Articles Sustainability

Empowering waste pickers via Inclusive Circularity®

India

The initiative has doubled the average household income for those employed by waste-picker entrepreneurs.

Shekar Prabhakar

Co-founder and CEO @ Hasiru Dala Innovations

See profile

Posted 21/10/2024

Environmental challenge

India's waste management system grapples with two significant issues: mismanaged waste ending up in landfills and the lack of formal employment for waste pickers, who often live in poverty despite their critical role in the circular economy. Waste pickers, who informally collect and segregate waste, face job insecurity, unstable incomes and unsafe working conditions. Meanwhile, cities struggle with waste disposal and environmental degradation.

Purpose and strategy

The Inclusive Circularity® project aims to transform waste pickers into green-collar® professionals by integrating them into formal waste management systems. Hasiru Dala Innovations is pioneering inclusive business models that offer waste management services to bulk waste generators, including residential complexes, corporate offices and event organisers. This approach provides waste pickers with stable incomes, entrepreneurial opportunities and a formal role in the circular economy. Additionally, the project facilitates the recycling of post-consumer plastic waste and the conversion of organic waste into biogas, further reducing landfill waste.

Impact and innovation

The Inclusive Circularity® project has made a substantial social and environmental impact. To date, it has empowered 27 waste pickers to become entrepreneurs, enhancing their financial independence and enabling them to create jobs for others. These new entrepreneurs have generated 300 stable jobs in waste collection, transportation and sorting.

As a result, the project has achieved an impressive 122% increase in average household income among jobholders, allowing families to save for a brighter future.

In addition, Hasiru Dala Innovations has launched a groundbreaking service called Event Waste Management, which created 24,728 part-time positions for waste pickers during the 2022-2023 period. This service effectively manages waste at various events, including concerts, festivals, conferences and weddings.

On the environmental front, the project has successfully diverted over 105,867 tonnes of waste from landfills, safeguarding soil and water health. Hasiru Dala Innovations has also produced clean energy by converting organic waste into biogas and directed plastic waste into recycling streams, reducing the environmental harm associated with burning and dumping. Furthermore, the innovative event waste management service assists both large and small event organisers in adopting sustainable practices, generating additional income for waste pickers and promoting responsible waste management.

Future outlook

Looking forward, Hasiru Dala Innovations is expanding its Inclusive Circularity® project beyond Bangalore, with new operations planned for Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. The organisation aims to increase its waste processing capacity, with plans to expand its biogas plant to 100 tonnes per day by 2026. The Plastic Aggregation Centre will also scale up to 300 tonnes per month by 2024. Additionally, they are forging partnerships with brands for fair trade plastic waste and intend to establish a large scale Plastics Recovery Facility by 2026.

Hasiru Dala Innovations is a leading, industry-recognized for-purpose company dedicated to creating a world with no waste and no waste pickers through innovative, inclusive, and circular economy business models. At the heart of all we do is our core ethos of Inclusive Circularity® - the deliberate and planned inclusion of waste pickers and informal waste workers in the evolving circular economy value chain.

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The SL25 partners - Stewardship Asia Centre, the INSEAD Hoffmann Institute, WTW and The Straits Times - are not responsible for the statements and opinions expressed by the organisations behind the SL25 projects. These organisations are responsible for the truthfulness, accuracy and completeness of their content in their applications as well as those presented on this site, which are not guaranteed by the SL25 partners. All information on this site reflects the submissions received as of 15 Apr 2025, the closing application date for SL25. Inclusion to the SL25 list is based on the particular project(s) described in the application form. SL25 is not intended as a blanket endorsement of the organisation as a whole.

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