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"Social
enterprises" in reuse and recycling
Social enterprises have been active for
many years in Europe in waste sorting, repair/reselling and
material recovery. They are often present in the form of scattered
associations and are badly structured and poorly recognised.
However, their importance in terms of jobs and sorted tonnage
should not be underestimated. According to a study realsied
by the CWESAR ( Coordinanation des entreprises d'Economie
sociale actives dans le Recyclage et le Réemploi ),
the number of jobs in waste management in these social enterprises
would exceed 35.000 in Europe.
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Countries
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Social
jobs( Minimal assessment )
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Germany
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8.130
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Austria
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80
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Belgium
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2.100
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Spain
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1.500
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France
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4.000
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Greece
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50
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Ireland
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500
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Italy
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2.500
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Luxembourg
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100
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Netherlands
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4.000
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Scandinavia
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8.500
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Portugal
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400
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United
Kingdom
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3.000-5.000
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Total
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34.860
- 36.860
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In "Creating Wealth from Waste"
(1999) Robin Murray estimates that an intensive programme
of recycling in the UK could create between 10.000 and 55.000
new jobs, taking into account those who would be lost in the
process.
Operations of collection and processing
of waste materials are the privileged place for the development
of integration initiatives accompanied, if necessary, by professional
requalification and redynamisation. These jobs may serve as
a trampoline and permit the reintegration of workers into
professional circuits. The cities of Bordeaux, Den Haag, Dunkirk,
Lille, Palermo, and Dublin, in particular, have developed
this approach.
Recycling activities are labour intensive. For this reason,
recycling is one of the most interesting and important sectors
in the development and growth of social enterprises, which main
role is the reinsertion, through work, of people affected by
any sort of exclusion. Recycling becomes a source of jobs for
unskilled or long-term unemployed people.
Social enterprises aim at combining a market oriented business
approach with solidarity (carrying less about profit and more
about people).
Moreover, social enterprises have proved
to be profitable through the implementation of new working
patterns based on worker participation and flexibility. Indeed
they are commonly registered under a co-operative legal status:
workers participate directly or indirectly to the performance
and management of the enterprise they own. This contributes
to a stronger commitment and a higher self-respect of workers
compared to traditional companies.
A mix between public aids or subsidies
and free market oriented business forms the basis for their
financing. They can still be competitive in the provision
of environmental services where traditional companies do not
find adequate profits and public authorities do not have the
financial resources to deal with directly.
- How do social enterprises operate
recycling?
They focus on collection, recovery and
recycling either through door-to-door approach or more sophisticated
technology. Partnerships between public, private and social
economy actors create a win-win situation. When collection
of paper and other materials are made compulsory, agreements
between local authorities and social enterprises often take
place.
Private companies with an interest in purchasing and processing
recycled goods rather than raw materials often participate
in these agreements as purchaser of the services provided
by social enterprises. (for instance social cooperative consortium
CGM and private company Masotina in Italy)
click
here to see the graph
To
know more about social economy activities in recycling
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