The three-year JUST project will strengthen waste picker organisations, promote social protection and push for their rights in global plastics policy.
A new Norad-backed initiative will put waste pickers, especially women, at the centre of efforts to fight plastic pollution and build a fairer circular economy in Kenya, Ghana and Indonesia.
GRID-Arendal, Tearfund, WIEGO and the International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP) are joining forces on a three-year project aimed at strengthening policies that recognise waste pickers’ rights and contributions to recycling.
The Just Transition Unlocked (JUST) project, running from September 2026 to June 2029, is supported by Norway’s development agency Norad through its programme to reduce plastic pollution and marine litter.
An estimated 20-40 million waste pickers worldwide recover up to 60% of plastic collected for recycling. Yet their contribution remains largely overlooked in policy and research, while fewer than 1% are organised into associations or cooperatives capable of advocating collectively for their rights.
The project will work with waste picker organisations in Kenya, Ghana and Indonesia to build evidence for inclusive finance and social protection, strengthen institutional capacity and develop policy recommendations. It will also seek to influence governments, businesses and international institutions.
At the global level, the consortium plans to advocate for waste picker rights to be recognised in the Global Plastics Treaty and establish a Global Just Transition Platform to strengthen waste pickers’ participation in policy processes.
“JUST was shaped by the priorities our affiliates in Kenya, Ghana and Indonesia set out themselves, and it puts waste pickers where we belong: at the negotiating table,” said Severino Lima Jr, president of IAWP.
“There is no recycling and no circular economy without waste pickers, and there can be no just transition without us,” he said.
The initiative also aims to demonstrate that reducing plastic pollution and advancing social justice can go hand in hand.
Karen Landmark of GRID-Arendal said Norad’s support would help connect environmental knowledge with practical action, while Sam Perriman of Tearfund said waste picker participation in policymaking was essential to achieving better outcomes for both people and the environment.
The project will particularly focus on women waste pickers, seeking to ensure that those at the heart of informal recycling are also represented in decisions shaping the future of the circular economy.
