Would You Touch Mixed Waste With Bare Hands? Here's How to Make Life Safer for Waste Workers

Every morning, while most of the city still sleeps, waste workers are already out, sweeping roads, collecting rubbish, and sorting recyclable materials by hand. These are the people who keep our neighbourhoods clean, protect us from disease, and reduce the load on our already overflowing landfills. Yet despite doing some of the most essential and difficult jobs in our society, they are often ignored, underpaid, and made to work in dangerous and unsanitary conditions.

Waste management in India relies heavily on informal waste workers, like the ragpickers, sweepers, and door-to-door collectors who handle what we throw away. While their work is critical, what we do with our waste at home can make their job safer, cleaner, and more dignified.

Here are some simple steps you can follow to help them and make a change right from your doorstep:

1. Start with segregation

Proper segregation is the foundation of responsible waste disposal. It makes waste collection safer, cleaner, and more efficient for workers and greatly improves recycling efforts. 

Here is how you can do it:

• Wet waste: This includes anything biodegradable, such as vegetable and fruit peels, leftover food, tea leaves, eggshells, and coffee grounds. Keep this in a compost bin or a green-lidded bin if your local council provides one.

• Dry waste: This covers materials like paper, cardboard, metal cans, clean plastic containers, and glass bottles. Make sure these are clean and dry before placing them in the recycling bin.

• Hazardous waste: Items like used sanitary pads, nappies, masks, old medicines, batteries, broken glass, and chemical containers must be kept separate. These cannot be recycled and need to be handled with care.

Use colour-coded bins or labelled containers at home. If your housing society has not yet implemented a waste segregation system, speak to the management and suggest it. It can be helpful for all the waste workers in your area.

2. Wrap sharp items and dispose of sanitary waste properly

Sharp or soiled waste can cause serious harm if handled carelessly. Waste workers often have to rummage through bins with little or no protection, putting them at risk of cuts and infections.

Here is how you can do it:

• Wrap broken glass, old razors, or rusted metal in newspaper or thick paper and tape it securely.

• Label the wrapped package clearly; something as simple as ‘Caution: Sharp’ can prevent an injury.

• Sanitary products, nappies, or used masks should never be loose in the bin. Place them in a small bag or sanitary disposal pouch, seal it, and label it as non-recyclable waste.

These extra few seconds of care can protect someone’s hands and make sure your waste is managed responsibly.

3. Keep e-waste and batteries out of the bin

Electronic waste (e-waste) and batteries contain harmful substances like lead, mercury, and acid. When disposed of with household waste, they not only damage the environment but also expose waste workers to toxic materials.

Here is what you can do:

• Set aside a small box at home to collect e-waste, things like old chargers, earphones, phone batteries, broken toys, remote controls, and even dead bulbs.

• Once full, take it to an authorised e-waste collection centre or a drop-off point provided by brands and local recycling drives. Some electronics shops even have take-back bins.

• Never throw batteries in the bin as they can leak and harm people and the soil. Recycle them responsibly, or check if your city has designated collection days.

Keeping these items separate is a huge step in reducing risk for waste workers and long-term damage to the planet.

4. Rinse before you toss

Recyclable items like plastic containers, milk cartons, tin cans, and glass bottles often get contaminated by leftover food or liquids. This makes them harder to recycle and a lot more unpleasant to handle.

Here is what you can do:

• Give jars, bottles, and containers a quick rinse. It does not need to be spotless, just clean enough that it does not attract flies or stink.

• Let them dry and then place them in the dry waste bin.

• Avoid tossing wet or greasy packaging (like pizza boxes or oily paper) in the recycling, these cannot be processed and often ruin entire batches of recyclable waste.

By rinsing and sorting your recyclables, you can show basic human respect to those who will be handling them next.

5. Reduce what you can

Want to know the simplest and most powerful way to manage waste? Just produce less of it. Every item you refuse, reuse, or rethink is one less thing someone else has to collect, sort, or dispose of. It starts with small choices.

Here are a few ways to reduce your waste:

• Carry a cloth bag instead of using plastic bags.

• Choose refillable containers for soaps, shampoos, and cleaning products.

• Say no to single-use cutlery, straws, or packaging when ordering food.

• Reuse glass jars, plastic containers, and paper bags at home.

• Compost your kitchen waste, if possible. It turns waste into useful fertiliser and reduces the amount of wet rubbish you send out.

6. Make it a collective effort

Waste management works best when it is a shared effort. If you have already started making changes, that is brilliant. Now, take it a step further by encouraging others to do the same.

Here is how you can do it:

• Encourage your neighbours, family, or housing society to follow segregation rules.

• Share tips, invite local waste workers or NGOs to talk about proper disposal practices.

• Set up a notice board or WhatsApp group to share updates, collection schedules, or recycling drives.

• Support or volunteer with organisations that work with informal waste workers, helping provide them with safety gear, better pay, or education for their children.

Supporting your local waste workers does not require money or big gestures. The way we handle our trash says a lot about how we value the people who deal with it after us.

So the next time you tie up a bin bag, ask yourself: Is this something I would be okay sorting through with my bare hands? If the answer is no, it is time to make changes.

Edited by Vidya Gowri