Sustainability of Recycling Waste Picker Sustainopreneurs for Prevention and Mitigation of Municipal Solid Waste in Swat

Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Tariq Yousafzai, Tariq Shah, Chunlin Xin and Wisal Ahmad
Additional contact information
Muhammad Nawaz: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 15 North 3rd Ring Rd. E., Chaoyang, Beijing 100029, China
Muhammad Tariq Yousafzai: Centre for Management and Commerce (CMC), University of Swat, Mingora 19130, Pakistan
Tariq Shah: Department of Economics and Development Studies, University of Swat, Mingora 19130, Pakistan
Chunlin Xin: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 15 North 3rd Ring Rd. E., Chaoyang, Beijing 100029, China
Wisal Ahmad: Institute of Business Studies, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 26000, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: This study assessed the role of waste picker sustainopreneurs (WPS) by examining their recycling contributions in a special case of District Swat, Pakistan. Using a transformative worldview, this study acknowledges their contributions to recycling. The study envisages how entrepreneurial agency works in unanticipated ways where the poorest of the poor enterprise without resources demonstrate unexpected agency to improve the environment. An inductive research design in conjunction with grounded theory was used to analyze data from 37 interviews in three tehsils of District Swat. The recycling sector uses primitive measures, which are completely informal, self-organized, and self-controlled. Surprisingly, we discovered that informal recycling contributes unfavorably to waste, energy, and food (WEF) security due to intermixing and adulteration, as well as acts as a gray channel for illicit practices that have taken advantage of tax amnesty in the area until 2023. The uncontrolled welding of half cut and nose cut car parts has skyrocketed the motorization index and CO 2 emissions; however, it has also resulted in alternative sources of livelihoods, as these accidental environmentalists had found modern sources of income. This is similar to low-tech innovation and business creation that takes advantage of tax holidays due to the special status of District Swat. The study highlights the most and least valuable recyclables and identifies the gray channel markets of spare parts, metal recycling, counterfeit products, fuel intermixing, and adulteration. The study contributes by untangling the understanding of a legal gambit of tax amnesty as a critical pre-policy input as well as advocates for rights of invisible stakeholders of waste management in Pakistan.

Keywords: accidental environmentalists; waste picker sustainopreneurs (WPS); janitorial stigma; unproductive recycling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6533/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6533/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:12:p:6533-:d:570990

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().