Court orders city to suspend waste contracting process in Bogotá—victory for informal recyclers
The Constitutional Court of Colombia ordered the local government to suspend the contracting process for waste collection and cleaning streets in Bogotá-a contract valued at more than $1.3 million (U.S.). The contract was to be awarded in August.
The court order reflected concerns about the fundamental rights of grassroots recyclers and the environmental health of the population of Bogotá. During the contracting process, the authorities tried to put in place a series of ad hoc obstacles that seemed intended to exclude grassroots recyclers from the collection of recyclable materials. This exclusion would have undermined recycling in Bogotá and resulted in increased pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. As if all these obstacles were not enough, grassroots recycling leaders received threats from some of the organizations interested in obtaining the recycling contracts.
The court's decision is an important precedent for human rights, the environment, and the zero waste movement, and is due to years of outstanding organizing and advocacy by the Bogotá Association of Recyclers, or ARB (see the member profile below) and its many leaders, including Nohra Padilla Herrera, who brought this case to the Constitutional Court.
In recent years, the ARB has been engaged in a complex and uneven fight to include all of Bogota's grassroots recyclers in a system that minimizes landfilling, avoids all incineration, and includes and improves the working conditions of the recyclers themselves.
GAIA issued an Action Alert to petition the authorities, particularly the UAESP (Administrative Unit of Public Services), to guarantee the transparency of the contracting process, the personal safety and inclusion of recyclers, and real steps towards Zero Waste. Before that, GAIA´s International Coordination had already sent a letter to the authorities raising the Alliance´s concerns.
Nohra Padilla responded to GAIA: We would like to say, in the name of all the waste pickers that are persecuted around the World in different ways and with different strategies, that when people care and take as their own problem the problems of others, the "bad guys" think twice before committing abuses. At the same time, honest people become stronger and less frightened and lonely in their actions. It is so important that at this moment allies raise their voices in favor of their beliefs. Thank you very much.
