content tagged with waste collectors

"We wanted to meet the governor about this. He didn't want to meet us. The governor should make a decision. Will he be our governor or the governor of the companies? The governor should be the governor fo the poor of this country," says a worker.

Hamza is a waste picker strolling along the streets of İstanbul, collecting waste for a living. “Even our garbage is different than that of the rich,” Hamza says and adds, "No one asks, no one cares about us... They act like we don't exist on the streets."

Speaking to bianet in the wake of a ban on waste picking in Ankara amid Covid-19 outbreak, Street Waste Collectors’ Association Chair Kahraman says, “If we don’t work, workers of factories will also lose their jobs. We wait for help from the government.”