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Waste Pickers in Ahmedabad. Photo: Pritpal Randhawa

An award-winning research project on transforming urban waste management in Indian cities has been featured in the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR) new collection of success stories from REF 2021. Funded through the ESRC STEPS Centre, this interdisciplinary project saw a Sussex-based team, led by Professor Fiona Marshall, collaborate with local partners from Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Delhi-based NGO, Toxics Link. The project analysed different perspectives on waste management challenges, practices and policy in response to the urban waste management crisis, with an estimated 90% of waste being dumped in public spaces.

“Mainstream approaches to urban waste management failed to recognise the complex flows of waste and related risks,” says Marshall. “As a result, environment, health and residents’ livelihoods were being threatened, and innovative solutions overlooked.”

The researchers worked with various stakeholders to understand the complexities of the waste management system, from shadowing individual waste pickers at work to interviewing residents, activists and government officials. As part of a collaborative effort, the study helped co-create more inclusive, informed, and sustainable waste management policies and inspired new practices on the ground. Learn more about Driving sustainable urban waste policy and practice in India: Transdisciplinary research for an alternative waste management approach. 

The case studies in the UKCDR’s new publication were selected to highlight the impact of UK international development research and to provide key insights and best practice examples, shedding light on the connection between the nature of the impact achieved and how the research was conducted. Further insights, including the UKCDR’s new research enablers framework, can be found in their accompanying report: The landscape of development research impact: An analysis of REF 2021 impact case studies. 

Findings from these new publications will be presented at the 78^th UN General Assembly Science Summit on Thursday 21 September in a session by UKCDR and Canada's IDRC, focused on how to create an enabling environment for research impact.

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