Project Shubham
An opportunity to uplift India’s balers, the invisible hands powering plastic recovery.
By 2050, the amount of plastic in the oceans is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea.
But there is another crisis that gets far less attention.
"80% of India’s plastic collection depends on waste pickers. They, in turn, rely on balers."
India’s waste management system is classified as Category 4 which is functional but unregulated.
This makes the informal workforce, especially balers, absolutely critical to our recycling ecosystem.
Unsafe and unhygienic workspaces
No health coverage or social security
No financial safety nets
No visibility into their impact
Offer safer working conditions
Enable access to identity and welfare benefits
Recognise and reward verified environmental impact
Build inclusive systems that highlight their role in circularity
Outdated or limited baling machines
Manual and hazardous waste sorting processes
Dangerous material loading practices
Overloading materials to save fuel
Channelised over 12,00,000 metric tons of plastic waste
Diverted 12 billion plastic bottles from landfills in 2023
Supported over 5,000 waste workers, including aggregators and balers
