Inside the divide: a stakeholder’s perspective on formal vs. informal waste practices

Global solid waste mismanagement has reached unprecedented levels, leading to significant environmental and social challenges, including pollution, resource depletion, and labor exploitation. The circular economy's principle of reuse offers a potential solution, but more research is needed to facilitate this transition. The informal sector plays a key role in waste reuse, yet its integration with formal regulatory framework and waste management systems remains challenging. A study in Lebanon, using semistructured interviews with stakeholders, explored the informal sector's role in waste reuse. The findings reveal that while the reuse and repair market has grown due to the economic crisis, it remains underdeveloped. Informal workers create challenges by hindering the efficiency of formal waste management systems and undermining the economic sustainability of recycling projects. Their unregulated activities can lead to operational disruptions, reduced material value, and increased public health and environmental costs. The informal sector operates with little oversight, and the system's deficiencies-legal, technical, and economic-exacerbate these issues, including the absence of an effective cost-recovery mechanism. Formalizing or integrating the informal sector is a complex process that involves not only waste management issues but also political and regional challenges. The research suggests that regulating the waste management sector is the best approach to address these challenges, helping transition informal workers into a formalized system. This would improve overall waste management, making informal operations less financially viable over time.