Portland Collective Cleans City, Supports Unhoused with Stability

Quick Summary

• Lottery-Based Employment: portland’s Ground Score Association uses a daily lottery to hire workers for its waste collection program, GLITTER (Ground score Leading Inclusively Together Through Environmental Recovery). Workers earn $80 for a four-hour shift, exceeding portland’s minimum wage.
• Low Barrier jobs: No drug or sobriety tests are required to participate, allowing vulnerable individuals – including those experiencing homelessness – access to employment. An estimated 80% secure housing within a year of joining Ground Score’s payroll.
• Waste Picker Contributions Globally: Around 20 million waste pickers worldwide play crucial roles in managing urban waste.Thay recover plastics, metals, textiles, and e-waste that may otherwise end up in landfills or contribute to pollution.
• Environmental Impact: Waste pickers help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enabling recycling processes that displace the need for raw materials. In Salvador, Brazil alone, their recycling efforts avoided over 27,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions between 2010 and 2022.
• Ground Score Programs: GLITTER focuses on clearing micro-trash like cigarette butts and non-recyclable items from city streets. Simultaneously occurring “The People’s Depot” enables collectors (“canners”) to trade bottles and cans at prices set by Oregon’s Bottle Bill deposit system.
• Global Advocacy & UN Treaty Involvement: Waste picker collectives push for formal recognition in negotiations under the UN Plastics Treaty. Their goals include inclusion in policymaking while calling for reduced plastic production along with social protections during transitions.

Indian Opinion Analysis

Ground Score offers an inspiring model worth considering as India tackles its expanding urban waste management challenges. India’s informal sector already plays an outsized role in recycling vital resources like plastics and metals; initiatives such as Portland’s GLITTER could provide ideas on formalizing these contributions without losing accessibility for vulnerable groups.

Given India’s critical need to address urban pollution and poverty simultaneously, programs offering low-barrier employment could contribute both economically and environmentally while tackling pressing issues such as homelessness. Moreover, integrating waste picker contributions into policy frameworks-as proposed globally under the UN plastics Treaty-might enhance sustainability practices while ensuring basic rights are protected.

India is positioned well with proactive policies like extended producer responsibility (EPR) under revised Plastic Waste Management Rules; though greater collaboration between local governments and community-led projects would create stronger systems addressing efficiency gaps alongside social impact conversion.

Images Attached:

1. !GLITTER Team
2. !waste Pickers Association
3. !People’s Depot

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