Associate professor Jens Myrup Pedersen has been nominated for a Danish SDG award. The nomination is based on the project regarding poverty and improvement of health and education among Brazilian catadores (or “pickers”, who collect recyclables and waste on the dump for a living).

The Danish SDG Award is now open for voting. Associate Professor from AAU Jens Myrup Pedersen has been nominated in the category ‘Inclusiveness Prize’. The award is an acknowledgement of Jens Myrup Pedersen’s contributions to the SDG goal regarding “Leaving No One Behind” – an area that will ensure that the weakest in society are not left behind.

Jens Myrup Pedersen’s project works to provide new opportunities for Brazilian pickers. Last year, the world’s second largest landfill was closed, and although it a good thing for the city in terms of waste disposal, the closure removed livelihoods of nearly 1,000 children and adults who survived by finding food in other people’s garbage. In corporation with students and researchers from Aalborg University and the University of Brasilia, Jens Myrup Pedersen develops solutions that will improve waste collection in order to create a better financial basis for those who work with sorting waste.

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Jens Myrup Pedersen welcomes the nomination:

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I think it is great to work on a project that solves real-life problems and at the same time contributes to the SDG goals – and makes a difference for some of the poorest people in the world.

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“Leaving No One Behind” is a fundamental principle of the SDG goals. The Danish award is given to the action or initiative that has most successfully included one or more of the groups that are at most risk of not achieving the SDG goals – and the action or initiative that have concretely improved their situation