Attitudes towards those working in the waste sector have deteriorated since the pandemic, research reveals.
An article in the Sociology journal reveals waste management workers have experienced more negative responses from the public since the end of Covid-19 lockdowns.
Based on 42 interviews with refuse collectors, litter pickers, graffiti removers and road sweepers working across councils in the capital and southeast England, researchers found that ‘the pandemic failed to improve reciprocal trust and respect’.
According to the authors of the article, Professor Natalia Slutskaya, Professor Annilee Game, Dr. Rachel Morgan, Dr. Izabela Delabre, and Professor Tim Newton, workers found that ‘the value of their service was enhanced by the harshening conditions’ of the pandemic, during which staff were classed as essential workers.
However, researchers state that the recognition and appreciation experienced by waste management workers during this time was not permanent.
‘Our respondents reported that their day-to-day exchanges with the public reverted to experiences of “being treated like dirt again” or conceived as lazy and less competent’, the study reads.
‘Once a stigma is attached to a certain job, it’s very, very difficult to clear that stigma’, a litter picker reported.
