Hundreds in the city of Baqubah are risking their bodies and health to collect garbage, and then sell it. The risks do not threaten them alone and extend to the rest of the population. Ragpickers are a source of illness and the proliferation of microorganisms that transmit disease. But how much it is worth protecting one’s health, when collecting garbage can provide what many people need to make it through the day?

Al-Hadithi denied that the municipality played any role in the burning of trash. “Sometimes the scavengers burn garbage, so it is easier for them to find copper and iron. Sometimes fires occur for natural reasons, for example due to the release of organic methane gas caused by high temperatures.” 

Housing units 

According to municipality figures, the total daily waste transported from the city’s neighbourhoods amounts to 600 tonnes. The number of homes covered by municipal services is 80,000 housing units, about 7.5 kg of trash per family. 

In 2018, the Department of Environment in Diyala decided to fine the municipality because it had not adhered to the environmental directives for burning waste, not contained the fires when they occurred, and allowed the release of toxic gases near residential areas. Despite this, the site was not closed due to the lack of alternatives, according to the municipality. There is no legal licence that allows the work of ragpickers. However, the humanitarian and living conditions that force them to this hardship prevent the municipality from stopping them. As the director of the municipality’s environment department put it, “The conditions compelling the scavengers – as well as their large numbers – make it difficult for the civil security at the site to deal with them and prevent them from entering.” 

The working conditions of the ragpickers are very difficult, and the health risks they are exposed to are numerous and serious. Despite this, they continue because there are no alternative job opportunities. 

Most of the garbage collectors who spoke to Jummar had wounds and scars that varied in severity from one individual to another. They were injured during their scavenging, which begins in the early hours of the morning and ends after sunset, every day. 

Ragpickers get injuries on the job because of being exposed to sharp tools and pieces of glass, which they often encounter while sorting through piles of garbage, or that fall on them as a result of other ragpickers rushing to a specific site at peak hours. 

Some of these wounds are more serious. This is because they are caused by remnants of medical waste. This includes needles, surgical tubing, and other medical tools and equipment. Their danger lies in the likelihood of them spreading serious contagious diseases. 

It also sometimes happens that, during a stampede of ragpickers at the rear of the garbage compactor, the upper part of the compactor might suddenly fall. This happened to one young man and led to the amputation of two fingers on his hand. He kept on working intermittently despite the accident, according to other ragpickers who spoke to Jummar. 

In this polluted space, scavengers mix with the constant buzzing of insects, who also raid the piles of garbage and bodies. Forty-year-old Umm Mustafa works with her husband and came accompanied by him, her only child (Mustafa), and another child: her husband’s nephew. Both children are still in primary school. She told Jummar that she had to do this work after she left her previous job. She used to work in date orchards, but hours there were long, and she was mistreated. This made her prefer digging through trash rather than dealing with people. “Every day, we come from morning until noon, collect iron and plastic with our motorised cart, called stota, and go back home.” 

After the scavengers collect and sort the garbage, they pack it into compressed cubes, which are transported via their carts. These stota are modern medium-sized transport vehicles. The cubes are then sold to contractors who transport them to recycling factories in the Kurdistan region. 

Scavengers sell one kilogram of iron for 200 dinars (0.15 US dollars), and plastic for 250 dinars (0.19 US dollars). As for aluminium, which is rare, it is sold for an amount ranging from 1000 – 1250 dinars (0.76-0.95 US dollars.) These are not significant amounts. Workers need to collect approximately 3 tonnes per month to achieve a monthly income of 400 dollars. This is how the rush to collect more pieces of waste can be justified by the ragpickers. 

Cheating time 

To collect larger quantities of trash, some ragpickers resort to changing their working hours to avoid competition and overcrowding. Mustafa is one of them. He arrives during the day with his colleagues, then returns at night. He stays until 1am using a flashlight to pick over trash without any competition. 

“I am 23 years old and want to get married,” Mustafa says to Jummar as he gathers empty Pepsi cans. Mustafa and other scavengers spoke with us intermittently. They were focused on their work, and the competition between them was fierce to gather what they could use from the piles of trash. 

Mustafa is not the only one who works at night. Dozens of ragpickers come from the outskirts of nearby Baghdad, the majority of whom are residents of the northeastern Husseiniyat Al-Ma’amel area. They start their work in the late hours and stay until after ten in the morning. They use modern, medium-sized transport vehicles. As for the others that work there, most of them live in slums, on the land of Saad Camp, a well-known military site, east of Baqubah built after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. 

Most of those working at this landfill left formal school early. There are some children and teenagers who stay in school and work only during the holidays. As for Muhammad, 29 years old, he may be the only scavenger who holds a diploma in computer science. He says he has not found another job opportunity that would help him provide for his wife and daughter’s needs. 

Salah Mahdi, director of the Office of the Human Rights Commission in Diyala, has monitored the conditions of the ragpickers over the course of more than one field visit. He described to Jummar the danger of working conditions there. “Most ragpickers come from very poor families. Some of them work as contractors and bring large trucks and several workers with them. They divide the work in an organised way. Some specialise in collecting iron, others collect cardboard, and so on.” 

In addition to the dangerous nature of the work, Mahdi warned of child labour taking place. “We have documented respiratory and skin diseases among children working in this kind of trash collection.” 

Commenting on the recommendations issued by the Iraqi Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mahdi said that they are not taken seriously. “There is often a short-lived response that offers only partial solutions. Then things return to how they were.” He also added, “Landfills are not subject to centralised control throughout this province. This is true not just in Baqubah. Some provinces carry out systematic trash burning to get rid of garbage, as is the case in Al-Khalis and Al-Muqdadiyah.” 

Bassem Al-Hadithi, director of the Environment Department for the province, believes that landfill sites pose a general problem for all of Iraq with the exception of the Kurdistan region. “Solving this would require tens of millions of dollars which is beyond the resources of any province.” 

Bureaucratic issues and lack of seriousness hinder investment in the areas of recycling waste or energy production, known as combustion. This is despite the current government outlining, several times, steps to address this issue. However, on the ground nothing has changed. Al-Hadithi affirmed this reality. “Dozens of investors have followed up with us and taken note of our priorities and plans. But nothing happens.” 

Zero budget 

Dr. Assem Jassim, an environmental expert, does not see a depth of seriousness in addressing the pollution resulting from toxic landfill use. He also pointed out the health risks caused by managing garbage within municipal institutions. “Toxic landfilling turns the entire area into one of infestation. What is left on the ground is biodegradable. This includes food scraps and dead animals that decompose quickly. The release of methane gas facilitates the growth of underground bacterial colonies.” 

As for burning trash, it can expose the environment to various forms of environmental degradation, particularly with trash that decomposes slowly. The landfill is also fertile ground for the breeding of rodents and microscopic organisms, said Jassim. Regarding Baqubah, the landfill site is only two kilometres from the nearest residential neighbourhoods. This distance does not meet environmental standards, according to environmental expert Dr Jassim, because it allows the garbage fumes to reach those neighbourhoods. In addition, the city’s sky is covered with smoke clouds when trash is burned. “Rain and heavy downpours contribute to the spread of trash, even if buried, which can leak into groundwater. Residential neighbourhoods also creep in towards the landfill site, due to population expansion.” 

The city of Baqubah faces challenges in addressing garbage, not only regarding toxic dumping, but also due to the presence of random waste collection stations. This is in addition to some individuals and institutions burning trash inside, or on the outskirts of, the city. The number of municipal workers does not meet the needs of the city’s sanitary standards. A mere195 sanitation workers are employed daily, in a city where municipal services cover nearly 80,00 residential units. This means that there is one sanitation worker for every 410 residential units. It also means that each worker must lift about 3 tonnes of waste daily. This partially explains the problem with trash in and outside the city. 

Basem Al-Hadithi, director of the environment in the municipality of Baqubah, the division responsible for sanitary procedures, attributed the shortage of sanitation workers to a lack of financial resources. “There have been zero allocations in the municipal budget for ten years now. However, there is a grant scheduled to arrive for the province worth 300 million dinars (just under 230,000 US dollars) per month, which will be distributed to 23 municipalities in the province. The Baqubah Municipality’s share ranges from just 50-100 million dinars (38-76 thousand US dollars).” This amount will eventually provide salaries to workers in the sanitation field at a rate of 250-300 thousand dinars (about 190-230 US dollars) per month. The rest is spent on purchasing cleaning supplies, containers, and other tools.