Gender and plastic waste management
Women and men can have different perspectives and experiences with regard to resource use and waste management. While women tend to be visibly involved at the household level – as recycling activists and participants in informal recycling activities – they tend to be under-represented in formal employment in the waste management and recycling sector (UNEP-COBSEASEI 2019).
In the formal waste management and recycling sector women tend to occupy communications and administrative positions, but are less likely to work in management or technical fields (Godfrey et al.2018). Women are also strongly represented in time-consuming activities that necessitate precision, such as sorting and separating materials into clean, uncontaminated streams. Men are more likely to be represented in activities that require physical strength and some technical knowledge, such as driving dump trucks and loading and unloading waste (GA Circular and Ocean Conservancy 2019).
Year: 2021
From collection: Drowning in Plastics: Marine Litter and Plastic Waste Vital Graphics
Cartographer: GRID-Arendal