MODES OF URBAN INORGANIC SOLID WASTE 131
Incomes earned by street and dump pickers in both locations are below survival
wages. The wages of the itinerant buyers are also low, and fluctuate a great deal. The
incomes earned by retail traders, wholesalers, and production units are substantial and
allow them to survive and build up assets (land and housing in Kenya). In both loca-
tions, women and children are heavily represented among the groups of pickers The
working conditions of pickers particularly are unsafe and unhealthy, with harassment
from residents and policy as a common problem. This suggests that support efforts to
pickers should be directed towards alternative sources of employment, and social
support to improve their living and working conditions.
Informal social security systems exist in both locations between the actors at different
levels of the commodity chain. The most vulnerable groups of pickers and itinerant
traders have informal access to credit from the traders to absorb sudden shocks
through illness, death or rites of passage. Although these security systems are also
designed to create dependence on the lender, they often provide the most important
form of social security and credit to pickers
The lack of co-ordination between the formal government-led system of collection,
transport and disposal and the recovery and recycling commodity chain reduces the
chances of maximising recovery of inorganic materials from households. Therefore,
efforts should be made to promote source separation and house-to-house selling in
ways that are locally culturally adapted and include private sector actors
These lessons feed back into the discussion on more effective ways of co-operating
between government, civil society and private sector, which will be discussed in the
final chapter of this book.