In a non-descript slum in Jahangirpuri, the hair you throw into your bathroom bin transforms into wigs for idols, and the toys you dispose of make their way into second-hand markets.

When the economic downturn nosedived in the second half of 2008, the talk was primarily about macro-economic trends, causes and impacts in the formal economy. In India, where over 90% of the livelihoods

Nalini Ravichandran | ENS
Chennai,

MORE than 700 ragpickers, regulars at the city

For the urban poor in developing countries, informal waste recycling is a common way to earn income. There are few reliable

Waste-pickers worldwide gathered in Colombia to highlight how central they are to urban existence Sometime in 2007, history was unmade and made. From being a global village, the world became an urban conglomerate

Clad in a sensible cotton salwar-kameez, sporting silver and black sneakers, she is a powerhouse. She knows what she wants and does it.

She makes sure waste doesn't go to waste and re-uses it to create things of beauty. Her main aim is to "ensure every rag-picker gets his share of a monthly salary of Rs 3,500 to survive".

Thousands of people who eke out a living by selling recyclable trash scavenged from the municipal dump in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, are staging a protest over control of city's waste.

Something's changing in urban India. Cities are now being redesigned to fend for themselves, become

Film>> Wasted Swecha Productions directed by Anshul Uniyal and Vimalendu Jha 16 minutes Wasted captures the journey of waste from an apartment in Vasant Kunj, a neighbourhood locality in south

the Union ministry for environment and forests has recently amended its draft notification putting in place a new regime that will govern environment impact assessments (eias), (see

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