Deposit pickers in the Nordic: The role of deposit-refund systems for waste pickers in Stockholm

This article examines a specific subtype of informal waste picking: deposit picking. Despite its global prevalence, waste picking has neither been extensively studied in the Nordic countries nor in the context of a deposit-refund system. Through interviews and text analyses of waste pickers in Stockholm, Sweden, similarities and differences between deposit picking and traditional waste picking are uncovered. For example, unlike other waste materials, the income from deposits is stable. The focus on beverage containers and the ability of reverse vending machines to sort the containers, lowers the knowledge threshold to begin the activity. The lightweight nature of beverage containers makes collection mobile, and deposit pickers often carry only a bag. The deposit pickers are mainly older, poor and male. Similar to traditional waste pickers, deposit pickers are central to the formal waste system, but their work is invisible, and foreign deposit pickers, in particular, are stigmatized. The dual invisibility of their labour and contributions, coupled with their independence from formal social systems, highlights the need for internal organization and representation within the formal systems.