Hidden Actors of Urban Sustainability: Waste Pickers in Istanbul

Abstract

Unbalanced population growth, especially in developing countries, has exacerbated the waste problem. This issue is alleviated by waste pickers who play a vital role in recycling, the city’s circular economy, and sustainability strategies. The article aims to create an alternative form of communication by analyzing the daily lives and work patterns of waste pickers through various instruments, contributing to urban sustainability policies. Most studies on waste pickers have focused on broader trends and have not explored the lives of waste pickers in-depth. As a result, effective communication has not been established, and practical solutions have not been developed. This study directly addresses this gap and examines the daily lives and work practices of waste pickers in the metropolis of Istanbul, using ethnographic and grounded theory methodologies. It analyzes these findings with the MAXQDA program and proposes alternative solutions. The methodology generated verbal and spatial data from waste pickers, which were organized using an extensive coding system and, as a result, categorized under four selective codes. Through diagrams created from the theoretical codes used in the coding process, the narratives of waste pickers and their spatial production and usage were correlated, enabling a thorough analysis of waste pickers. This code model presents a challenging reevaluation of the traditional approach to urban sustainability in local systems by recognizing waste pickers as often overlooked yet essential actors and agents of sustainability in the city.

1. Introduction

The world has faced a severe waste crisis over the last half century. Rapid urban growth, population increases, unregulated development, and unmanaged urban waste, especially in metropolitan areas of developing countries, have triggered this crisis [1,2]. Additionally, the unmanageable process of waste collection, sorting, processing, and final disposal or recycling makes the waste crisis a global issue [3]. However, the waste crisis is also exacerbating the climate crisis by increasing methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas, due to inadequate management of waste composition, particularly that with a high organic content [4,5].

Modern public solid waste management as a problematic and legalized issue dates to the 19th century in England [6]. The systems and models that have evolved in the process until today have not been able to respond to the solid waste phenomenon that has grown uncontrollably in developing countries, leading to the formation of a line of work known as waste pickers in the literature [7]. Waste pickers, who arose from the system’s inefficiencies, have a way of life and work practices that challenge and oppose the existing system. They collect waste from designated routes on the streets and garbage stations. After collection, the waste is taken to warehouses for washing, sorting, and weighing. Once sorted, the waste is delivered to recycling facilities. Waste collectors generally do not charge for waste collection, but they charge based on the amount and type of waste they deliver to recycling facilities [3]. Moreover, waste pickers provide a different perspective on the city by opening a space to discuss the urban and public. In addition to illustrating how the town functions from an infrastructural standpoint, they also dissolve the public-private dichotomy and invert the concepts of what is valuable and what is not. This indicates how ‘things’ regarded as urban waste can be integrated into the urban system and rendered ‘valuable’ by different social groups. Therefore, it becomes clear that the traces of the city are never erased; they are transformed, disrupted, and destroyed in a palimpsest structure, and the urban mechanism is established from that point onward. Due to their significant contribution to urban sustainability, waste approach, and waste recycling, waste pickers create an alternative approach to addressing the global climate crisis.

Waste pickers mitigate the negative impacts of waste and contribute to the resilience of urban systems. They have the potential to act as stewards of the environment by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the recovery of materials from waste streams, and by saving energy and conserving natural resources through reuse [8]. Although waste pickers play critical roles in waste management, their potential to contribute to the circular economy has not been fully realized due to their marginal social status, lack of recognition by authorities, and disconnection from the formal economy. They also face significant occupational hazards and social exclusion, and their livelihoods are at risk of being displaced by private sector-led waste management approaches [3].

Traditional approaches to waste management often overlook the contributions of waste pickers to formal solid waste systems and fail to connect with local realities. In recent decades, waste pickers have attracted the attention of scholars in various academic fields, and academic work on the topic has increased significantly across disciplines [7]. However, based on the information obtained from the literature review, it has been determined that the studies on waste pickers were grouped within the fields of environmental science, public health, social sciences, economics and business, and urban development and policy (

Table 1. The table about the literature field review. Source: Author, 2025.

Field	Focus	References
Environmental Science	Recycling, waste management, and urban sustainability	[1,2,7,9,10,12,13,14]
Public Health	Health risks, safety conditions	[12,15]
Social Sciences	Socio-economic conditions, motivations, and social stigma	[10,16,17,18,19]
Economics and Business	Economic viability, financial sustainability, and cooperative models	[3,4,6,8,20,21,22]
Urban Development and Policy	Integration into formal systems, impact of policies	[7,23,24,25,26]

). The literature frequently offers solutions and models for the issues faced by waste pickers, focusing on intervening in and legalizing how they produce their work without engaging with the actual experiences and knowledge of these marginalized groups. Nonetheless, studies that address this situation from the perspective of waste pickers themselves, examining their daily lives and forms of space production, are quite limited [9,10,11]. This perspective cannot yield practical solutions and highlights a gap in the literature.

The article aims to improve communication with waste pickers and contribute to the development of sustainable urban policies. Its objectives are to create alternative pathways for urban sustainability by analyzing waste pickers’ work production, use of space, daily lifestyles, and interactions with the city, thereby developing a comprehensive understanding and perspective.

2. Climate Crisis and Waste Pickers

The waste sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As developing countries experience economic growth, waste generation rates increase, leading to higher emissions unless waste management practices are improved [5,27]. Problematic waste management practices contribute to environmental pollution, negatively impacting the quality of air, soil, and water. This complicates the climate crisis by degrading ecosystems and elevating pollution levels [2]. Between now and 2050, greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector are projected to rise from 1% to 15% of global carbon emissions, significantly influencing climate change [28]. Plastic waste also substantially contributes to the degradation of natural ecosystems, especially in oceans and waterways [29]. Every year, eight million tons of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans, which is equivalent to one garbage truck full of plastic every minute [3]. By 2050, the rate of plastic dumping into the sea is anticipated to increase to four garbage trucks per minute, with the weight of plastic surpassing that of fish [28]. Plastics that pollute the earth also break down into microplastic particles, which become atmospheric pollutants. Allen et al. recorded 365 microplastic particles per square meter falling from the sky [30].

There is growing evidence of the contribution of informal waste pickers to urban solid waste systems, the environment, the economy, and the quality of the public realm. Waste pickers play a vital role in diverting waste from landfills through recycling and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions [18,25]. By substituting virgin materials with recycled ones, waste pickers help lower emissions linked to producing new materials. For example, aluminum and PET recovery contribute significantly to avoided emissions due to high energy savings in the recycling process [18,25].

At the same time, waste pickers significantly contribute to a city’s economic growth by participating in the collection and sorting of municipal waste and recycling of economically viable materials [24]. Informal waste pickers create value for cities and local governments, “benefit from informal sector activities without paying for them” [26]. Informal waste pickers extend the life of landfills by reducing the amount of waste to be disposed of [19]. These key economic contributors provide input for the recycling market with materials that would otherwise be thrown away. Waste pickers protect the environment by reusing or reprocessing materials and providing valuable materials for global recycling industries. In Tunisia, for example, 8000 Barbecha manage to recycle 5000 out of 8400 tons of PET plastic annually [26] (p. 60). In Brazil, informal recycling is responsible for the country’s high cardboard (80 percent) and aluminum (92 percent) recycling rates [7] (p. 377).

3. Waste Pickers in Istanbul: “Can Subaltern Speak?”

In Istanbul, as in many developing countries, waste picking—a line of work that significantly contributes to urban sustainability—is illegal. However, understanding the informal contribution of waste pickers to the recycling system is a crucial factor for urban sustainability. Legal units are inadequate for the recycling system. There are two primary reasons why Istanbul’s waste management system is ineffective. The first is the rapid population increase due to internal migration to Istanbul from other cities and rural areas, which began in the early 1980s [31]. Second, there is administrative uncertainty and a lack of technology for efficient garbage collection in the several small municipalities that comprise Istanbul. “Rapid urbanization, growth in population, and changes in lifestyles in developing countries contribute to increasing the per capita municipal waste generation,” according to Ağdağ [32] (p. 456), who contrasts the old and modern municipal waste management systems. Waste management systems are generally inadequate due to insufficient planning for population growth and migration [31].

Despite these strong and crucial ties to the city, waste pickers hold no place in written urban history. Their oppositional and destructive relationship with power forces them into the phenomenon of the other. In this sense, their exclusion forms part of a collective and organized fiction. As Foucault [33] explains, others subvert the power-subject pact and bring the city and the production of space to critical ground.

In this study, the concept of the ‘other’, which is precarious in the literature, is specialized under the idea of the ‘subaltern’, who has a hybrid identity [34] and double consciousness [35]. The subaltern defines the other who cannot express himself/herself, who is outside the truth and power determined by the order, who lives in opposition to it, and who is at the center of postcolonial debates [35].

The invisibility of waste pickers in the city, along with the government’s efforts to ignore them, contributes to their classification as subalterns. This situation also has a post-colonial background in the sense that they have left their country or city of origin and have a hybrid identity [34]. All these factors raise Spivak’s [35] Question: ‘Can the subaltern speak’?

The article seeks to answer this question through the spaces and discourses produced by waste pickers labeled as subalterns. The reproduction of the subaltern within the city creates spaces that can be described as nomadic. Therefore, it is possible to search for the language of the subaltern not through the speech of other people but through their own words and the nomadic spaces (Nomadic space is a fluid, transformative, and disturbing form of space. In a sense, it depicts the stranger, the other of the city. In contrast to abstract, empty places, nomadism thrives in both unusual and familiar environments. Nomadism is not the constant discovery of a new terrain. Instead, it is subject to a constant alternation between the cyclical movements of space and territorialization and displacement. The migratory nature of identity and space across time gives rise to an event architecture and urbanism that is experienced by the nomadic entities within us. This is how the city’s nomadic geography indicates the presence of “strangeness,” which is possibly its most fundamental feature [36]) produced by waste pickers.

4. Methodology

The study used qualitative methods, covering the stages of data gathering, analysis, and discussion. Ethnography is the primary research methodology, and grounded theory is used as a data-analyzing technique with the MAXQDA program.

The general characteristics of ethnographic research, including a holistic exploration of a setting with context-rich details; reliance on unstructured (i.e., not pre-coded) data; a focus on a single case or a small number of cases; and data analysis that emphasizes the interpretation of the “meanings and functions of human action.” These characteristics can align with the general principles of grounded theory. The most distinctive aspect of ethnographic fieldwork is its tendency to rely on “observation” as the primary data collection method. While observation is common in qualitative and other research strategies, ethnographer Giampietro Gobo [37] argues that what distinguishes observation in ethnography is the “more active role given to observation.” This means that the researcher employs participant observation, which entails the active engagement of the researcher in the context of the studied society, aiming to discern the latent meanings inherent in its quotidian life. This is complemented by in-depth interview techniques used alongside observational methods [38]. This multifaceted strategy supports grounded theory, a methodological framework emphasizing the collection of empirical data and its subsequent analysis to generate theoretical insights.

Grounded theory establishes a new framework to uncover the implicit. Narrating the participants through an in-depth research process and revealing hidden dimensions as part of this critical methodology is particularly essential [39]. Significantly, this theory is used in this research on the subaltern, whose history, language, and practices of producing space have not been adequately addressed in the literature. In this context, Istanbul, where numerous layers are intertwined and the phenomenon of the nomadic city can be observed, serves as a laboratory. The mixed methodology of ethnography and grounded theory examines how the city is experienced through the perspectives of waste pickers, their strategies for constructing space, and their daily living patterns.

The constructivist type is used for grounded theory, where literature review and data collection are carried out simultaneously. In this case, theoretical research does not remain in the background, but the process proceeds with feedback [40]. In this sense, ‘theory’ and ‘meaning’ are not passive and ineffective objects waiting to be discovered but can be constantly disrupted and reconstructed due to their interactional nature. Therefore, grounded theory is employed to disclose multiple possible meanings produced by individuals [40]. This aligns with the article’s nomadic, transformational, and dynamic perspective.

4.1. Data Collection Techniques

As mentioned before, waste pickers in Istanbul were considered in the data collection phase. First, general research was conducted to examine Istanbul’s waste collection routes and warehouses. Consequently, a specific warehouse and waste route have been assessed in a region known for having the largest waste collection route and warehouse in Istanbul. Therefore, this area was selected for the study. However, due to the illegality of the warehouse and the waste pickers’ not wanting their identity or accommodation to be revealed, information about the region’s location is not provided.

During the data collection phase, participant observation techniques were initially employed. The researcher followed the waste pickers for a week, experienced their routes, and collected waste alongside them. As a result, the area where the warehouses were situated was identified, and the observations continued. Throughout this process, the researcher dressed like the waste pickers to ensure that the natural flow of the environment was not disrupted.

Memos (theoretical field notes) were subsequently created, serving as a crucial technique for both ethnography and grounded theory methodologies.

The second stage involved the interview process. The researcher disclosed her/his identity and conducted interviews with the waste pickers. Meanwhile, the researcher continued to observe and produce memos. In addition, ice-breaking techniques were employed to build trust and help the participants feel comfortable while maintaining the appearance of a waste picker.

In the third stage, the researchers re-entered the warehouse and interviewed three waste pickers who agreed to participate in in-depth discussions. This approach was adopted due to the thoroughness of the interviews, the significance of observation and memo techniques, and the fact that other waste pickers preferred not to record their interviews during the research. The researchers believed that the data gathered through observations and conversations had reached saturation. The necessary permissions were obtained during this time, and an informed consent form was signed. Audio recordings were made during the interviews, and participants were informed beforehand.

In the final stage, the spatial use of the warehouse was analyzed in-depth. Photographing and memo techniques were used in this process.

4.2. Data Analysis Techniques

The grounded theory analysis technique used the coding system to analyze the data. Here, data were grouped by constant comparison, and the first step of constructivist grounded theory, open coding, was initiated. After sorting and grouping, the initial codes emerged. The codes were developed by analyzing the information obtained from the in-depth interviews, sentence by sentence, in vivo, and event coding [41].

The entire coding system was created with the assistance of the MAXQDA program, which is vital for grounded theory and qualitative data analysis [42] (pp. 93–106). The MAXQDA program was used to transcribe the audio recordings of the interviews and to establish the connections between the statements, group them into categories, and transform them into a coding system. Meanwhile, the researchers developed and interpreted the relational code diagrams produced by the program.

After creating open codes, axial codes were generated through the grouping process. The theoretical coding phase began following discussions focused on the semantics and conceptualization of the axial codes. The theoretical code diagrams constructed here not only represent the coding of the discourses of the waste pickers but also incorporate the discourses themselves as quotations and the memos collected by the researcher during the observations. In the theoretical coding process, spatial data are also utilized alongside verbal data. This methodology facilitates an understanding of the existence of the subaltern group under investigation from a verbal perspective and through examining their spatial trajectory. Simultaneously, the ethnography approach has allowed for the creation of distinct intervals, enabling the analysis of words and spaces in an equivalent field (Figure 1). These intervals have led to the identification of selective codes and have illuminated how waste pickers exist in Istanbul, a city that has been coded as nomadic, and how they can exist rhizomatically (Formations in the rhizomatic structures constantly move and produce new intervals by making different collisions possible, and in this respect, they are allocentric. They also lack a specific beginning and endpoint. They, therefore, define heterogeneity. Differences that exist in heterogeneous communities become related to one another. Within this relationship, the state of being different transcends the state of being other. Each difference is separate from the others but not superior to one another. Therefore, there is no definition of status. Power is eliminated. Separated from the ground and the root structure, the rhizome oscillates in a homeless manner and redefines the bonds it has established by breaking them each time [43]. At this point, all the differences in the rhizomatic structure are alien and immanent to one another.) within the context of a postcolonial debate.

In the methodology, particularly during the theoretical coding phase of data processing, diagrams were deliberately employed to analyze verbal and spatial data [42] (pp. 231–252). This approach supports both the dynamic nature of grounded theory and the non-stationarity required by the phenomenon of nomadism.

As a result of this methodological approach, in which verbal and spatial data are systematically analyzed with coding systems and observation techniques playing a critical role, results have emerged on various axes regarding the daily lives and forms of work production of waste pickers. As explained earlier, these results, illuminated through selective codes, revealed the effects of waste pickers on sustainable urban practices and showed that their daily lives diverge from the predictions of formal systems but remain “free” in their own words. For this reason, it is understood that they continue their work and lifestyle voluntarily despite the social and physical violence they face. Therefore, their contribution to urban sustainability has also proven sustainable despite all the difficulties. All these results can be interpreted because of the methodological approach of addressing waste pickers in a broad spectrum and the desire to establish communication.

5. Reading Through Verbal Narrative Structures

In this section, which covers the analysis and discussion aspects of the study, verbal data is used to transcribe the urban perceptions, daily life practices, and space-making strategies of waste pickers identified as subalterns. Waste pickers were initially tracked in the selected area and then interviewed using ice-breaker techniques, as described in the methodology section. The interviews continued along their route through the city. Verbal data were collected from these interviews and employed for open, axial, theoretical, and selective analysis coding.

5.1. Open Coding

In-depth interviews were conducted with three waste pickers, whose names were changed to X, Y, and Z while collecting waste. As a result of the transcripts of the interviews [42] (pp. 41–49), open coding was first produced with the assistance of the MAXQDA program [42] (pp. 65–81). In this context, the codes shown in the diagram in Figure 2 emerged. As can be understood from the diagram, some codes were grouped, leading to the creation of super-codes. The words encircled in the diagram represent sub-codes, while the codes marked with a line represent super-codes. For example, “communal food production and eating”, “ward-by-ward food production and eating,” and “individual food production and eating” constitute the sub-codes of “eating habits”. Care was taken to include as many discourses as possible during open coding; for this reason, the codes were disorganized at this stage. Dominant and dark-colored codes indicate that the frequency of use has increased.

5.2. Axial and Theoretical Coding

The axial coding system created categories by producing bonds through open codes using MAXQDA. These categories include “the intersection between the city and waste picking”, “individual motivation”, “relationship with official institutions”, “daily life and rhizomatic situation”, “perception of waste picking in individuals”, and “definition of waste picking” (Figure 3).

At this point, to explore the thematic meanings of the categories and generate a theoretical discussion, each category was analyzed alongside its subcodes and the discourses that constitute the codes. Meanwhile, the memos created along the way were also considered, and the MAXQDA program was utilized to bond typologies. After the analysis with the program’s assistance, as described in the methodology section, the researchers re-visualized the link maps from MAXQDA and produced diagrams of theoretical codes.

First, the category “daily life and rhizomatic situation” was opened (Figure 4). Based on themes A, B, C, D, and E, one can infer that the rhizomatic and transitory nature of the subaltern’s daily life practices is reflected in spatial ties and forms of production. The states of spatial usage in everyday life are constantly changing. A waste picker may spend one day of the week in a warehouse, another on the street, and yet another in a relative’s residence.

“Sometimes I have friends, I stay with them. Sometimes I stay outside if the weather is nice. If not, I’ll go to my cousin’s. There are times when I go to my hometown.”

Participant Z (Figure 4).

This nomadic lifestyle may be thought to reduce spatial belonging and territorialization. However, since the capacity to intervene in space is significant, the bonds formed with space are also strong. When the waste pickers’ discourses used in the diagram are examined in detail, it is also realized that the attachments established with the spaces where the act of construction and destruction is possible are strong.

“I am comfortable, yes. I built it myself. Everybody who comes here does it themselves. There is always a touch. That’s why he owns it. Otherwise, it is difficult, sister.”

Participant Z. (Figure 4).

Therefore, the nomadic space that defines the warehouses and is invoked by a continuous construction-destruction phenomenon also produces a particular state of belonging with its capacity to be infinitely suitable for interventions.

When theoretical coding 2, which is derived from the category of “perception of waste picking in individuals”, is analyzed, it becomes clear that the nomadic spaces from the previous theoretical coding bring along a fundamental concept such as freedom (Figure 5). At the same time, there are severe mental and physical erosions brought about by being the other of the city and problematic relations with power.

“Especially on wide streets, you wait for cars. And they swear.”

Participant X. (Figure 5).

However, what emerges from the discourses of the waste pickers and the memos is that erosion does not change the adopted lifestyle and strategies of space construction; on the contrary, it nurtures them.

“There is freedom in this job. They can work as they want and at the hours they want.”

Participant X. (Figure 5).

This can lead to the emergence of another theoretical coding, theoretical coding 4 (Figure 6), as well as the desire to promote the concepts of freedom and justice. This situation heightened the motivations of the waste pickers and the connection they established with life.

“My purpose in life is to help the poor, to tell them the value of freedom.”

Participant X. (Figure 6).

The theoretical coding 3 for the category “definition of waste picking” relates to theoretical coding 1, 2, and 4 (Figure 7). Despite the systematic organization of the work process, the flexibility in working hours and duration affects the urban experience and route formation.

“We finish work at 8:00 p.m. But sometimes we are late, no lie. Sometimes we stay until 10:00–11:00 p.m.”

Participant Y. (Figure 7).

Urban dynamics significantly impact route formation. In this way, the relationship between nomadic space and the nomadic city can be analyzed. This leads to a new set of theoretical coding for the category “the intersection of the city and waste picking” (Figure 8). While the entire city can be seen as a home, it can also be perceived as a production area. The spaces in the city are constantly changing, but at the same time, certain bonds are reproduced through interventions.

“Now, I have to give credit where it is due. I went through a lot of difficulties, but God knows this is my home now. I can live anywhere in Istanbul. You cannot, for example. If I say to you, Come and stay here, there is no way. You cannot. I think the real Istanbul belongs to waste pickers.”

Participant X. (Figure 8).

While the waste picker’s body can sometimes be interpreted as a human body, it can also be viewed as a tool, as work production and urban experience are facilitated by a rickshaw. One can encounter the various aspects of the world one builds, from the city to the body, thus invoking both the uncanny and the potential in a hybrid substrate relation.

“Sometimes I am like a car. I stop on red, I pass on green. You are something between a human and a car. Because your job is something with wheels on your back.”

Participant Z. (Figure 8).

Finally, the theme of “political and systemic criticisms against the sanctions of official institutions” emerged, highlighting the tense relationship with these institutions (Figure 9). Here, the sanctions imposed by official institutions do not align with the nomadic nature of the related group. This creates a political underpinning for nomadic space, leading to a strained relationship between the subject and power.

“No one thinks about us. I am very angry, especially with the municipality. If they see us now, they will say, let’s disperse. It is forbidden to enter the streets with rickshaws.”

Participant Y. (Figure 9).

On the other hand, it works shoulder to shoulder with the metropolitan city, which is a capitalist formation. In this sense, it generates its criticism, thus giving rise to post-colonial debates. The nomadic space sustains the subaltern’s state of being subaltern. The individuals who created the nomadic city continue to exist as ‘the other’ due to their conflicted relationship with power. But this is also where their “freedom” originates, which aligns with their discourse.

6. Reading Through Tactics of Producing Space

While deciphering the codes related to space, researchers observed warehouses and the everyday living spaces of waste pickers. Meanwhile, memos comprised a critical component. Spatial data were collected by analyzing how waste collectors utilize the warehouse, which they consider their living space. Spatial coding was applied based on the preliminary information gathered from the memos and observations. The coding was developed through a diagram created by deconstructing a cross-section of the warehouse area to include all variable units, supported by relevant photographs. Additionally, the researchers’ sketch of the warehouse illustrates the location of the cross-section and its spatial organization (Figure 10).

The warehouse structure, its skeleton, and the spatial sections added later constitute the overall space. The skeleton of the building, which was unfinished and unused during construction, was transformed by waste pickers into a warehouse, a living space, and a production area. In this sense, as shown in Figure 10, the warehouse space includes wards, storage areas, a sorting section, a shared bathroom, an office, an accounting desk, a weighbridge, and a backyard. Each unit mentioned here is a creation of the waste pickers. For this reason, the materials of each unit differ from one another and are easily transformable. Although the wards are mainly two-storied, access to the upper floors is facilitated by steel stairs that the pickers brought in themselves. The niche-like spaces between the units typically serve a different storage purpose (e.g., carboy storage). This situation leads to non-standard but preferred spatial uses, such as jumping over the stored items or, as seen in ward Z, accessing the upper units via the stairs through the hollow in the room floor.

On the one hand, it is possible to create a temporal stratification solution. The pickers who live and work here are constantly changing, and with this, the production of space is re-produced. This leads to a multivariate reading of space. The wards generally contain bunk beds, a kitchen, and areas for clothing storage. However, the reorganization of these items with each incoming person, the changeability of materials and entrances, and the personalization of space by each new individual adding a personal item, suggest that space also triggers and reflects transformational practices, thus acting as a catalyst (Figure 10).

The diagram about the warehouse overlaps with theoretical and spatial codes, producing a form of spatial translation (Figure 10). When examining the spaces that intersect with the theoretical codes T1A, T1B, and T1C—supportive of the rhizomatic lifestyle—it is revealed that the codes “Flexible use of steel stairs changing designs of entrances with,” “Personalization of the wards by intervening at every point,” “The capacity of sections such as socializing area, rickshaw storage, and laundry drying to evolve with each newcomer, creating interpersonal bonds and personalization,” and “Transforming uses of wards according to each incoming person” show the spatial reflections of the rhizomatic lifestyle and how space has become nomadic. Additionally, waste pickers express their way of life through space via their spatial practices, unconventional spatial applications, and the constant state of intervention that space undergoes.

The spatial codes overlapping with T3C and T3A illustrate that space can be seamlessly and systematically decomposed despite constant movement and intervention. Therefore, the continuously transforming rules of nomadic space create a chaotic order.

The spatial reflection of the theoretical code T5A, “Political and systemic criticisms against the sanctions of official institutions”, was street writing. Waste pickers convey their political views by writing in every area of their spaces. As a result of the interviews and observations, it was observed that waste pickers paint the walls not for renovation but to create space for new writings. In this sense, it is understood that their expressive impulses are strong, and they use the space for this purpose.

The codes derived from the use of space reinforce a nomadic state and can be interpreted from both a political and expressive perspective. Spatial variations and the possibility of abandonment at any moment contribute to the state of freedom. This relates to the theoretical code T2B, “Parameters of unattachment leading to freedom.” Phenomena such as using suitcases as cabinets and storing provisions in their packages further support the state of non-residency. This creates a significant interface between the possibilities of nomadic spaces and waste pickers as subalterns.

7. Conclusions

All this study of waste pickers has provided a nuanced understanding of the subaltern at multiple scales through various analytical tools. It has revealed how the rhizomatic existence of the subaltern extends from the broader urban landscape to individual living spaces. In this context, the adaptability of daily life manifests within transient, interstitial spaces—between construction and destruction cycles that define the metropolis’ ever-evolving nature. Communication with the subaltern is facilitated by the traces they leave behind as they construct their own nomadic spaces.

Using grounded theory, four core analytical codes emerged: “perception of freedom”, “rhizomatic space production”, “rhizomatic life fiction”, and “political position” (

Table 2. The table on the selective coding system is reached through the whole coding system. Source: Geçkili Karaman, 2025.

	Open Coding	Axial Coding	Theoretical Coding	Space Codes	Selective Coding
	Recycling knowledge	The Intersection Between The City and Waste Picking	T6B-Generating critical grounds for recycling knowledge		Political Position
Definiton of streets	Street intersections		T6C-Effects of street morphology on body definition
	Wide streets without sidewalks
	Being vehicle
Definition of urban	Definition the city as home		T6A-The “unhomeliness” of the city due to variations in use
	Definiton the city as work
	Values of Istanbul
	Interesting things found on the route
	Hobbies	Individual Motivation
	Imagination
	The life purpose		T4A-The desire to spread the concepts of freedom and justice		Political Position
	Paper collectors’ connection with shopkeepers	Daily Life and Rhizomatic Situation	T1E-Perception of atrophy of the bond with shopkeepers
	Paper collectors connection with each other		T1C-Perception that the bond is strong despite the change of people	The capacity of sections such as socializing area, rickshaw storage, and laundry drying to evolve with each newcomer, creating interpersonal bonds and personalization
	Non-work activity		T1D-The perception that people are in charge of the temporal and spatial management of work and non-work activities		Rhizomatic Life Fiction
	Toilet and shower use
Frequency and location of life	Life only in the warehouse		T1B-The rhizomatic and transformative ambiguous fiction of life	Personalization of wards by intervening at every point
	Life in the warehouse and in different locations
	Place attachment		T1A-The production of smooth spaces and the unexpected by the daily life practices of the subaltern and the relations they establish with space	Flexible use of steel stairs changing designs of entrances with Transforming uses of wards according to each incoming person	Rhizomatic Space Production
	Room sharing
Eating habits	Communal food production and eating
	Ward-by-ward food production and eating
	Individual food production and eating
	Anger of official institutions	Relationship With Official Institutions	T5A-Political and systemic criticisms against the sanctions of official institutions	Street writing	Political Position
	Request for formalization
	Anti-formalism
Work potential	Absence of dependency	Perception of Waste Picking in Individuals	T2B-Parameters of unattachment leading to freedom	Using suitcases as cabinets, storage of supplies with their packages	Perception of Freedom
	Freedom
Problematic aspects of the work	Non-filling rickshaw		T2A-Problems causing mental and physical difficulties
	Pounding
	Ostracism
	Swearword
	Changing road
	Illness
	Slope
	Atmospheric conditions
	Prohibition
	Garbage
Route formation	Random route generation	Definition of Waste Picking	T3B-The effect of urban dynamics and street layout on route formation
	Route formation through specific points
	Number of people working in warehouse
	Monetary dimension			Ways of using the wards that transform according to each incoming person	Rhizomatic Space Production
	Working time		T3C-Flexibility	Seamless space sharing in a zone not separated by dividers
	Work process		T3A-Systematic organization of the business process

). These interconnected codes frame the nomadic nature of waste pickers within a critical discourse, illustrating how their spatial practices challenge dominant power structures and contribute to urban metamorphosis. Postcolonial theory critiques this process of othering, yet it is reinterpreted here as a conscious and strategic choice that transforms exclusion into a form of autonomy.

The fluidity of urban space has displaced traditional daily life practices into a nomadic spatial realm, where belonging is not tied to a fixed location. Instead, it involves an ongoing process of spatial reinvention. By embracing perpetual transformation and incompleteness, the rhizomatic space allows one to belong everywhere while resisting rigid spatial definitions. This mode of existence fosters engagement with the urban environment at all scales, integrating with—yet resisting—the forces that seek to contain it. Drawing on Deleuzian thought, this study positions the “other” not as marginal but as a primary agent of urban production that actively constructs and sustains the nomadic city.

At this point, the subaltern’s mode of communication extends beyond the verbal, evolving into a spatial and experiential dialogue with the city. As inherent inhabitants of the nomadic metropolis, waste pickers leave behind a continuous trace of movement and transformation, effectively “speaking” through the material and symbolic markers they embed within the urban fabric.

Ultimately, the subaltern’s rhizomatic existence, encompassing a lifestyle and spatial production system, is neither a fixed essence nor a closed system. Instead, it represents a continuous struggle for existence that perpetually reinvents itself.

In alignment with such a way of life and work production, it does not accept conventional top-down social and economic interventions. This is why waste pickers have remained behind recycling strategies and outside legal systems. It is only possible for this group, whose contribution to urban sustainability is known to be significant, to find its place in the nature-life cycle and to exist productively within the framework of social justice in the fight against the climate crisis in the name of sustainability, only by hearing their voices and accepting their way of being. This article aims to do just that and presents an in-depth analysis of their way of life and work production. The research shows that the most effective intervention for waste pickers, with their nomadic lifestyles and protest-oriented, libertarian approach to business, is not focused on the group itself, but on its environment. Some of these interventions include:

• Recognizing and legalizing nomadic lifestyles that are primarily in warehouses.
• Allowing selected spaces for warehouses to remain semi-structured and enabling users to decide on the organization and utilization of the space.
• Integrating waste collection into urban planning by ensuring warehouses are strategically placed where waste flow can be easily managed by waste pickers, considering the routes of waste collectors throughout the city, and after a joint decision-making process with waste collectors.
• Raising awareness among city dwellers about joining the fight for sustainability to combat marginalization.
• Educating local tradespeople to ensure materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic, and metal are kept in easily accessible locations.
• Establishing parallel communication channels with municipalities and supporting urban sustainability by ensuring bidirectional information flow.

This approach aims to facilitate the work processes of waste pickers and transition them out of the informal economy through legalization. Allowing waste collectors to manage the organization and production of space, particularly through flexible and temporary structural arrangements outlined in spatial planning, challenges the longstanding desire for reclamation in urban planning. Such a perspective requires local governments to reshape their approach and how they address “waste” and “waste picking.”

To create sustainable cities, waste pickers must be acknowledged not merely as laborers but as producers of space and agents of sustainability. Thus, each contribution to the waste pickers’ struggle for existence marks the beginning of a process leading to the development of sustainable cities amid the climate crisis, while learning from the diverse individuals who carry out this work within the city, liberating them from their subaltern status.