loosely formed groups of waste pickers, were identified in Cambodia, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Thailand. In Bangladesh, Grambangla Unnayan Committee is working with the waste picker community at Matuail Waste Dumpsite of Dhaka City Corporation. A daycare centre and a non-formal primary school has been established for the child waste pickers where 112 child waste pickers are given early childhood care and education. Women waste pickers of Matuail has formed a Waste Pickers' cooperative. In Pune (India) there are a worker cooperative of Waste Pickers, called SWaCH. SWaCH is an acronym for Solid Waste Collection Handling that also means clean, in the local language. This initiative empower all members. They all work, they're not merely shareholders. Among the workers, in most age groups, women constitute a bigger group than men, with a total of 78%. However, men are the majority in the youngest age group. Before joining SWaCH, most members used to work as waste pickers or itinerant waste buyers. There's also another group that is constituted by former housekeeping and cleaning workers. The predominant group of SWaCH belongs to the Scheduled Caste, although other Backward Castes, as well as the middle castes, are also represented in SWaCH. This initiative is a result of Inclusive cities project that has the objective of integrating Waste Pickers into Municipal Solid Waste Management in Pune (India). Organizing in Africa Egypt has one of the world's most well-established and robust informal recycling systems. The labor is done for the most part by the Zabaleen (informal waste collectors), a predominantly Coptic Christian community, which in the 1940s began collecting garbage—work viewed as impure by Egypt's Muslim majority. In 2003, the Zabaleen's existence and way of life came under threat when Cairo authorities awarded annual contracts $50 to three multinational garbage disposal companies, pushing the Zabaleen to collectively defend their livelihood. The South African Waste Picker organization held its first meeting in July 2009, which included 100 waste pickers from 26 landfills across the country. There are no present plans to create an African waste picker's network, but Shack/Slum Dwellers International organized meetings between waste picker leaders in Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. See also Dumpster diving Gleaning Grubber Junk man Ragpicker Tosher Mudlark Canner (occupation) References External links Velis, C. et al. (2012). An analytical framework and tool ('InteRa') for integrating the informal recycling sector in waste and resource management systems in developing countries. Waste