which took place at the Dandora Transformation League building. Dandora is the location of one of the largest waste dumps in Africa. On Thursday, the waste pickers visited the Dandora dumpsite where they performed for the first time in front of their peers. Many took a pause from sorting waste to see their stories reflected in the play. Some joined in. Solomon, a waste picker, and head of the Nairobi recyclable waste association, reflects: “It was empowering to perform in front of fellow waste pickers. It is their stories we are portraying, so they felt heard.” 

The finished play was first performed for a public audience on Friday 10th November at the Signature Auditorium, and then for INC-3 delegates on Sunday 12th November at the Trademark Hotel.  

The event welcomed a full house of prominent stakeholders to the Plastics treaty: official Member state delegates from around the world, members of the Scientist Coalition, Tearfund, Break Free from Plastics, Mr Green Africa, the Minderoo Foundation, Wiego, the International Alliance of Waste Pickers, WWF and more.  

“The third round of negotiations will bring us one step closer to a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. As plastic production and waste are projected to almost triple by 2060, and a circular economy for plastics still remains a shiny concept, recycling will remain an integral part of mitigating plastic waste. As waste pickers are responsible for the collection of nearly 60% of recyclables worldwide, it is essential that their voice is well represented in these negotiations. While waste-pickers are doing the ‘dirty work’ so to speak, it is hard for them to obtain a seat at the table. With this event, we created an opportunity for the delegates to hear from those who are most affected by the decisions made at INC-3, and to take this voice forward in the third negotiation round,” says Elena van Doorn from GRID-Arendal.

This is a collaboration involving creative experts from the University of Portsmouth, Theatre for Development specialist Matthew Hahn, the Social Justice Centre Travelling Theatre, the Kenyan National Waste Pickers Welfare Association, GRID-Arendal, and IUCN. The waste pickers were recruited by John Chweya, a waste picker and President of the Kenyan National Waste Pickers Welfare Association, from three informal settlements in Nairobi (Mukuru, Dandora, Kibera) and from Kisumu.  

“Just transition cannot remain a concept, a shiny word that delegates agitate in front of the cameras at INC-meetings,” said Chweya. “For waste pickers, it’s a matter of life and death, and it must be turned into action at all levels, all over the world.”

The United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) brings together representatives from 193 UN Member States to make decisions and resolutions on issues that affect the environment. In 2022, UNEA agreed a resolution to develop a legally binding Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution.  

The process of negotiation is by way of five intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) meetings. Between 13-19th November 2023, the third session of the INC will take place at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

GRID-Arendal is a non-profit environmental communications centre transforming environmental data into innovative, science-based information products and provide capacity-building services. GRID-Arendal collaborates with the United Nations Environment Programme and other partners around the world, aiming to inform and activate a global audience and motivate decision-makers to effect positive change. GRID-Arendal has an extensive programme on waste and marine litter.

The University of Portsmouth is regarded as a global leader in plastics research, and is home to both Revolution Plastics and the Global Plastics Policy Centre (GPPC). Revolution Plastics is a world-leading mission-driven and solutions focused research, innovation and teaching community that offers a unique transdisciplinary approach to tackling the global plastics crisis. Our research spans disciplines including science, creative arts, and business and law. We are unique in that we have been utilising participatory and community-based arts-based research and innovation methodologies to address plastic pollution in Kenya, South Africa and Bangladesh for a number of years. The GPPC is the latest development from the Revolution Plastics initiative. Focused on positive change, the Centre is an independent and evidence-based knowledge broker to support effective plastics policy-making in both government and private sectors around the world. The GPPC has received funding to support the process to develop the global plastics treaty and has been tracking the negotiations and producing reports on progress, barriers and enablers to treaty development since day one. The University of Portsmouth is one of only four academic institutes worldwide to have accredited observer status at the INCs.

IUCN is a membership Union of government and civil society organisations. Together, we work to advance sustainable development and create a just world that values and conserves nature. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of our more than 1,400 Member organisations and 15,000 experts. This diversity and expertise make IUCN the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.