The circular economy of India is being shaped by informal waste workers, who contribute towards material recovery and urban cleanliness, often outside the purview of formalised systems. Globally, informal waste workers recover, sort, and channel discarded materials back into use, delivering significant environmental and economic benefits; however, they work in hazardous conditions without any form of legal recognition, social protection, or fair pay. Their contribution towards meeting sustainability goals in urban areas is often overlooked in policy decisions. While the prosperous economies invest heavily in mechanised recycling, the low- and middle-income countries usually rely on informal networks of marginalised workers who cut landfill use, emissions, and raw material extraction.
Waste management in India is considered significantly complex, with waste generation of approximately 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually. Urban households alone produce 0.5–0.8 kg of waste per capita, which is projected to double by 2030. With inadequate formal capacity, only 22–28 per cent of India’s waste is processed, and the rest is dumped in unsanitary landfills, openly burned, making waste burning one of India’s top three sources of greenhouse gas emissions, or left uncollected, clogging infrastructure and contributing to flooding.
This systemic gap is filled by India’s 1.5 to 4 million informal waste workers. The absence of systematic mapping or formal recognition leaves most waste pickers off municipal registries, labour statistics, and urban planning, excluding them from health, safety, and social protections, risking a circular economy that sidelines the workforce who sustain it.
These workers collect, sort, and trade recyclable materials, recovering about 20 per cent of urban waste in many cities. Their efforts contribute to reducing landfill growth and pollution, fulfilling a critical environmental service at minimal municipal cost. In Delhi alone, 150,000 waste pickers divert over 400,000 tonnes from landfills annually, saving an estimated ₹54.75 crores in disposal costs. In cities like Delhi and Bangalore, their efforts reduce daily collection and disposal expenses by about $13,700.
India’s 60 per cent plastic recycling rate, which is over four times the global average, comes from decentralised, labour-intensive networks of waste pickers, kabadiwalas, and scrap traders. Each of them collects 60–90 kg of recyclables daily, supplying affordable raw materials, reducing virgin resource use, saving energy, and cutting emissions. They also limit methane emissions by diverting waste from landfills, preventing toxic burning, and maintaining clear drains to prevent flooding. In Delhi alone, their efforts cut 960,000 metric tonnes of CO2 annually, which is three times more than the city’s waste-to-energy plants.
These waste pickers are among India’s most economically vulnerable workers, despite their contribution. In Maharashtra, there are around 100,000 informal waste workers, with 80 per cent of them below the poverty line. A 2022 UNDP study found 70 per cent of them earn under ₹10,000 monthly, with women earning even less. Very few of them have health insurance, formal housing, or social benefits.
Most belong to marginalised castes and migrant groups and face social stigma as their work is seen as “polluting.” Women handle the most hazardous tasks for lower pay, and children are often made to work instead of attending school. Conditions are unsafe and unhygienic, with minimal protective gear and exposure to broken glass, chemicals, medical waste, and rotting food, causing injuries and chronic illnesses.
Although the Solid Waste Management Rules (2016) mandate integrating waste pickers into formal systems, implementation is weak. Privatisation in cities like Delhi has displaced 50 per cent of waste pickers by favouring large contractors and mechanised systems without offering any form of alternative livelihoods. The key challenges include low budgets, limited institutional capacity, and no systematic planning for meaningful inclusion.
EPR frameworks must include informal workers, who recover up to 60 per cent of plastic waste. Ignoring them in favour of centralised systems risks displacing over 1.5 million workers. Policies should ensure registration, fair pricing, and partnerships with informal networks to meet recycling targets sustainably.
India’s waste pickers help to cut landfill use, prevent pollution, conserve resources, and lower carbon emissions through decentralised, low-cost systems. The SWaCH cooperative in Pune, with 3,000+ women, provides door-to-door collection, segregation, fair wages, and social security. In 2018, Bengaluru’s Dry Waste Collection Centres diverted 2,871 tonnes of plastic.
The NAMASTE scheme, a joint initiative of the Ministries of Social Justice & Empowerment and Housing & Urban Affairs with UNDP, registers workers, offers ID cards, PPE, training, health insurance, and subsidies. Pune has registered 8,000 waste pickers, while Bengaluru offers profiling and machinery subsidies up to ₹5 lakh per beneficiary.
Low informal worker participation limits inclusive circularity, including carton recycling. The Tetra Pak–Bal Vikas Dhara initiative in Delhi-NCR formalises roles, improves incomes, enables welfare, and supports 3,000+ people with skills training, education, and healthcare facilities.
Recognising waste pickers is an economic, environmental, and ethical necessity. Policymakers must ensure legal recognition, fair pay, social security, PPE, healthcare, and children’s education. Municipalities should budget for formalisation, training, protective gear, integration into waste systems, and material recovery facilities with spaces for informal workers.
A genuinely sustainable, circular economy must be inclusive, empowering the workers who have long sustained it and ensuring that the environmental benefits of recycling are matched by improved livelihoods, dignity, and social protection for those who make it possible.
The writer is MP, Rajya Sabha, and national spokesperson, BJD
