Why Pickers Are Just as Important as White-Collar Workers

Pickers represent individuals who pick things from areas considered dirty. It is their livelihood, and they derive satisfaction in the job they do, as depicted in the film Waste Land by Lucy Walker. Waste pickers signify people who retrieve eco-friendly or recyclable resources discarded for trade or individual consumption. The occupation of waste picking has been defined in the film Waste Land in terms of the potential it has to change individuals. Waste picking offers an alternative source of income to women who have chosen the occupation in place of prostitution. The occupation, therefore, offers a dignified and honest livelihood contrary to the majority views of the profession as a dirty job.  Pickers are critical to every nation’s budget in several aspects, as will be discussed in the essay.  Just like the white-collar workers, waste pickers are equally essential. In Brazil, waste pickers are viewed from a rather divergent perspective. Wasteland pickers signify an occupation associated with the blue-collar job. Such job is considered as the profession of the unqualified, underprivileged, and generally, the lowest people. However, based on the film Wasteland by Lucy Walker, the subsequent essay seeks to define why pickers are just as important as white-collar workers in any setting. The essay uses numerous sources to emphasize the significance of waste collectors.

Like evidenced in Walker’s Waste Land movie, waste pickers universally lack a noble and decent occupation. In the film Waste Land, Tiao states that they are not pickers of garbage but rather collectors of recyclable materials. Regardless of their manifold benefits, they typically get petite and require societal safety. It is vital to note that long before the green economy model was internationally embraced, waste pickers and different garbage collection workers in the informal industry have given superior economic, public, and environmental services for their societies. However, in India, for instance, garbage collection along with any occupation linked to trash or the management of remains and human excreta is usually destined to the “outcasts”. The casual waste division is communally connected in a pyramid with scrap gatherers (surplus collectors and wandering waste purchasers) at the lowest level and re-processors at the uppermost level. Several figures like dealers, stockers, and suppliers inhabit the in-between sections. The mainstream sellers are former waste collectors who have succeeded in accumulating some wealth and venturing in the alternative activity. Contrary to popular beliefs that wasteland pickers are an uneducated lot, the sector requires innovativeness and skills that are essential for its existence. The ability to enable credit, broad-based skills, and improved management skills are among the qualifications needed to succeed in the occupation. Besides, advertising skills are also necessary to improve the marketability of the picking industry.

Although casual sector undertakings mostly occur outside authorized and strict networks, unrestrained and untaxed, they nonetheless add considerably to the overall economy.  Scrap collectors are businesspersons who enhance worth by accumulating and then converting waste into retail merchandise. New initiatives are shaped, exchange systems grow, wealth buildups, savings occur, and investments are made regarding raw resources, carriage, and energy. Additionally, surplus work is created through the informal area amalgamation, and it provides revenue prospects to deprived racial groups. Most casual waste organization actions realize the remaining profit while recognized surplus managing tasks have a net budget. The factor is relative because the garbage industry operates principally in waste valorization while the municipal sector mainly works in surplus organization services (assortment and clearance). Nonetheless, it is also because the casual industry is, far more than the civil authorities, concerned with the beneficial usage of surplus resources to be self-supporting. In contrast, the educated elite have a misguided notion. For instance, Muniz observes in Waste Land that the educated elite believe they are better than other individuals.Pickers offer unique environmental, commercial, and communal benefits. Garbage collection offers job opportunities and nourishment for individuals. In the film Waste Land, Irma represents a cook who improvises the Catadores lunches out of scavenged food. In nearly every nation, there survives a proportion of unfortunate and disadvantaged population that is typically ignored by the state. The people survive in abject poverty and look for alternative ways to sustain their livelihoods. The profession of a waste picker gives a foundation of income and numerous other opportunities to exceptionally unfortunate people. Various waste pickers practice their occupation as a permanent vocation. Because of the flexible nature of the occupation, it becomes attractive to females with other family duties and to individuals working elsewhere who wish to supplement their salary. During crisis periods, waste picking functions as a protection net to street kids, orphans, the aged, widows, refugees, the incapacitated, jobless, and sufferers of armed clashes. Surplus harvesting also aids the bigger economy by providing raw resources to manufacturing and generating many related careers for middlemen who buy, classify, process, and resell supplies gathered by surplus collectors. Like the white-collar workers who add to the economy, waste pickers contribute considerably and are similarly vital.

Waste collectors also add to the community health and hygiene, though they endanger their health by doing so. In Waste Land, the Catadores live and work in the harsh environment where they even encounter dead bodies.  Most quarters in town metropolises in many industrialized and evolving nations lack public amenities. Waste pickers are vital in that they gather trash in such areas. Without surplus collectors, inhabitants would be compelled to burn waste, which would, in turn, contaminate the air and surroundings as well. Besides, the people would choose to throw the surplus into the streams, streets, and empty lots, as witnessed in most municipalities without garbage pickers. Therefore, collectors are essential in that they offer the lone substantial surplus removal amenity while adding to the community health and aesthetic profits.

In several emerging and developing countries, the groundwork and organic scheme of the waste organization are inadequate. Cities and recognized amenity suppliers can thus neither offer gathering service to all homes nor assure an actual reprocessing and an ecologically comprehensive handling or clearance of trash. Only a part of the inhabitants of these nations is provided with adequate and consistent waste gathering services. Therefore, pickers become essential in the process.

Wasteland pickers are as significant as white-collar workers in that they also contribute to public investments. The collectors offer a meaningful proportion of waste amassing amenities in most evolving cities of the state. Typically, it is the effort of city administrations to safeguard that surplus is collected from the area. By gathering the waste, pickers profit the town authorities. They considerably sponsor the expenditures, since the government does not recompense for the effort. Also, reprocessing extends the duration of city junkyards and landfills. Together with the drop of gathering and carriage taskforces, garbage pickers save cities substantial budgets.

Another obvious importance of waste collectors is their significant role in decreasing contamination and moderating weather change. The pickers lessen air and water pollution by cutting the size of unused resources necessary for manufacture. The individuals also create space in landfills and reduce water and power use. In the film Waste Land, people living and working near the Jardim dump have extended the life of the landfill. In a bid to expand their benefits and functioning circumstances, waste collectors unite with their towns where they become formally acknowledged and become the part of a structure of gathering and reprocessing. 

The casual sector is also helpful in that it attains enormous retrieval proportions because the capability to reuse is essential for the livelihoods of the involved individuals. Subsequently, a gigantic assortment of recyclables is separated and can further be managed in accordance with new demands and mechanical developments in the reprocessing production. Therefore, waste pickers are just as important as the white-collar workers. According to Gerdes and Gunsilius, the reduction in retrieval proportions was observed in Egypt following private division contribution to the solid waste assortment, signifying the vital role of the casual sector participation for efficient reprocessing structures. In Brazil, garbage pickers traditionally accumulate plant materials to feed animals. The waste retrieval later developed to incorporate recyclable materials such as synthetic garbage or trash metal. 

According to Scheinber the sector expanded dynamically making authoritative and often domineering sellers purchase waste materials. On the other hand, the formation of the waste picker association was aided by welfare groups and social movements affecting government administrations. In Walker’s Waste Land, Tiao Santos has formed the Cooperative Association of Pickers of Jardim Gramacho, which facilitated better living conditions. Now waste pickers often practice planning and setting formal connections with local and federal authorities. The film Waste Land shows how pickers are beneficial in a similar way to the white-collar workers.

In conclusion, agreeing with the theme in Walker’s Waste Land, casual waste pickers play a substantial role in the stable surplus management schemes. Despite the profits that they create for civilization, waste pickers are overlooked when waste administration rules are articulated. As observed, casual waste pickers add considerably to the waste management and supply efficiency by gathering, categorization, dealing, and sometimes even handling waste materials. The waste collection offers a salary chance for individuals in many states. Pickers support the state by improving a large proportion of public trash in the self-sponsored scheme. In some Asian and Latin American states, casual waste operators have built institutions and systems that in some circumstances partner with the town administration and management. Considering all the analyzed facts, it is evident that waste pickers are just as important as white-collar workers.