Financial Inclusion and Improved Livelihoods Out of Plastics

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FINILOOP is a city-level plastic waste management programme which connects and strengthens actors along the entire waste value and service chain to help create cleaner environments for all and a more inclusive and transparent circular plastic economy. This is made possible by working together with local partners to help strengthen and scale local enterprises and start-ups, create safer and more dignified job opportunities for informal waste workers, empower communities and attract additional funds into the waste value chain.

FINILOOP is currently active in the cities of Udaipur, Amritsar and Jaipur in India (2022-2026), and the city of Lilongwe in Malawi (2025-2026).

Learn more about our expertise in solid waste management, including plastics.

FINILOOP rests on four core pillars

Strengthening business

To boost local circular economies, drive innovation and address gaps in the plastic waste management system we strengthen existing plastic waste enterprises, and through the creation of the FINILOOP Plastic Lab provide mentorship to start-ups, who are catalysing solutions to plastic waste.

Creating connection

At the heart of FINILOOP is our multi-stakeholder approach. We do not create new infrastructure but instead identify, assemble and harmonise all the existing stakeholders within a city’s waste management system to increase effectiveness and ensure sustainability.

Building livelihoods

Informal waste workers (IWWs) play a key role in plastic waste management, yet they are undervalued, struggle to earn a decent living and face dangerous working conditions.* We are changing this by building trust with the IWW community, improving working conditions, and providing skills training and access to vital services, such as healthcare.

Empowering communities

We believe long lasting, locally relevant change begins with the community, which is why we conduct awareness raising about the impact of plastic waste and promote household level waste segregation. To complement this, we empower local community groups to help drive behaviour change and reduce plastic pollution.

Our activities in the plastic waste value chain

To improve and scale plastic waste management systems globally, FINILOOP uses WASTE’s multi-stakeholder approach. This results in (local) governments, households, entrepreneurs, financiers, and other key stakeholders, having organised themselves in such a way that improves the sustainability of the local plastic waste value chain. Thereby, helping communities to live in a cleaner and healthier environment. There are many types of plastics and complex value chains that need addressing through knowledge management and expertise.

We do so by:

Raising awareness about plastic waste, its health effects and source separation at the household level
Empowering waste workers (predominately women and youth) and creating jobs
Professionalising the plastic recycling sector and introducing innovations
Integrating local financial resources and developing new finance products
Setting up collaboration with governments and development partners to make scale happen

As a result, we aim to improve the quality of solid waste services and quality of recycled plastic, whilst boosting plastic recycling rates. FINILOOP focuses on building local capacities in facilitating plastic recycling loans to improve recycling infrastructure, plastic recycling business development, and waste separation at the source.

First phase (2022-2026): India

Since 2022, with support from the IKEA Foundation, FINILOOP has been successfully implemented across three Indian cities—Udaipur, Amritsar, and Jaipur—where it has reached thousands of informal waste workers and prevented more than 5,000 tonnes of plastic waste from polluting the environment. This has been carried out in partnership with local organisations Trust of People and AspireLabs.

Expansion (2025-2026): Malawi

Building on the success and learnings from India and thanks to the support of The Coca-Cola Foundation FINILOOP has expanded to the city of Lilongwe in Malawi. Together with local partner WASTE Advisors Malawi, we are aiming to tackle the growing plastic waste challenge in the capital city of Lilongwe while creating local jobs. This phase of the programme will serve as a foundation for future expansion across Malawi and the wider African continent, accelerating progress toward a circular plastic economy, and to exchange learnings between India and Africa/Malawi.

*World Circular Economy Forum 2025; A Call to Centre Inclusivity and Perspectives from the Global South

"I wake up early in the morning so that I can collect different types of waste in ample quantity which helps us to survive. The FINILOOP team has given us a vision of being collective and succeeding through a Self-Help Group. We have now started saving money and becoming financially literate.” Sugna Devi, informal waste worker in India

Sustainability

Plastic waste pollution in cities is largely the result of malfunctioning solid waste management systems where key actors are not connected. By linking these actors and improving the sector across the four ‘Diamond domains,’ the system becomes stronger. This leads to less waste ending up in the environment, more opportunities for the (in)formal private sector, and a more effective municipality.