Recycling of plastic waste in India boosting incomes of women

Waste collectors, or ragpickers as they are known more colloquially in the cities of Bhopal and Indore, in Madhya Pradesh state, are being encouraged to hand over plastic waste to local collection centers.

The recycling of the plastic waste in India is boosting the incomes of impoverished women and helping build roads and fire cement furnaces, thanks to supporting from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Waste collectors, or ragpickers as they are known more colloquially in the cities of Bhopal and Indore, in Madhya Pradesh state, are being encouraged to hand over plastic waste to local collection centers.

Single-use plastics, which would have ended up in landfill sites, are now being used to fuel cement furnaces and build roads, providing an additional income source for the ragpickers.

The project, under the Global Environment Facility's (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP), implemented by UNDP, has been so successful that it has been extended across India and has been replicated in neighboring Bangladesh.