In late 2023, we met Raju, a waste collector who works for a local council in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We met him because we were doing a shadowing exercise with waste workers for our research project. This illustrated book is based on what we learned from shadowing Raju. This illustrated book series publishes results of the research project “Transformation of waste management practices and policies in South Asia during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Impacts on gender equality and sustainability” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation under the Swiss Programme for International Research by Scientific Investigation Teams (SPIRIT). The project is carried out collaboratively by a team of researchers from the Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne; the School of Social Work Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland; the Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities; and the Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research.