Plastics Upcycling Within the Waste Worker Value Chain

Partners :

S3IDF-US-Cambridge, MA USA – a public charity under Section 501(c) (3) of U.S. tax codeS3IDF-India-Bangalore, India – a Section 25 not-for-profit company with Section 80G tax exemption

S3IDF’s Origins• S3IDF’s Founders Background

• Work experience in 70+ countries and collectively 200+ years with infrastructure and development finance

• Need for New Development Paradigms• Founders’ recognition that conventional approaches to solving

development challenges were not addressing problems holistically; well-intentioned programs often bypassed underserved communities

• Underserved communities cannot escape poverty by living and working outside of the mainstream society and economy; too few opportunities; necessary minimum bundles of service access in particular: energy, clean water, and credit

• Founders believed that market-based approaches could promote inclusive growth and sustainable impacts

• Two Offices; One Mission• S3IDF has offices in Cambridge, MA USA and in

Bangalore, India

A women’s cooperative was able to gain access to a computer-aided embroidery machine, made possible with local financing and connections to

technology suppliers.

We build inclusive market systems to benefit poor and

disadvantaged communities in developing countries. People

cannot escape poverty by living and working outside of the

mainstream society and economy. We remove barriers to their inclusion by leveraging

private sector resources and mitigating the risk in business

transactions between local players.

PFC – Plastics for Change has developed an ethical sourcing platform that enables all the stakeholders to interact in a transparent manner while

improving the livelihoods of those at the bottom of the pyramid.

They work with brands to immediately improve the social

and environmental impact of their products, while increasing the value of their goods to today’s

conscious consumers.

Hasiru Dala actively engages with thousands of waste

workers on a daily basis for betterment of their working

conditions, policy advocacy and livelihoods. It also acts as a

engagement window for access and building relations with the

waste workers.

Who are the Partners in the Alliance?

4

The Problem: 3.5 billion people globally are living without access to crucial waste management services. (World Bank, 2013). In Bangalore the waste pickers handle roughly 2,100,000 pounds of the roughly 7,000,000 pounds of waste generated by the city daily, and it’s estimated that 25,000 people are surviving on this work alone.

The problem is growing rapidly, in the last 15 years society has consumed more plastic than in all of the rest of history. And in countries like India, the consumption rate of plastic packaging is growing at double digits each year. Governments simply can’t keep up with the population growth and urbanization.

Solid Waste Collection, Sorting and Recycling: Livelihoods for Economically Vulnerable members of society.

Hasiru Dala’s Role in the Solution:• Building a member based network of 7500 in Bangalore that provides for identity, and social security (health & education) for waste workers as well as advocating

at a policy level to integrate and recognize the informal sector as the city’s solid waste professionals

Plastics for Change’s Role in the Solution:• Facilitating a deal process and mobile platform to improve the supply chain efficiency and provide urban waste pickers with access to fair market prices

At the core of the project is the creation of an ethical sourcing matchmaker platform between the waste collectors and the entities consuming this waste post-processing. The project fundamentally addresses the need for fair waste prices for the waste collectors in a highly informal

and exploitative waste market.

S3IDF’s Role in the Solution:• Connecting waste workers with financing, business education and mentorship• Responding to evolving immediate waste worker needs (workshops and trainings)

5

To an environmental challenge

A human-centric approach

WASTEPICKERS

SEGREGATION

WHOLESALER

MANUFACTURER

BRAND

•EXPLOITATION

•LIMITED WORKING CAPITAL

•PRICE VOLATILITY

WASTE SUPPLY CHAIN: OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT

PROCESSOR

DISTRIBUTOR

S3IDF plays an important role in the first four facets of the supply chain, helping the stakeholders in

bankability and business support and leveraging co-finance

4 MAIN IMPEDIMENTS TO WASTE WORKER MARKET ACCESS

1. Highly opaque and exploitive supply chains

2. Financing not available at the bottom of the supply chain, which would allow waste workers to have bargaining power with subsequent stakeholders

3. General lack of policies and recognition of the sector as a whole

4. Volatility leads unpredictable incomes

SPECIFIC ENGAGEMENTS AND THE VALUE CHAIN

WORLDWIDE

BUILD CONSUMER LOYALTY PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION INTEGRATED PR CSR & HR

PRIVATE COMPANIES

COMPETITIVE PRICE HIGH QUALITY STANDARDS CONSISTENT SUPPLY

ACCESS UPCYCLING MARKETS PAID ON EXCHANGE WASTE WORKER TRUST & REVENUE

INDIA

LOCAL SCRAP SHOPS

ACCESS NEW MARKETS ACCESS TO WORKING CAPITAL REDUCE VOLATILITY RISKS

INDIALOCAL WASTE ECONOMY

GLS BANGALORE REDUCE FACTORY DOWN TIME IMPROVE SOURCE QUALITY INCREASE SALES

INDIA

SUB-CONTRACTOR BUILD KNOWLEDGE WITH SUB-

CONTRACTOR OF THE USAGE OF RECYCLED PLASTIC PACKAGING

WORLDWIDE

INDIA

WASTE WORKERS

FAIR CONSISTENT PRICES RELIABLE PAYMENTS TRUST & EQUALITY

INDIAPLASTIC INJECTOR

Entrepreneur Needs Met by the Alliance

• Social Security

• Education Subsidies

• Identification cards

• Partial loan guarantees

• Business loans for working capital and vehicle purchasing

• Mobile money usage workshops

• One-on-one business mentorship

• Transparent and accountable supply chains

• Access to high value markets

• Predictable payments

The diagram below is representative of each of the players involved in waste management in Bangalore. Highlighted in yellow is S3IDF, Plastics for Change (PFC), Hasiru Dala (HD) and Hasiru Dala Innovations (HDI), who collaborate to facilitate conversations and cooperation between the diagram’s entities to allow our entrepreneurs the opportunities to grow

their waste collection businesses

31

Apartment Complexes

pKs (Street Sweeping)

Tipping Auto (Contractor)

Transfer point

Wholesale Market (Jolly Mohalla)

Recycling Industries (Nayandhalli)

Landfill(Mandur/Mavalipura/etc.)

Kabadiwala/Scrapdealer

pKs (Door-to-door) Itinerant buyers Waste pickers (Black Spots)

Independant Homes Informal Housing

i

i

i

i

i

Figure 23: Network of actors in Bengaluru’s waste chain(Source: Information - ‘Trash-Trail’ Daily Dump, 2011, and Illustrations - Girish T.S., 2011)

i

High - value dry waste

Informal sector

LEGEND:

Our entrepreneurs collect waste from a variety of locations, as well as other waste workers. They bring their their collected waste to a dry waste collection center where they and their employees segregate the waste for resale and recycling. After the waste is sorted

they bring it to the landfill for disposal, or to a recyclables buyer.

THE BENEFITS

• Create sustainable livelihoods for marginalized waste workers

• Avoid exploitation by building transparency and accountability into the supply chain

• Raise attention & concern on recycling

HUMAN-CENTRIC

• Accelerate the development of recycling infrastructure of ABS and other plastics

• Reduce plastic pollution & open burning

• Keep harmful materials out of landfills

PLANET

PROSPERITY• De-correlate our packaging costs from the

virgin plastic volatility, at a reasonable & competitive cost

• Have a stable cost for packaging and waste plastics

ADDITIONAL SYSTEMS-LEVEL IMPACTS:• Raise the bar for

the industry & inspire additional companies to engage with the waste workers

• Raise the bar for the informal recycling economy

• Make thousands of informal waste workers bankable

MEASURABLE IMPACTS:• Number of waste workers

engaged with the alliance• Average revenue increase of

waste workers• Total recycled plastic• Total CO2 saved versus virgin

plastic

Note: Impact measurement metrics can be customized for the global sustainable development goals

Thank you for your attention