Joyce Wangari (left) and Winnie Wanjira are fighting to protect waste pickers’ rights.
Most waste pickers handle trash without gloves or masks and often live near or on the dumpsites, which intensifies their exposure to health risks.
“This is a global problem,” says Griffins Ochieng, executive director for the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD), a Nairobi-based nonprofit focusing on the problem of plastic waste. “Any dumpsite – anywhere there is plastic pollution – women will be impacted.” This is because many materials that end up as waste contain toxic substances. Plastics and e-waste are known to contain and leach hazardous chemicals into the environment, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which have been linked to reduced fertility, pregnancy loss and irregular menstrual cycles, among many other conditions. Burning them releases or generates a number of highly toxic chemicals and heavy metals, with reported similar effects. The toxins are not only in the air but also in the soil and water, and for the many waste pickers who eat from the landfills, in their food, too.
While men frequently take on more supervisory roles, women often spend the entire day rummaging, says Ochieng. “They’re in the thick of things… but the environment is a threat to their human health.”
For years, acrid smoke has billowed across Dandora, often engulfing the surrounding neighbourhood on windy days.
While men frequently take on more supervisory roles, women often spend the entire day rummaging. “They’re really in the thick of things," says Griffins Ochieng, from CEJAD in Kenya.
In WhatsApp messages, Daniel Wainaina, chief officer for public health at Nakuru County, says waste pickers’ health is not individually analysed but that it would be “an interesting area for prospective studies.” He did not answer specific questions about the impact of toxic chemicals on reproductive health.
Despite being declared full in 2001, Dandora is still in operation. Every day, another 850 tonnes of waste from the city’s 4.3 million residents enter its overflowing walls.
Doctors in several medical clinics near the dumpsites point out the workers’ choice of family planning likely plays a significant role. Many birth control options, including the pill, implants and intrauterine devices (IUD), can produce menstrual cycle changes. Genetics, nutrition and poor living and working conditions may also play a part. Most waste pickers handle trash without gloves or masks, and they often live near or on the dumpsites, which intensifies their exposure to health risks.
Yet one-third of those interviewed say a medical professional informed them their reproductive health issues either were or could be connected to their working environment. Some started picking trash as adults, and say they had no reproductive issues before then. Others say they aren’t using any contraception, or their problems persisted after they stopped taking the pill or removed the implant. Several say they started taking hormonal contraception with hopes of regulating their menstruation – often with little success.
“Before I came here, my periods were normal,” says one waste picker, whose name we are withholding due to safety concerns. “But then it came heavy, and so many times in a month.” She began picking trash when she was roughly 30 years old. Now 58, she is no longer menstruating, likely due to menopause. “But that smoke enters your body. You feel weak, so weak.
The world’s estimated 20 million waste pickers are often an informal, invisible workforce, relied upon by governments in parts of Latin America, Asia and across Africa.
“It’s completely out of control,” says Ochieng.
As plastics degrade into microplastics or are burned, people who live near dumping sites or the surrounding environment face health risks from toxic chemicals. These can include dioxins, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which were banned in the US in 1979 and have been labelled probable carcinogens.
Waste pickers sift through rubbish, hunting for plastic, metal, wood and anything else of value to sell to recycling facilities.
23-year-old Joyce Wangari (right) says she only gets her periods every two to three months. “We hear these issues all the time. It’s so common,” she says.
She remembers a doctor suggesting the twins were impacted in her uterus by the toxins she inhaled at the dumpsite. “But there is nothing I can do,” she says. “My kids must eat.”Rita Mokhwana, a nurse in a nearby clinic in Dandora, said she wasn't surprised by the problems the waste pickers faced. She estimates about half her patients work on the dumpsite. Miscarriages are a daily routine, and she treats three to four people a week with menstruation issues. The majority are not on birth control. “Mostly the cause is the dumpsite – the smoke, pregnant women overworking themselves,” she says. Many waste pickers are reluctant to voice their concerns out of fear the county government could close the dumpsite. Most know the environment is not good for their health, but it’s their livelihood and a vital, if treacherous, lifeline. Since the Dandora site was declared full in 2001, there have been multiple efforts to clear the area – the latest in July last year, when a court ordered the county government to relocate the landfill to a more environmentally friendly site where waste is properly separated and recycled within six months. Yet the dump is still in operation. Every day, another 850 tonnes of waste from the city’s 4.3 million residents enters its overflowing walls. As the leaders of the newly formed Nairobi Recyclable Waste Association, Wanjira and Wangari are organising on behalf of roughly 300 members to promote and protect the rights of waste pickers. Both women are currently hustling to recruit new members. The larger the group, the more their legitimacy and bargaining power grows when calling on the government for safe and healthy working conditions, says Ochieng of CEJAD. “We don’t fear to take a stand because we represent the waste pickers,” says Wanjira. “If the government tries to kick us out, we can run to court and say we have rights, we work here, where do you want us to go?”
While cancer and respiratory problems are well-known health risks for waste pickers, scientists and environmental campaigners say reproductive health issues are being overlooked.
“And the waste pickers need to be part of these formal conversations,” says Ochieng. “That’s the idea around their organising… Someone has to fight for their role.”Back at Dandora dump, Wanjira is flicking through a pile of crumpled papers ripped out from a textbook. On each side, a list of women’s names runs from top to bottom – her latest recruits to the waste picker association from a nearby dumpsite. “I signed up 70 mamas the other day,” she says, smiling. She is nervous, though. She thinks the government will chase her away if she complains about the air pollution.
“But I am not the only one. Women on the dumpsite are suffering. They need our help… their stories need to be heard.”
Additional reporting by Eriss Khajira