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A plastic waste-free future for Jaipur with FINILOOP

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Waste collection vehicle going past a typical pink Jaipur wall

In the heart of Rajasthan, India, lies the famed ‘pink city’ of Jaipur. A mountain flanked place which is home to more than 4.3 million people and swells each year as thousands of tourist flock to marvel at Jaipur’s dusty pink historic grandeur. Behind this beauty, however, lies a growing waste management challenge with 230 tonnes* of plastic waste being generated each day and only a small fraction of this being recycled. A challenge which, among other waste management issues, is leading to rising pollution and poor living and working conditions for the 14,000 informal waste workers in the city. A challenge which we must step up to solve.

This reality in Jaipur is changing as local teams put their dreams of a cleaner, more circular Jaipur into action with the support of our plastic waste management programme FINILOOP:

We have a dream for Jaipur… an organised end-to-end waste management system where all the stakeholders, as in the local government, the waste generators, the bulk waste generators, the plastic value chain players, comply to all the norms of the system, not because they are afraid of penalties, but because they are aware of their duties as a responsible citizen.” – Jaipur team, FINILOOP

A third thriving city

Last year FINILOOP expanded to the city of Jaipur following on from learnings in the cities of Udaipur and Amritsar. Through working in collaboration with local partners, Trust of People and AspireLabs, activities are already well underway to ensure a more effective waste management system and inclusive circular plastic economy.

Jaipur was selected due to its vibrant plastic recycling sector with over 200 existing plastic waste enterprises, and a large community of informal waste workers (IWWs).  Thirteen plastic recycling enterprises in Jaipur have already registered in the Pollution Control Board Portal which is necessary to be able to receive extended producer responsibility (EPR) credits. Alongside this the local municipality has expressed their support with a Memorandum of Understanding signed to improve the solid waste management system. Finally, investors are also showing an increasing interest in innovative plastic waste start-ups.   

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Kavita Narwal, an informal waste worker and FINILOOP self-help group member in Jaipur, who uses an e-rickshaw to collect waste from households and shares that ‘before FINILOOP began working in Jaipur the waste I collected was always mixed, but now I am receiving only separated waste’.

Overcoming challenges

At the beginning of any journey of change it is of course vital to understand the challenges and context. In Jaipur this is no different with the following key issues identified through surveying and in discussion with the local municipality. Issues which we are working together to solve:

  • There is a lack of separation at source and collection of user fees are very low.
  • IWWs face many challenges including health issues, no alternative sources of income, earning only 300-400 rupees per day, 79% illiteracy and their children often actively being involved in waste picking activities.
  • Increased efficiency within enterprises is hindered by a lack of skilled labour, informality, limited and outdated machinery, and fluctuating prices.
  • Modernisation of the solid waste management (SWM) system (door-to-door collection) affects the informal sector and their livelihood as they often need to walk longer distances to obtain a similar income.
  • The SWM system is fragmented and there is no overarching waste management strategy that connects the different planned processing facilities (waste to energy plant, centralised composting facility and transfer stations).
Turning waste into opportunity

Where there are challenges, opportunity also comes. Through bringing together stakeholders along the entire waste service and value chain there is the huge potential to divert over 1000 tonnes of plastic a week from landfill in Jaipur and create livelihoods along the way. A dream which the local Jaipur team is on their way to achieving with a baseline survey complete and activities beginning to ramp up.

One key stakeholder group helping to drive forward change are plastic waste enterprises and start-ups who are not only innovating waste management but also creating dignified job opportunities for the informal sector. In Jaipur, Ecowrap, is just one example of a start-up identified through FINILOOP who is pioneering cutting edge technology to promote and incentivise proper waste separation at the community level. Through their app-based platform they provide door-to-door waste collection to 3,000 households each month and with AI-powered ratings reward users based on their separation practices, fostering a culture of sustainable waste management. This solution is helping to enhance recycling rates with more than 160 tonnes of plastic waste safely processed, ensuring stable and safer job opportunities with informal waste workers being trained and integrated into their formal workforce, and gathering real-time data on city waste flows.

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Angraj Swami, co-founder of Ecowrap – one of the inspiring FINILOOP start-ups pioneering cutting edge technology to promote and incentivize proper waste separation.

For Jaipur this is just the beginning. On the horizon are improvements to implementing separation at source, door to door collection, decentralised solid waste treatment systems, turning local transfer stations into material recovery facilities, improved data collection, business development, capacity building with IWWs and much more.

“As Rajasthanis, we take pride in the Aravalli mountains. We wish there are mountains, but not mountains made of dumpyards.” – Jaipur team

Join the Jaipur team on their journey to becoming a plastic waste-free city with cleaner environments and an inclusive circular plastic economy by staying up to date with FINILOOP here or reach out to our team directly [email protected].

*Data based on a characterisation study conducted in June 2024

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