KKPKP, the trade union of waste pickers, itinerant waste buyers, waste collectors, and other informal recyclers in the Indian city of Pune, has helped these workers get integrated into municipal waste management systems.

GAIA’s first decade ended in December 2010—and we spent 2011 putting together stories and images to share a snapshot of the alliance’s collective work. GAIA’s values include taking the time to appreciate one another and to celebrate our success and work together. We hope this report, “GAIA 10: 10 Years of Community Action for Zero Waste Solutions,” will be an opportunity for collective reflection and celebration.

A two day skill sharing seminar on emerging Biogas technologies brought together innovators, scientists, engineers, experts, government representatives, waste picker organizations and NGOs from India and other parts of Asia to share ideas, learn and disseminate information in the field of Biogas development and management.

The presence of UN climate change negotiations in Tianjin, China, in October 2010, provided a wonderful opportunity to bring together three budding streams of GAIA’s work: a growing network of Zero Waste organizations in China; connections with grassroots recyclers around the world; and efforts to rectify global climate policy and redirect subsidies from “waste-to-energy” towards Zero Waste.

One of the two panel discussions at the Pune launch of the Indian edition of the State of the World 2009 was ‘The Urban Perspective: Resilience, Justice and Governance’.

10 reasons why gasification, pyrolysis & plasma incineration are not “green solutions”