Plastic Pickers of Pune

In India, most informal housing does not have waste collection services with waste being discarded, thrown into rivers or incinerated which leads to air and water pollution. The women tackling waste through home collections are working without access to toilets or drinking water for very little pay. 

We have negotiated an area of land that has been donated by the Municipal Council in Pune (MCP). Nextek Ltd will donate their services and design and build a state of the art recycling plant specific to Punes needs. This will allow the waste pickers to move from the landfill, collect waste from homes and gain a fair price for materials. 

The program is designed to be taught by the Pickers to other communities, currently Mumbai. It has the potential to benefit millions, including workers, residents as well as the wider global environment.

90% of ocean plastics can be attributed to just ten major rivers, eight of which are in Asia. These are major sources of the 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the oceans every year. Early intervention is critical to prevent the plastics disintegrating into micro-plastics that are almost impossible to remove. Pune, India, has an estimated population of 5.35 million and no official waste collection services, meaning waste is often burnt or dumped into the local river causing ocean plastic, air pollution and health problems of the community and wider environment. 

 An effective cooperative of waste pickers collects and sorts 50,000 tonnes of residents waste per year, increasing local recycling rates by over 20%. They are currently working without gloves, clean drinking water or toilets. The Pickers visit 800,000 houses every day to collect waste but lack designated space to sort it meaning they are often forced to sort the waste on roadsides without shelter, exposed to the hot sun or torrential monsoons. The lack of facilities means many recyclable materials are overlooked due to the inability to appropriately clean them and those that are suitable are sold to scrap dealers for a very low price.

Pune is one of the fastest growing cities in the Maharashtra region of India with an estimated metro population of 5.35 million.

Earth Champions is working with Indias first and largest cooperative of waste collectors. It is an autonomous enterprise that provides waste collection services to the citizens of Pune. 

The cooperative has set up a small fund for educating the Pickers children, benefitting the next generation and continues to expand its collections based on community requirements. They currently collect and sort electronics, clothes, furniture, and general waste repairing and reusing what is appropriate and dismantling and recycling the rest. 

The Pickers service provides invaluable employment opportunities for women, creates a circular economy recovering second-hand items and gives value to materials that would otherwise be considered worthless. It further benefits the local and wider environment, reducing health risks from otherwise burnt or discarded waste which may end up as ocean plastic.

The Pickers are already beginning to teach women in Mumbai how to self organise into these programmes extending the benefits which could be replicated throughout India. By giving them basic working conditions, this will increase the health of the Pickers and the overall health of the city.

A simple but critical stage of the solution is to help provide basic amenities such as toilets, safe drinking water facilities and shelters to significantly improve the Pickers working conditions. Provision of workwear such as gloves, footwear and raincoats will allow the pickers to safely handle potentially hazardous waste such as glass and needles. Until this year, the 3,500 Pickers have been collecting from 55% of the houses in Pune, the MCP has given the cooperative the licence to service 100% of the cities housing. This will enable thousands more who have been working on the landfills to upgrade to uniforms and to collect directly from the middle-class and shanty dwellings in the city. It is a simple and cost effective way to mobilise citizens across the country, improving their lives and their environment. 

The next natural step to progress the Pickers well established collection program is to create the final loop into a fully circular economy. Industry has expressed preference to hand sorted recyclable plastics, particularly if it has not previously entered a landfill. This benefits both ends of the chain- lower costs for industry and empowerment to the Pickers who have found a critical role in society where they previously were shown very little respect due to the caste system.

Nextek Ltd will donate their services and tailor the design and build a state-of-the-art recycling facility in Pune to be run by local people. The facility has been endorsed by the Municipal Commissioner and Mayor of Pune who has donated land, recognising the widereaching benefits. Local engineers will be trained and mentored to adhere to high standards of environmental best practices defined by ISO’s and schemes such as Catch Plastic aiming for zero plastic emissions to the river.  The facility will be multi-purpose, acting as a depot to receive plastic collections directly from Pickers and ensuring a fair price is paid, a place to process the plastic and nearby water through microfiltration. The plant will utilise the natural resources of water and solar to supplement its power. What was considered waste will be turned into a valuable resource with monetary value which will further engage the residents with the scheme while preventing pollution.

The Pickers cooperative forms an effective and well established system that is making noticable improvements to the environment, community, Pickers and their families. The potential of their work is being hindered by the lack of real investment. To effectively carry out the collection, sorting and processing of 100% of Pune’s residential waste, it is essential that these women have water for washing and drinking, shelter from the heat and rain and a fair price for the work they are doing. 

State of the art plant with multiple functions will work as a depot to bring resources, for a publicly agreed price meaning a fair price is paid to Pickers. 

Acting as a hub, the movable shelters, toilets and water facilities can be dispatched and returned daily with the toilets emptied at the neighbouring sewage works. The location next to the river allows water micro-filtration technology to process water used, meaning it is returned to the environment cleaner than before processing. 

The recycling technology itself is more advanced than some in developed countries meaning the backlog of plastic waste in India can be dealt with safely and responsibly, benefiting the local economy and public health. 

Nextek recycling technology has examples of closed loop recycling  of many formats and types of plastics and even achieving food grade standards.

www.nextek.org

We recognise there is a big change in the way in which India is beginning to include the most marginalised people to become a force for good, collecting waste that is bad for all of us. The Pickers are highly motivated and effective. With our programs support we are able to mobilise even more people to tackle larger areas. Cooperative membership numbers have been increasing steadily for years, showing it is an organisation that works for the people and the community.

The Pickers cooperative was established in 1993 and is still growing. Estimates of 50,000 tonnes of waste was collected last year, covering 800,000 households daily. This is preventing a huge amount of waste reaching landfills, oceans or releasing fumes through burning. 

India is the third largest solid waste generator in the word. With the Pickers efforts, the recycling rates in Pune increased by 20% following an awareness campaign. Their work shows there is scope to change public perceptions of waste management.

Nextek Ltd are experts in the field of recycling. They will design and build a specifically tailored plant to meet the needs of Pune, meaning the next step in the cycle will be handled with efficiency and care to the environment. 

There are currently 3,500 Pickers that carry out door to door collections. The Pickers have recently been given license to cover 100% of Pune's residential areas, serving approximately 5 million residents. To meet this, workers will scale up to approximately 8,000. These workers are a part of a further 7,500 members who work on the landfill sites.

The program has already begun expansion into Mumbai. In five years, the program should be fully operational. This has the potential to serve the residents of which figures estimate are over 21 million. 

The aim is to continue expanding the program to other areas. This is likely to gain momentum once the recycling plant is demonstrated as a key to reaching a more circular economy. 

Using a wider frame, the marine life that benefits from the disrupted path of plastics reaching the ocean, and the knock-on effects to humans is immeasurable. 

Within the next year, Nextek Ltd would have finalised the design of the recycling plant and started construction.

Within five years, the plant would have been fully functioning, run by local engineers and making a significant improvement on Pune's environment, community and economy.

The program would have also been launched in Mumbai, with steps to scale up to a circular system in place. 

The main barrier to accomplishing the goals are financial. The initial funds for the recycling plant will need to be sourced. 

The barrier of cultural awareness of the importance of recycling may hinder the overall aim of reducing plastic, however awareness programs have shown to be successful in improving this. 

Earth Champions will continue to seek funding from various sources.

The continuation of the formal education programme will raise awareness and increase engagement of plastic waste.

India- 3 
UK- 5
Australia- 2

All part time work on this currently however will move to full time as the program progresses.

The Pickers cooperative formed in 1993 giving a unique, long term insight into issues faced by the Pickers, and the direction their community would most benefit from. Nextek Ltd has 30 years of experience in providing cutting edge technological solutions to waste and recycling issues, which will leapfrog Pune’s waste management system into a highly effective and clean process to counter the extreme waste issues they are currently facing. Earth Champions has 19 years experience in engaging local governments, businesses and inspiring citizens into engaging with meaningful steps to address environmental concerns. Combined, we believe this gives us a holistic understanding and solution to the issues of waste in Pune. 

The Commissioner of Pune Municipal Council and the Mayor of Pune have identified and donated land suitable for building the recycling plant.

Nextek Ltd will donate their services to this program. They have extensive knowledge of solutions and challenges of plastic recycling and resource management and will tailor a sustainable design solution to meet the needs of Pune, on the land donated by the Council. 

The Pickers cooperative have given a voice to the Pickers for 26 years, and directly communicate the workers requirements to become more effective as an organisation. 

Innovate UK have sponsored Earth Champions Foundation to write an in depth report on the end of life of plastics and especially film. This is how we encountered the Pickers.The Innovate UK program included four universities- two in UK and two in India, the British government and the Indian government sponsored the initiative.

The Pickers are paid a fair price for plastics that they collect from dwellings in Pune and take it directly to the new recycling plant. The more material the women collect the more income the women will earn. This will benefit them personally, as well as the cooperative that puts money aside for further beneficiaries such as children's education, health care and sick pay. The residents will benefit from cleaner streets, cleaner air and cleaner waterways.

The recycling plant will sell the new material on the open market. Several big industries have expressed their preference for hand picked and sorted recycled materials. This gives an effective entry to market for the new materials. 

The costs are kept low because the Municipal Council of Pune is donating the land and Nextek are donating their services to design and build the plant. Once initial set up funding is secured and the plant is operating fully, it will become a self sustaining business once established. 

Local engineers will be trained in how to maintain and run the state-of-the-art plant. As the local team becomes skilled at running the plant, Nextek Ltd will hand over the running operations and it will be reviewed every year to make certain that it is functioning efficiently. 

The whole program covering waste collection, sorting, recycling and resale of waste will be filmed so that it can be used as a teaching model for other cities.

The licence granted by Pune's Municipal Council to collect from 100% of Pune's residents means the Pickers cooperative are the sole collectors of household waste without any competition for materials. The existing system is unsustainable due to the low income paid for collected materials. With the new program, the Pickers will be paid a fair trade value for their materials, leading to improved income for them, and ensuring that more materials are bought to the new recycling plant. 

As the volume of plastic collected increases, the plant will be able to access a larger market, creating more revenue. The new materials, created from recycled goods will be sold to the manufacturing market, providing a steam of income to the plant. 

In the intervening period, assistance from Pune's Municipal Council, Earth Champions, and Nextek Ltd will ensure the program is technically and financially viable. Once established, it will become self sustaining as a recycling plant. 

Introductions to members of Solve’s community have invaluable experience, expertise and enterprise across sectors and around the globe. These may give the opportunity for building further partnerships to scale or replicate the program into other areas that may not have otherwise been considered.

Philanthropic organisations that can help to fund this model to other cities across India. They can be located anywhere in the world and their expertise would be most valued.

We would like to have some reputable plastic companies who manufacture machinery who could donate equipment to help deliver this important recycling plant.

The empowerment of the largest Picker group in India (11,000 members) with their micro-enterprise model is a valuable example of some of the most marginalised people who have self organised into a highly effective important initiative. We would like to see other Picker groups in India learn how they can move from landfills directly to this fair system collecting

The Pickers cooperative has worked for over 25 years to get the voices of the workers heard, and give them respectable working conditions. 

They are humble in the work that they do, asking for basic items to advance their operations such as gloves, toilets and drinking water.

A future vision is for women not to be dreaming of collecting waste from homes, but to be training as engineers and managing the recycling plant.