‘Waste pickers’ are the people that handpick through rubbish, looking for items of value in household bins that have been placed on the street ready for municipal refuse collection. Perez presents work from her literature review to compare and contrast the status of waste pickers around the world to contextualise the work of waste pickers in Cape Town. She considers four themes that affect the status of waste pickers: naming the work; the notion of sustainable livelihoods; residents’ relationship with their household rubbish and government ideology as well as the notion of the “bergie” stereotype. 

VENUE: Seminar Room 1, EGS Building, Upper Campus, UCT

DATE: Wednesday, 9 September 2015

TIME: 13h00 to 14h00 -Light snacks will be served-