17.08.2020
"Individuals making an income from what most consider waste exist everywhere."
In Conversation with Research Alumna Professor Jutta Gutberlet, Professor in the Department of Geography and the director of the Community-based Research Laboratory (CBRL) at the University of Victoria, Canada.
What is your connection with Tübingen and the University?
I did my doctoral studies with Professor Kohlhepp in the Department of Geography at the University of Tübingen.
Where are you based?
I am currently based at the Department of Geography, at the University of Victoria in Canada.
What is your research about?
My research overlaps human geography and environmental studies and focuses on waste related issues. The research is collaborative, action-oriented, community-based, and mostly qualitative in nature. My latest work is two-folded. I have published (1) about the challenges and policy interventions to mitigate plastic leakage into the ocean and (2) about the contribution of the informal and organized waste picker sector to the circular economy.
What fueled your interest in this topic?
Waste is a fascinating and incredibly complex topic, of which I have explored many facets in previous research projects. Recently I have been interested in the ecological and social implications of plastic waste on rivers, lakes and oceans, given the pressing climate change and environmental health issues, linked to ocean waste. I have witnessed the systemic and persistent contamination of water bodies and coastal environments which has fuelled the urgency of acting and finding solutions to the problem. At the same time, there is a singular opportunity to tackle this problem and the general issue of waste recovery by including waste pickers into waste management, recognizing them as main protagonists in resource recovery and remunerating them for the services they provide. My exposure to waste pickers in many different country contexts have inspired me to study their contribution in resource recovery, which directly translates also into diverting materials into the circular economy, thus benefitting the environment (and the economy).
A familiar subject
Waste is a topic everybody can relate to, since we all generate waste and are part of the problem but we also are part of the solution. Through shifting perspectives related to waste we are able to tackle several of the Sustsainable Development Goals, thus contributing to building better communities, helping the environment and reducing poverty; all prominent goals.
What we can do
It is very important for citizens to take responsibility for the waste we generate and also recognize the multiple and creative forms and opportunities to reduce, repair, repurpose and recycle what was considered waste, but in reality is a resource. Individuals making an income from what most consider waste exist everywhere. Here in Canada they are called diverters (in Victoria), binners (in Vancouver) or Valoristes (in Montreal). These individuals are already working for the circular economy, recovering what would otherwise be littering the environment or end up in landfills. We need to recognize these contributions, create new spaces that incorporate these workers and remunerate them accordingly for the service. There are many great ideas already circulating and that can be replicated also in rich economies (eg. there's the Binners' Project in Vancouver, the Diverters Project in Victoria and the Les Valoristes co-operative in Montreal.
Recent Publications
"Breaking the Plastic Wave: Top Findings for Preventing Plastic Pollution". pew.org/2WmV10d. Accessed 14 Aug. 2020.
Gutberlet, Jutta, et al. “Waste Picker Organizations and Their Contribution to the Circular Economy: Two Case Studies from a Global South Perspective.” Resources, vol. 6, no. 4, 4, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Dec. 2017, p. 52. www.mdpi.com, doi:10.3390/resources6040052.
Lau, Winnie W. Y., et al. “Evaluating Scenarios toward Zero Plastic Pollution.” Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, July 2020. science.sciencemag.org, doi:10.1126/science.aba9475.