Gender and Waste Nexus: Experiences from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal

primarily responsible for carrying out the unpaid labour that maintains their household, including childcare and meal preparation. Cleaning domestic spaces, and therefore managing waste, also typically falls to women and is a role that places them at the heart of the household waste nexus. The normative and traditional allocation of domestic labour to women was, in some cases, used as a reinforcing explanation as to why women should not participate in the formal waste sector. “Women can’t be truck drivers because it is dirty work. How would she cook for her family in the evening with dirty hands?” – Public TUK office director responding to a question about whether women could be waste truck drivers. • Only men work as landfill operators (at the three formal landfill sites). • Men are mostly the managers of the private waste collection business that have contracts with the city. Administration • Men are mostly managers in the municipal departments responsible for overseeing waste management, as well as in the private waste collection businesses that have contracts with the city. Small-scale enterprises • Women run several of the private sector small- enterprise recycling operations, as well as “green art” companies. Informal sector laborers (unwaged) • Waste pickers at the landfills: no firm data are available, but reports indicate thatmost of the pickers are women. They are also mostly poor, recent rural- urban migrants, who live near or at the landfills. • Street pickers are mostly men who also live on the streets. Small-scale enterprises • “Junk shops”, where street pickers sell their recyclables, are almost exclusively run by men. Informal

equality laws, institutional protection for equal access to resources, assets and employment, and protection from violence. In this index, Mongolia ranks as having “very low” levels of social institutional discrimination against women.

Mongolia

Gendered landscape of waste management in Ulaanbaatar Households and communities

Given the State’s relatively weak waste management capacities, much of the responsibility is devolved to the local, informal and voluntary spheres. Despite the relative gender equality in Mongolia, women and men still occupy traditional roles. Field research conducted for this study show that overall, women are

Stakeholder snapshot

Households and communities

• Women are the household waste managers – men are seldom involved. • Women are the community and volunteer waste managers – they organize community clean-up days and attend public meetings on waste (and other) issues. • Women are mostly the heads of apartment councils (local associations for each building).

Policy and governance

• Men are largely in positions at the highest levels of city management responsible for overseeing waste management. • Women are mostly social organizers known as “kheseg leaders” at the sub-district level (khoroos).

Operational levels

Formal

Formal sector laborers (waged) • Until recently, women mostly took on the role of street sweepers. However, since the position became professionalized and the salaries increased, women have been losing these jobs. • Only men work as waste collection truck drivers and loaders (usually one driver per truck plus one or two loaders).

30 Gender and waste nexus