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| Uncle Ban has spent the last decade collecting unwanted waste from people's homes, earning enough to pay for his children's education Photo: Ewen Mcleish |
For a long time, I'd been considering a feature article investigating Bangkok's informal waste collectors. These independent workers scour the streets looking to buy or scavenge recyclable materials discarded by the city's waste generating inhabitants.
My Thai's ok for day-to-day life, but the language barrier blocked my way. Until I met Pavini Sethi of Beesgreen, who also saw these workers as playing a valuable part in our haphazard recycling system.
Fluent in Thai, she was tireless in searching out a 'seleng' operator who would be willing to be interviewed, and found Uncle Ban working the sois near my work and her home. Thank-you Pavini!
Uncle Ban was a little surprised by my questions, but answered patiently all the same. It was really interesting to hear about his life and his pretty positive view of his work.
My prejudices were overturned as I'd expected to hear a story of poverty and lack of opportunity, but instead Uncle Ban displayed a kind of determined, gentle contentment about his occupation and life in general.
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| Selaeng operators sell recyclables to medium sized businesses who sell to Thailand's larger recycling companies. Photo: Ewen Mcleish |
To add some academic background to the article I drew upon the case study 'Closing the Loop: Sai Mai District' produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute and UNESCAP. It was great that Diane Archer, an author of the study, was able to provide extra details about the situation of informal waste collectors in Bangkok.
It was also good to come across other businesses and projects in the sector, such as 'Recycle Day' and Less Plastic Thailand (provides a great beginners guide) in the course of my research.
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| A 'selaeng' fully loaded and ready to go; all sorts of consumer waste can be resold and used again. Photo: Ewen Mcleish |
One thing that struck me as I put together the piece was the need to raise the status of these informal recyclers so they can gain some recognition for their important environmental work.
If properly supported, they could be key to ramping up Bangkok's recycling system and clearing up the mess made by throwaway capitalism.
I hope this article goes some way to persuade more people to take note and support a system for recycling which is already up and running in Bangkok, and on which many livelihoods depend.
Please click through to Coconuts to read the full article.
