The London School of Economics and Political Science has been awarded a grant from the British Academy for a research project on the Rubbish, Resources and Residues (RRR) to examine changes in the technology and governance of the solid waste management systems both in Ethiopia and Pakistan. In Pakistan the Collective for Social Science Research as project partner worked in two large cities Faisalabad and Karachi on "traditional municipal sweepers" (TMS). The qualitative study revisited scholarly work done on the solid waste sector in Faisalabad and Karachi in early 1990s for understanding continuity and change in the lives, experiences and opportunities of women and men from traditional municipal sweeper communities in two cities. The historically marginalised community with sweeping and rag-picking work and further analytical report also explores on the relationship between group-based identities and the "sweeping" work regarded as low-paid, unsafe, unpleasant or dirty and "contaminating" universally including Pakistan.