Waste pickers want deposits back on more materials — and it’s not just about the money

In the push to divert more waste from landfills, people known as binners — who scour cities for often discarded redeemable materials — could hold part of the solution.

Collecting cans or bottles for their 10 cent deposit keeps waste from ending up in the wrong place and provides wages for those who return them.

Now, waste pickers or binners say the important work they do should be afforded a bigger role.

“I think there's room to innovate and to grow … to find other items that could be collected and taken out of the landfill,” said Sean Miles, director of the Binners' Project, a collective of waste pickers in Vancouver trying to improve economic opportunities and reduce stigma over the practice.

Miles made the comments from an annual Vancouver event where, through government grants and private sponsors, the Binners' Project hands out thousands of dollars to people who brings disposable, single-use coffee cups to a downtown park.

It’s done to show the collective ability of waste pickers to manage items that often end up as trash or litter when they can be recycled, if they have value for the collector.

Over twelve years, the event has amassed more than 700,000 cups, which can be placed in residential blue boxes for recycling in places like Vancouver, but often end up in the trash or as litter.

This year, the Binners' Project handed out more than $21,000 — a record amount — to people who participated in the event, like Erica George who earns wages through bottle and can returns.

“I missed last year, so I wanted to make sure I got here this year,” she said. “I just follow my feet.”

At the coffee cup event this year, there were representatives from waste picker organizations across Canada and U.S. who shared best practices and advocated for progressive public policy that would enhance the work. 

“If you didn't have waste pickers, we'd be swimming in plastic,” said Barbra Weber, a local waste-picker organizer from Portland, Ore., who is also on the executive of the International Alliance of Waste Pickers.

“The most important impact that we have is environmentally.”

She said there are more than 40 million recognized waste pickers around the world who have the ability to vastly influence the way waste is collected and kept from harming the environment.

“I think that everything should have a redeemable value,” she said, listing off items like single-use plastic, cigarette butts, electronic waste and single-use coffee cups.