Paper Collectors Want Their Efforts to be Recognized

'People will somehow hold on to life. Holding on to this life will not be through informal or illegal means, but through legitimate fields, with effort. Recyclers working on the street just want to be recognized.' We talked with Dinçer Mendillioğlu, President of the Recycling Workers Association, about the problems faced by paper collectors, or handcarts, who collect on the street.

The recent raids on paper collectors’ depots and the Istanbul Governor’s press release targeting handcarts brought the invisible workers of recycling to the agenda. While the paper collectors were trying to express themselves through their associations, their spirits lifted with the statement of the Minister of Environment and Urbanization, Murat Kurum, ‘Our paper collector brothers are the unsung heroes of our zero-waste project, which is Turkey’s biggest environmental movement.’ Lastly, paper collectors, who met with General Manager Eyyüp Karahan and the authorities at the General Directorate of Environmental Management under the Ministry on October 13, want their efforts to be recognized and the contribution of street waste collection to environmental cleaning.

In recent days, raids by the police and the municipal police on the depots of paper collectors are on the public agenda. As one of the parties to the events, we would like to hear from you. What happened in this process?

There is no logical explanation for what happened. Street waste collection is almost the only area that provides its own employment without any expense to the central government or local municipality in any way. You can describe all occupational groups through a labor-value relationship, but paper collectors create their own systems entirely. Therefore, at this point, they collect waste from the street without a single burden on any boss, any state official, local municipalities, or the central government system, and they transform the income they get from these wastes into economic employment in their own lives. This again underlines the knowledge that they created their own systems. Therefore, they do not impose any responsibility on the state or the private sector in any way.

I would like to explain one more point; paper collectors doing street collecting. In other words, the authority given by the law gives these duties to the district municipalities. The law says, the control, management and collection of this waste belong to the district municipalities. All institutional and public spaces within the boundaries of these district municipalities are the responsibility of the municipality. So far it is understandable. But what do waste paper workers do? It collects waste on the street. Have you ever seen a paper collector in any government institution, shopping mall, store, or market? You cannot see it. Therefore, in this process, the governor’s office contradicts its decision. Paper collectors, whatever you call the state, the public, they do not stand at a point stealing anyone’s waste. They collect the waste we produce on the street from the garbage and from the street. Why should the collection of waste on the street bother anyone? There may also be a deep rent relationship here. Because waste has to be collected at a certain quota, but it is not even close to this rate. Both district administrations and central administrations fail to fulfill this responsibility. In order to cover this up, they show the tactic of ‘hit a man when he’s down!’. In other words, they take the easy way out by saying ‘paper collectors are the only ones responsible for our inability to collect waste’ and create an operation ground from here. Another thought that comes to mind is: Are they pressing from behind the scenes of big, licensed, integrated recycling facilities with saying ‘We can’t collect as much waste as we would like, should we dispose of recycling workers?’ Because the workers collect waste for days, and then you see that someone comes and collects these wastes. The operation has been going on for days. These handcarts, these recyclable wastes, what happened to all of them? Depots are being raided for days. So, where does this collected waste go? This is what we want to ask. These wastes can somehow be unsupervised, unclaimed, easily pocketed. Recycling materials worth over hundreds of thousands of Liras are seized in each operation.

‘Companies buy the waste collected by Syrian, Afghan or Kurdish workers and report it to the state as if they had collected it.’

How do paper collectors work? What kind of network and structure do they have? If we look at their demographics, who works as paper collector more?

There are also those who come to Turkey with economic and political migration. Especially Kurdish citizens are doing this job. Recently, there has been an attempt to define the recycling business through refugees, but we cannot describe the recycling issue over a handful of Syrians and Afghans. If these wastes are collected, it means that there is a receiver. These wastes are bought by someone. Purchasing it means documenting these wastes in the state inventory. In other words, companies buy the waste collected by Syrian, Afghan or Kurdish laborers and report to the state as if they had collected it.

If we look at the age scale, we can say from 7 to 70. There is no average age for waste collection. We are clearly against child labor. Even if we do not approve, this is a fact in waste collection work.

About the educational background, while there are those who went to university, there are generally those with limited formal education. But if we evaluate the realities of life through comprehension, I can say that they have unlimited perception and clarity of mind. When a microphone is extended to almost all of our working friends, you will see that they express themselves with the depth of a philosopher. Because life itself gives them knowledge, maturity and experience.

How many paper collectors work on average across Turkey? How much do they earn on average, how many days in a week do they work?

The average number of paper collectors is described in the hundreds of thousands. Both the janitor and the market employee can collect and sell wastepaper. From civil servants to marketers, hawkers, that is, people with different professions can also do this job, because it is a field where there is a hot money flow. Therefore, although it is not clear, we can say that there are approximately 500 thousand paper collectors in Turkey. This transforms this field into a sector, a field, both sociologically and class. If there is a field called recycling and these people collect wastepaper, this puts them in the recycling worker class.

The paper collectors work every day of the week and the working hours do not fall below an average of 10 hours a day.

‘As a result of this difficult job, employees should of course get paid for their physical efforts, but there should also be gains such as social security and class recognition. There is none.’

So, what are the most common problems experienced by paper collectors?

It is necessary to describe general problems in terms of life assurance. They earn around 100-150 liras per day, of course, we will not underestimate this income. As a result of this difficult job, employees should of course get paid for their physical efforts, but there should also be gains such as social security and class recognition. There is none. Still not being accepted is the traumatic part. But we have seen in this process that our society has a strong conscience. These people are not stealing, they earn their living with their labor. Society is aware of this, and they support us. Academician Hakkı Öcal made a definition based on parasitism, it is necessary to tell him that nobody is parasitic. It’s a profession and people are doing their job. In addition, a person who will be inclined to crime does not choose to do this job by walking tens of kilometers every day and leaving records in all kinds of security. These people show that this field is a business. Believe me, where there is a recycling worker, the crime rate goes down. For example, if you ask any tradesman in Ankara Kızılay, they know and trust the collectors on the street.

At this point, what do you think are the points that contradict the administrative management and how can a solution be provided? Can’t regulation be made for paper collectors?

Let’s describe this business from top to bottom; let’s put the central state structure and laws at the top. Under the law, there are municipalities, that is, law enforcement. Let’s put the big integrated plants under them. Then comes the collection and sorting facilities, which receive the tender from the municipalities. In the fifth rank are the depots, which we call the intermediate storage areas, where the governorship also raided. In the sixth and last place come the paper collectors. This is the cycle of work. Since hundreds of thousands of paper collectors collect a certain amount of waste on average every day, they actually form the locomotive of recycling. But since the laws ignore the recycling workers, they act as if this waste is brought by storks and included in the system. Local municipalities do not want to deal with paper collectors in any way, nor do they want to collect waste themselves. Municipalities do not have an economic and social responsibility, and they put the waste collection out to tender. Unfortunately, they think that if the paper collector is collecting, they will put pressure on him and take what he has. The company that won the tender is also keeping an eye on the waste collected by the collectors. They may be thinking with the right logic, ‘I invested money in this business, all the waste is mine’, but they miss a point; paper collectors are doing street waste collection business. They do not collect public and institutional waste; they collect the waste on the street. If the paper collectors did not collect waste one day, Turkey would encounter huge garbage heaps. There can be no legal justification for prohibiting the collection of waste that does not legally belong to anyone on the street. These operations are carried out for completely fabricated reasons. Municipalities should handle this waste collection business at the beginning of the work. They are not at all sinless after the point they open tenders and give to companies. You can’t keep paper collectors out of this business.

What are the contributions of paper collectors to recycling and zero waste policies?

The contribution of paper collectors to recycling is undeniable. The Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum also expressed this; he said they had no problem with paper collectors. With this statement, he also criticized the statement of the Istanbul Governor’s Office and the depot raids. The governor’s statement was also very unfortunate. The text of the statement was written in a style that would bring the people and workers face to face. Let’s put aside the criminal scenarios about paper collectors in our heads. If they listen to us, if they get an interlocutor, there will be no problem. As a matter of fact, on October 13, we met with Eyyüp Karahan, General Manager of Waste Management, and the officials of the Ministry, and held a meeting that we believe will yield positive results.

How will your fight continue from now on? What are your suggestions for solutions to the problems?

If these streets exist, there will also be workers collecting waste on these streets. People will somehow hold on to life. Holding on to this life will not be through informal or illegal means, but through legitimate fields. Recyclers working on the street just want to be recognized. Maybe life will always be very difficult for those who earn their living like this, but they are happy about it, so as long as these people earn their living with great effort, they do not feel sorry for living at the bottom. These people just want to be recognized.

Our solution proposal is local municipalities should do the waste collection themselves or work in partnership. Local municipalities are not merchants, they have responsibilities to their citizens, and the first of these responsibilities is environmental cleanliness and order. The local municipality should feel responsible, partner with private companies if they cannot do it themselves and accept paper collectors as part of the business. Even if an employee/employer model does not work, employees who do street collections can also be accepted into the system through local municipalities, licensed companies and integrated facilities. Thus, the paper collectors are automatically recognized, and the illegal wastes are documented.