Sustainability Fails Without Inclusion

Not long ago, I was walking through a bustling market, the kind filled with the chatter of sellers, the scent of fresh produce, and the vibrant colours of daily life. But what caught my attention wasn’t a stall or a product. It was a woman, wearing faded coveralls, bent over, quietly picking up discarded plastic bags from the gutter.

She worked silently and methodically. Her hands were gloved, but her face was bare. People walked past her, stepping over her broom like she didn’t exist. Some wrinkled their noses, others shifted away, as if her presence made the place less clean instead of more. Yet, behind her, the street was spotless. And still, no one looked her in the eye.

I found myself reflecting deeply; is it truly fair or socially acceptable that those who work tirelessly to support environmental sustainability are treated poorly, often without adequate compensation or recognition?

We love clean spaces. We admire order, hygiene, and neatness. We celebrate it with hashtags, post photos of sparkling offices and tidy streets, and praise those who promote beautification. But somehow, we’ve created a world where the person doing the cleaning is seen as less valuable than the result of their work.

In cities and communities across the world, waste pickers, street sweepers, sanitation workers, and informal recyclers are doing work that protects our health and sustains our environment. They are the reason flies aren’t swarming our markets, the reason our drains aren't blocked by plastic, and why many public spaces remain liveable. Yet, these individuals are often underpaid, underappreciated, excluded from formal systems, and stigmatized simply because their job involves touching what others throw away.

There is a painful irony in all of this. We speak of sustainability and environmental responsibility, but we forget the hands that make it possible. We value cleanliness but overlook the cleaner. This forces us to confront uncomfortable truths.

The value we assign to cleanliness becomes incomplete when we ignore the identity and dignity of the key players. Without acknowledging and supporting those who make sustainability possible through their unseen labour, achieving our sustainable goals in the nearest future might be challenging.

To build a sustainable future, we must also build an inclusive one; one where sanitation workers and waste pickers are treated with dignity. One where their health, safety, and livelihoods are protected. One where society acknowledges that cleaning is not shameful, it is essential.

If we truly want a cleaner world, then we must ensure the path to it is fair, inclusive, and respectful to all. It’s not enough to clean the environment. We must clean up our mindset too.

Let’s not just clean the world, let’s make it fair.