“Invisible superheroes”: Unilever and UNDP uplift informal waste pickers in India while driving plastic circularity

03 Feb 2023 --- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) are partnering to launch an Inclusive Circular Economy project to promote the social inclusion of Safai Saathis – or waste pickers – in the country. 

The project focuses on the end-to-end management of plastic waste by promoting the segregation of waste at source, collection of the segregated waste, and setting up material recovery facilities (MRFs) for recycling all kinds of plastic waste along the value chain. 

“To initiate end-to-end plastic waste management, the project set up MRFs – called Swachhta Kendras – in partnership with municipal corporations across India,” Saloni Goel, head of circular economy at UNDP tells PackagingInsights.

“The project establishes and operationalizes Swachhta Kendras for strengthening plastic and dry waste management, in partnership with municipal corporations. The Swachhta Kendra is a modern facility equipped with machines to segregate and process waste received from municipalities. Here specific plastic wastes like PET, LDPE and HDPE are segregated, processed and baled before being transported to recyclers. The project also promotes awareness and conducts behavior change campaigns to improve source segregation and responsible consumption.”

The HUL-UNDP initiative focuses on the end-to-end management of plastic waste by promoting the segregation of waste at source.The partnership will scale the capabilities of Urban Local Bodies in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Cuttack and Kolkata, to adopt the MRF model for plastic and dry waste management in other cities through online and in-person training and study tours for local governments. 

Social inclusion
In India, waste pickers form a part of the informal sector with little to no protection from the hazards of landfills. They often go unrecognized and uncompensated by their local governments while working in undignified conditions. 

Last December, the global plastic pollution treaty negotiations officially recognized the role of up to 56 million people working informally to collect plastic packaging trash across the globe.

The HUL-UNDP partnership supports this sector by providing fixed incomes to the waste pickers and linking them to a minimum of two government welfare schemes. The schemes include health care, food security, education for children of waste workers, financial inclusion and pension.

UNDP India conducted a socio-economic survey of 9,300 waste pickers last January, reaffirming their work’s “highly informal nature.”

“Safai Sathis, or waste pickers, are the invisible environmentalists and play a significant role in waste recycling in India. The social inclusion of informal workers is crucial for sustainable plastic waste management,” says Amitabh Kant, CEO at NITI Aayog (the chief public policy think tank of the Government of India).

The UNDP-HUL partnership also contributes to the Government of India’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0 by promoting waste segregation at source at the household level and creating “garbage free cities” across India.

HUL CEO and managing director Sanjiv Mehta says, “We need collaborative efforts toward effective waste management. Our vision is one where key stakeholders work together to ensure the problem of plastic waste is systematically and efficiently addressed.”The partnership is the first-of-its-kind attempt to promote the social inclusion of waste pickers at this scale in India.

“The partnership between HUL and UNDP is a holistic and replicable model that promotes plastic circularity and collective action. The partnership will also promote the social inclusion of the invisible superheroes of our society, Safai Saathis, at scale.”

Raising the standard of living
Goel tells us that the integration of waste pickers is an important pillar of the project. The interventions to drive this inclusion are two-fold. 

“One is to improve the livelihood and working conditions of Safai Saathis engaged at Swachta Kendras, and the other is improving their well-being, reducing inequality and promoting social inclusion by providing the support and services to ensure they can access their rights.”

The MRF is a state-of-the-art facility where the Safai Saathis are employed. HUL and UNDP are working to provide them “dignified livelihoods” with modern machinery and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, including separate toilets for men and women, changing rooms, etc. 

The waste pickers are also provided with safety gear for work, like PPE, helmets and shoes. “The project also organizes trainings for Safai Saathis to increase awareness amongst them for occupational health and safety hazards, food and nutrition, menstrual health, sexual harassment and skilling to improve employability,” shares Goel.

Plastic circularity 
The project builds on HUL’s existing partnership under UNDP’s flagship Plastic Waste Management Programme, through which the company shares that the two have reached out to 100,000 households on source segregation diverted 8,000 metric tons of plastic waste from landfills and operationalized three model Swachhta Kendras in Mumbai, India.

According to NITI Aayog CEO, the social inclusion of informal workers is crucial for sustainable plastic waste management.“HUL is committed to managing plastic waste responsibly through its framework of less plastic, better plastic, and no plastic,” a company spokesperson tells PackagingInsights.

“We are working on innovative solutions to drive consumer behaviour change and enable reuse of plastic packaging. For instance, piloting refill stations with a small number of our Home Care brands. Consumers are incentivised if they get their own bottles thus encouraging reuse of packaging.”

Additionally, the spokesperson shares that HUL has a comprehensive program to collect and process post-consumer plastic waste. “Our programme covers all 36 states and union territories of India through collection partners in over 160 locations. In 2021, HUL reached the milestone of collecting over 100,000 tons of plastic waste, which is more than the plastic packaging we use annually. HUL is fully compliant with single-use plastic basis Plastics Waste Management Rules as defined by the government,” the spokesperson asserts.

Shoko Noda, resident representative at UNDP India adds: “Plastic waste is one of the most concerning challenges of our times.”

“The plastic waste management program promotes an innovative multi-stakeholder model between municipal corporations, corporates, Safai Saathis and people to work together for cleaner and greener cities. It also gives Safai Saathis, the face behind the country’s waste management system, a stable income and dignified lives. HUL is a leading partner, and I am thankful for their continued support of the program.”

Last July, the government of India imposed a broad single-use plastic ban. However, the legislation caused massive disruption to India’s 50,000 plastic manufacturing units, primarily small and medium-sized companies that combined employ approximately 400,000 people.

Moreover, roughly five million people in India depend on the informal waste economy – collecting trash from public dumps and taking them to recycling centers. These waste pickers face uncertain futures, and the UNDP-HUL partnership’s efforts to upskill the sector could prove beneficial.

By Radhika Sikaria