Around 300 scrap and waste collection centers and vehicles in Tehran were sealed.
The CEO of the Waste Management Organization announced that 140 to 150 scrap yards and centers in Tehran were sealed and closed during the Nowruz holidays this year, in collaboration with the prosecutor.
On Sunday, April 8, Reza Mohammadi announced that in the past six months, 150 unauthorized waste collection vehicles have also been confiscated.
Mr. Mohammadi criticized the fact that, despite the criminalization of scavenging in the waste management law, no heavy fines have been imposed so far.
In recent years, reports about the scavenging phenomenon, especially the poor conditions of children engaged in waste collection, have been repeatedly published in Iranian media. However, official institutions in Iran have never provided accurate statistics on the number of people collecting waste.
In 2020, Tehran’s municipality announced the number of scavengers in the country to be around 14,000, estimating that about 4,700 of them, mostly children, were active in the city of Tehran.