Soledad Mella

Soledad Mella envisions a society where grassroots recyclers are recognized as essential contributors to waste management and environmental sustainability. She addresses the social problem of marginalization and economic vulnerability faced by informal grassroots recyclers by integrating them into the formal waste management system. Soledad aims to transform their role from marginalized individuals to valued service providers committed to an environmental mission. This shift involves changing social, economic, and legal systems to ensure that recyclers are paid for their services rather than just the materials they collect.

Until 2016, in Chile, an estimated 60,000 grassroots recyclers (known as recicladores de base in Spanish) used to collect and exchange recyclable materials from streets and landfills, earning a meager daily income and exposing themselves to unsafe and inhumane working conditions. At the same time, grassroots recyclers were unaware of their crucial role in waste management and of their work’s impact on reducing the effects of climate change because they lacked formal recognition and adequate compensation. Additionally, these individuals' knowledge about recyclable material treatment and management was overlooked.

Soledad’s work is focused on creating a win-win scenario by professionalizing the role of grassroots recyclers. While the modernization of waste management systems might suggest the eventual phasing out of informal recyclers, Soledad instead acknowledges their expertise, community, and economic contributions. She envisions a role for recyclers within the modernized system, not as displaced workers, but as recognized professionals. Their identity evolves into that of knowledgeable recyclers—experts who understand what can and cannot be recycled. In this new framework, they play a vital role in educating and advising citizens, ensuring sustainability while preserving their essential contribution to the system.

Soledad, a long-standing and proud grassroots recycler herself, knows firsthand the struggles of recycling work and has advocated and lobbied to catalyze the creation of 42 cooperatives that group 3,400 grassroots recyclers to date, allowing them to accredit their service and obtain legal contracts under the REP Law (Responsabilidad Extendida del Productor, or Extended Producers ' Responsibility), securing higher wages and a rightful place within the formal waste management value chain. The REP Law is a unique legislation in Chile and LATAM established in 2016, that builds on the principle of “who contaminates, pays” and it requires producers (e.g., Coca Cola) to be responsible for the organization and financing of waste management resulting from the commercialization of their products in the country, and are required to pay third parties who collect and recycle a percentage of the packaging they produce. ANARCH (Asociación Movimiento Nacional de Recicladores de Chile), the organization led by Soledad, empowers cooperatives by enhancing their ability to leverage knowledge of waste products and recycling and participate in bidding for public procurement services. With their expertise in segregating and processing residual materials, these cooperatives are pivotal in advancing recyclability and promoting sustainable waste management. This improves recyclers’ income, collective negotiation power, and public procurement.

The model's success in Chile serves as a blueprint for other countries, with Soledad appointed a delegate in international forums. She was the first ever grassroots recycler speaking at a COP among other participations as a representative for LATAM at the Global Plastic Pollution Treaty at the United Nations, and in the leadership group of RED LACRE (Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Recicladores, or Latin American and Caribbean Network of Recyclers) where she represents 18 countries in LATAM and advocates for similar legislative changes globally. She has also helped strengthen national recycling movements in Costa Rica and Panama and is currently experimenting with blockchain technology to improve the traceability of recyclers' impact and with economic incentives such as carbon and methane credits.

According to the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), the global average recycling rate is around 14%, but 90% of our waste can actually be recycled, if well separated. In addition, according to a report by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the recycling industry generates approximately $500 billion worldwide annually (the same as United Arab Emirates' annual GDP). This figure represents the combined revenue generated from collecting, processing, and selling recycled materials. Furthermore, the recycling industry employs more than 1.6 million people worldwide, contributing significantly to job creation and economic development.

When properly supported and organized, informal recycling can create jobs, improve local industrial competitiveness, reduce poverty, and lower municipal spending. However, the reality for more than 15 million informal waste collectors worldwide—usually women, children, the elderly, unemployed, or migrants—continues to be unsanitary conditions, a lack of social protection or health insurance, and persistent social stigma. Informal grassroots recyclers are integral to waste management systems in many low-income countries, including Chile. In many Latin American countries, up to 96% of reusable waste ends up in landfills because there are no recycling programs or because the population does not perceive its relevance. Source separation is even more vital in these countries without formal or consolidated waste management systems.

In this context, informal recyclers are the first link in the material recovery chain. They manually collect, sort, and sell recyclable materials, providing an essential service that reduces landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions. In Chile, approximately 60,000 recyclers60% of whom are womenare responsible for up to 50% of recycled waste in some regions, and a rough estimate suggests that each recycler can collect between one and three tons of waste per day. The closure of open dumpsites has left many recyclers without access to their primary source of income, as they are typically paid per kilogram of material collected rather than for their labor, resulting in earnings far below the minimum wage. They operate under precarious conditions without formal employment benefits or protections. Additionally, they face significant daily health risks and social stigma. Grassroots recyclers are often seen as a threat, and their work is viewed as an informal activity that should be eradicated, with many considering their tricycles a nuisance that disrupts the urban landscape. In turn, grassroots recyclers tend to mistrust authorities, which leads to fragmentation and lack of organization, making it harder to speak with one voice and negotiate better work conditions collectively and recognize the true value of their contributions. Due to the informal nature of their work, there is a lack of reliable data on their impact on reducing climate change effects, let alone the precise number of grassroots recyclers or their average income.

In Chile, Soledad's organization, ANARCH, was instrumental in enacting the REP Law in 2016, which aimed to, among other things, integrate recyclers into the formal waste management system, marking a milestone and important progress, yet significant barriers remain. In March 2021, the enactment of the law established the Gran Sistema Colectivo de Gestión (GRANSIC), or Large Collective Management System, as an innovative way to meet the goals established in the REP Law. GRANSIC systems are autonomous non-profit entities financed by waste-producing companies to organize and finance the efficient and responsible recycling of containers and packaging to comply with the REP Law, which establishes fines and strict recycling goals for companies that market, import, or produce packaged consumer goods. It is estimated that more than 15,000 manufacturing companies in Chile alone are required to become affiliated with GRANSICs.

In this system, for grassroots recyclers to be able to partner with the GRANSICs intermediaries, municipalities, or other waste managers in the industry for service delivery, the REP law requires them to obtain costly certifications to participate in the formal system, a financial burden given their low earnings. For example, certification costs range from USD $300 in Arica (north Chile) to USD $800 in Punta Arenas (south Chile). These expectations are unrealistic, given that an informal recycler in Chile earns approximately USD $150 a month (not even a quarter of the minimum wage) for the exchange of collected materials, far from an actual value that compensates for their work hours.

Ironically, the economic benefits of recycling, such as carbon credits and waste management contracts, are captured by large companies rather than the recyclers themselves. This inequitable distribution of benefits limits the economic empowerment of recyclers and reinforces existing power imbalances within the waste management industry.

Informal grassroots recyclers are at the heart of Soledad Mella's work. Soledad's strategy aims to professionalize these recyclers, integrating them into the formal waste management system and ensuring they receive fair wages and recognition for their environmental contributions.

By organizing recyclers into cooperatives, the initiative enhances their collective bargaining power, enabling them to negotiate better terms with waste management organizations (i.e., GRANSICs) and local governments. As a result, recyclers benefit from immediate economic gains, but it also creates a systemic impact as the cooperative model challenges existing power dynamics within the waste management industry.

First, ANARCH secures international funding for establishing cooperatives. She meets with grassroots recyclers grouped in a specific area of a city to explain why having a cooperative is beneficial for their operations. After there’s an agreement, the training in cooperative management begins with ANARCH’S partner Fundación AVINA (with their lawyers and staff members): drafting bylaws with information on the five or more members, providing follow up support for eight to twelve months, registering in the National Registry of Cooperatives, building a business model, structuring the administrative department, the team, and the board of directors. Electing a general manager, treasurer, and financial commissioner.
To date, following this overall process, Soledad has established 42 cooperatives entirely run by grassroots recyclers who were previously working informally. On average, the cooperative organizes the work of 3,400 recyclers nationwide, covering 14 of the 16 regions in Chile. The results show that some have tripled their income because their working hours are valued accordingly.

Today, the children and nephews of recyclers manage the recycling centers in two of the three wealthiest areas in the country, Vitacura and Lo Barnechea. Recyclers’ children also take on administrative roles within the cooperatives, and they’ve formed a team to teach residents how to recycle. By being a member of the cooperative, each grassroots recycler earns approximately USD 550-600 per month, three times their previous income. Soledad herself works alongside her children in her ANARCH-affiliated cooperative, which has 60 member collectors.

The cooperatives' key clients are local governments and waste management intermediaries, which are crucial stakeholders in the waste management ecosystem since they are responsible for implementing waste management policies and ensuring compliance with national regulations like the Ley REP. The cooperative legal figure enables recyclers to become official service providers and to capitalize on their hands-on waste management expertise as their main competitive advantage. A fundamental mandate in the REP Law is the inclusion of informal recyclers into the waste management system, and consequently, there is an additional incentive for these key actors to partner with cooperatives, allowing recyclers to capture additional value within the recycling value chain. This can include activities like establishing and managing pre-treatment facilities or overseeing the dismantling of electronic waste.

Soledad has found it challenging to convince some recyclers to join the cooperatives, as some of them distrust the government and companies. But she has found ways to incorporate them too in her solution, as she plans that the biggest cooperatives benefit the smallest ones as the model becomes more consolidated. She is aware that some cooperatives will not survive because of failures in organizing, lack of skills, among other reasons. That’s why part of her strategy is to create a solid base of cooperatives that will sustain all the rest, even the recyclers at the periphery – the ones who prefer to stay informal.

Cooperatives model combined with training and certification programs; Soledad equips and empowers recyclers with the skills and credentials needed to participate in the formal economy. Since the certifications are too expensive for recyclers, she came up with a creative way of guaranteeing the recyclers’ accreditation. She managed to establish alliances with like-minded businesses who have not fully used their tax deduction quotes for staff training and has created an entrepreneurial mechanism to get grassroots recyclers to be hired long enough to be trained at the expense of these large companies. This is how she managed to get the 3,400 recyclers certified and ready to provide their services in the formal waste management system. Now Soledad wants to expand this scheme to ensure more recyclers have access to the certifications, so she has started tripartite conversations with the public and private sectors to scale this mechanism using tax exemptions for staff training. In the meantime, she continues increasing the certified recyclers numbers partnering with companies in the beverage industry like Coca Cola and CCU, the national non-profit trade federation that groups 22 business associations in Chile (SOFOFA), and through scholarships granted by the National Training and Employment Service (SENCE).

A remarkable example of Soledad’s entrepreneurial spirit is the partnership she established in 2023 with ReSimple in Maipú, the first GRANSIC in Chile and a key player in Chile's waste management system, since its group of member companies accounts for more than 30% of the volume of packaging placed on the market each year. Through this collaboration, certified recyclers have taken over the management of 100% of the recycling points of ReSimple, even exceeding what the REP Law requires (at least 50%). The recyclers’ work encompasses recyclable material collection, recycling points’ operation and environmental education to its users. Soledad doesn’t want to leave anyone behind, so she has ensured that older grassroots recyclers who no longer have the physical strength to engage in a demanding, street-based role can advise and educate consumers on properly disposing of their recyclables at these recycling points. Additionally, these recycling points have toilets, which may seem trivial, but it is an important improvement in work conditions and health risks, especially for female grassroots recyclers, who are the majority. Soledad arranged the transfer of a 3,000-square-meter plot of land for this purpose in conversations with the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of National Assets. By shifting the focus from individual survival to collective success, the cooperative model changes mindsets and encourages a more collaborative approach to environmental stewardship. So far, 18 cooperatives have signed contracts with GRANSICs, and Soledad’s cooperative has signed five agreements with GRANSICs to manage recycling points and pre-treatment facilities.

There is also a misconception that people in low-income urban areas do not know or are not interested in recycling. Cooperatives are especially required in these areas, where it is not profitable for large companies to operate recycling centers. Soledad has achieved outstanding results in neighborhoods like Independencia, a low-income area in Santiago, where an ANARCH cooperative operates recycling points; they have managed to discard only 10-15% of waste (compared to the national average of 80%). This showed her that, given the knowledge and infrastructure, and people like them operating the recycling points can make a huge impact in recycling rates even in low-income areas.

Likewise, Soledad championed the creation of the first waste pretreatment center in Chile in the southern commune of Freire, on a 50-hectare site in a region with an indigenous population, who accepted the project due to its low environmental impact and groundwater protection, in addition to generating employment. In an unprecedented PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model, the center will be financed through a Colombian foundation, and the local government office paid the indigenous community for the land. Soledad is considering replicating a similar model at the massive El Molle illegal landfill in Valparaíso.

In 2023 at the National Congress, Soledad requested the Environmental Committee to pass a specific law to recognize the work being done by grassroots recyclers and submitted a 13-point petition from ANARCH regarding improvements to their status under the REP Law. On the occasion, the chair of the Environment Committee pledged to review the petition and consider the workers' demands at a working meeting with legislative advisors and the Executive Branch.

One of the primary strategies for scaling Soledad's impact is the expansion of cooperative networks. By establishing new cooperatives and strengthening existing ones, Soledad aims to increase the number of certified recyclers who benefit from collective bargaining power and economic empowerment. To better understand the potential impact and plan capacity accordingly, Soledad is spearheading the creation of a new national registry of recyclers, updating the previous version from 2015, which estimated around 60,000 informal recyclers in Chile. As part of her near-term plans, she is also working toward consolidating pretreatment facilities that will be fully operated by grassroots recyclers. She has already secured funding from Coca-Cola to help three such facilities obtain the necessary certifications. At the same time, Soledad and her team are actively strengthening 12 specific cooperatives that will eventually take over the operations.

Through formalizing all the levels of the country's existing recycling market, circular economies grow, and data is generated to offset carbon/methane credits. ANARCH seeks to integrate recyclers into the carbon and methane markets by using technologies that guarantee waste traceability and transparency. To this end, it has initiated a study on the implementation of a private blockchain, through Amazon Web Services (AWS) or other similar services in collaboration with Global Methane Hub and the Alianza Global de Recicladores, to record in real time each service provided, ton of waste recovered, and its origin and destination. This tool will allow verification of each transaction, build trust with partners through concrete data on the impact of recycling, and create additional environmental value by certifying emissions reductions, which will facilitate the obtaining of tradable carbon and methane credits.

Through ANARCH, Soledad also directly impacts the National Organic Waste Strategy being drafted in Chile, which refers to the consolidation of a regulation for the management of organic waste. In Chile, organic waste represents 58% of the total solid waste Municipalities currently manage. ANARCH has been a key actor informing the regulation and Soledad strategically has brought the attention of the sector to the fact that less than 1% of organic waste collected is valued in the market, and because the methane gas emitted by wet organic material not properly composted causes as much or more damage than the entire transportation sector as a whole and prevents the recycling of other solid materials, like plastic or cardboard. Soledad has also represented the voice of grassroots recyclers as a member of the Strategic Committee to co-design and validate the Chilean Roadmap for a Circular Economy and is an expert advisor for the National Strategy for Just Socio-Ecological Transition, both led by the Ministry of the Environment.

Policy advocacy and legislative change are crucial for scaling Soledad's impact beyond Chile. This involves participating in international forums, such as the COP29 and the Global Plastic Pollution Treaty, to advocate for policies that recognize and empower recyclers.

Soledad Mella is a prominent Chilean social leader and activist, widely recognized for her tireless advocacy on behalf of grassroots recyclers and her lifelong fight against social inequality. Born and raised in Lo Hermida, a low-income neighborhood of Santiago, Soledad experienced a difficult childhood marked by violence and the devastating impact of drugs in her community. From an early age, she demonstrated a natural talent for leadership, serving as president of student councils and showing a deep commitment to justice—especially for her most vulnerable classmates. She was consistently driven by a desire to address the pressing social issues around her.

At 15, she met her future husband, and together they began organizing cultural events and community fundraisers to support youth initiatives. Amid the economic crisis of 1988, Soledad became a mother of two before the age of 20, raising her children in an extremely challenging environment. One defining moment came when she saw one of her children eating moldy bread. That painful image ignited a turning point in her life—she vowed to build a better future not just for her family, but for her entire community.

With that conviction, she and her neighbors organized approximately 200 ollas comunes (community soup kitchens), providing meals to those in need. Around the same time, she began selling goods at open-air markets, which led her into the world of recycling.

Initially, Soledad took up recycling out of economic necessity—collecting glass, metals like copper and aluminum, and cellulose from discarded books, magazines, and cardboard. She also sold reusable objects informally at local fairs. What began as a survival strategy soon transformed into a family-run recycling business. Under her leadership, they handled up to 4,000 kilos of recyclable materials daily. She purchased her first motorized tricycle and eventually built a small fleet. As her operation expanded, she brought her husband and eldest son into the business. Their company not only managed a recycling center but also provided services to offices and commercial clients.

Soledad’s influence grew beyond her local community when she met Exequiel Estay, a prominent figure in the recyclers' movement, during the installation of a recycling station. Together, they forged a strong partnership, and by 2012, she had become an influential voice in the National Recyclers Movement of Chile (ANARCH). Alongside other grassroots leaders, she championed legislative change and played a key role in shaping and promoting the REP Law (Law on Extended Producer Responsibility), which was enacted in 2016.

Her dream for the future is bold and urgent: that no fellow recycler will ever again be forced to work in a landfill; that no child will have to scavenge for food among the garbage; and that recycling will no longer be seen as a fate, but as a dignified, professional path. She envisions a world where recyclers are safe, respected, and empowered—not run over by trucks or forgotten on the margins of society.

Soledad Mella has represented Chile at international forums focused on environmental issues and social justice, where she has highlighted recycling as not only a key pillar of sustainability but also a powerful tool for advancing equity and inclusion. Her work has earned national and international recognition, solidifying her role as a leading advocate for informal workers’ rights and social justice in Chile.