The first mile of aluminium circularity: hearing from waste pickers
Ahead of ASI’s 29 October webinar with the International Alliance of Waste Pickers, we explore their role in aluminium circularity, the challenges they face, and opportunities for stronger collaboration between waste picker organisations and the aluminium industry.
27 October 2026
Across the world, waste pickers collect, sort and sell valuable recyclable materials, including aluminium beverage cans and other post-consumer aluminium products. Their activities provide livelihoods for millions of people while contributing to material recovery and local recycling systems. Yet, much of this work remains largely invisible to downstream industries. Aluminium companies often purchase scrap through traders, dealers and aggregators, with limited visibility of the people responsible for collecting the material at the beginning of the value chain.
Understanding this first mile of aluminium recovery is becoming increasingly important as the industry seeks to improve recycling performance, strengthen responsible sourcing and increase the use of post-consumer scrap.
Waste pickers face challenges ranging from fluctuating material prices and limited access to equipment and markets to unsafe working conditions and a lack of recognition within formal recycling systems. Changes to collection systems can also create new risks. For example, a recent Reuters article described how the introduction of recycling machines for aluminium cans and plastic bottles in Cairo sparked concerns among informal collectors about losing access to recyclable materials. Similar tensions have emerged in Johannesburg, Bogotá and Delhi. Together, these experiences point to an increasingly important dimension of circularity. Better collection, sorting and recycling technologies can increase resource recovery, but the transition to more formal and efficient systems also has social consequences. Who has access to valuable materials, who participates in designing collection systems, and who shares in the value created will influence whether circularity is inclusive as well as effective.
Connecting circularity with people
This is an issue ASI has been exploring directly.
Through the CARE – Collective Action for Recycling and Empowerment – project, ASI and partners examined the role of waste pickers in Colombia’s post-consumer aluminium value chain. The project’s mapping study estimated that waste pickers collect approximately 71% of the recovered used beverage cans in the country, highlighting their critical contribution to aluminium circularity. Yet the study also identified challenges related to working conditions, traceability, access to equipment and integration into formal recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems. These findings reinforce the importance of strengthening recycling systems in ways that recognise and support existing collectors.
The same questions are relevant to the ongoing revision of the ASI Standards. Proposed requirements would strengthen expectations for companies to contribute to the collection and recycling of post-consumer aluminium, while also addressing environmental and social risks in their scrap supply chains.
The proposed responsible sourcing requirements would strengthen supply-chain due diligence, with accompanying guidance explicitly recognising risks linked to informal recycling networks, including waste pickers and upstream collectors. Additional leading practices under consideration would encourage companies to engage with scrap suppliers and intermediaries, develop inclusive recycling approaches that benefit informal workers, and align their activities with recognised fair circularity principles.
These proposals remain under development, but reflect an important direction: improving aluminium circularity should go hand in hand with responsible sourcing and greater inclusion of the people who make recycling possible. The first public consultation has concluded and the next drafts continue to evolve through the Standards Committee and thematic Working Groups ahead of a second public consultation planned for 2027.
As those discussions continue, the experience of people working at the first mile of recycling provides an important perspective. Greater circularity is not only about how much material is recovered. It is also about how recovery systems operate and the impacts they have on the people and communities who participate in them.
Hear directly from waste pickers
On 29 October at 13:00 UK time, ASI will host a 45-minute webinar with the International Alliance of Waste Pickers (IAWP), bringing together waste-picker representatives from India, Indonesia and the United States.
They will share their experiences of how aluminium is collected and traded in different regions, the challenges and opportunities they face in accessing markets and securing fair livelihoods, and their experiences with formal recycling systems, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and deposit-return schemes. Speakers will also share their perspectives on how aluminium circularity can become more inclusive and equitable.
Moderated by Gabriel Carmona Aparicio, Circularity Research Manager at ASI, the discussion will feature Taylor Cass Talbott, Advocacy Coordinator at IAWP; Krishna Ayyakanna of Thyajya Shramikha Sangha Organization, India; Pris Polly of Perkumpulan Pemulung Indonesia Mandiri, Indonesia; and Kristofer Brown of Ground Score Association, United States.
Join the webinar and hear directly from people working at the first mile of aluminium circularity.
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