Global Plastics Treaty: Waste Pickers Ready to Talk
“We are the face of recycling in the world, we are the hands that clean the world, we are the real heroes of the planet and nothing you try to do without recyclers is going to work.”
This was the message from waste pickers globally that Soledad Mella, representative of the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers and president of the Asociación Nacional de Recicladores de Chile (ANARCH), delivered at the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) plenary earlier this year in Nairobi, Kenya.
Governments at UNEA-5.2 formally agreed to negotiate by 2024 a global plastics treaty, an internationally legal binding instrument designed to end plastic pollution and to establish a science-based policy panel on chemicals and waste.
