Colombia is considered a pioneer in inclusive recycling in Latin America and the state-led
formalisation policies are considered a referent for the socio-economic inclusion of waste pickers
beyond the region. Nevertheless, more than 60,000 waste pickers in Colombia are struggling to
remain in place despite these inclusive recycling and formalisation policies. This paper examines the
implementation of formalisation policies and their consequences for the population of waste pickers
by comparing evidence from two Colombian cities: Bogotá and Cartagena de Indias. The paper
draws on extensive qualitative community-based research methodology with waste pickers in both
cities guided by an interdisciplinary epistemological position to support Colombian waste pickers’
political struggle for recognition from a theoretical reflection. This paper shows how formalisation
policies became a mechanism of manifold dispossessions in both cities. This paper categorises three
forms of enclosures faced by waste pickers: (a) material and socio-economic; (b) bodily and spatial;
and (c) political and organisational. Finally, this paper concludes by urging to consider the situated
social, political, and cultural facets of waste pickers’ labour to enhance grassroots reflections on how
to achieve greater levels of social justice and inclusion.