Abstract
Abstract
India has one of the world's highest recycling rates, thanks to an efficient chain comprising wastepickers, traders, and reprocessors. They have created their own livelihoods, with little external investment. As India urbanizes, waste is becoming the focus of many more cities. Their models place trust in waste handling by large waste handling companies, who have displaced wastepickers in the past. The companies' own failure to deliver has also not shaken municipal faith in them. The wastepickers' ability to deliver has left municipalities unmoved. Urban residents thus get poorer services, and waste recyclers are increasingly marginalized and pushed into poverty.
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