We might look at a discarded plastic bottle and see it as no more than a piece of rubbish, but through the eyes of waste workers, Megha and Rama in Jaipur, it is the key to a more prosperous future.
In the city of Jaipur, you will find Megha and Rama working alongside eight other dedicated women to collect, sort and sell waste materials. A process they have refined and professionalised with the help of FINILOOP to create the beginnings of a micro-enterprise they hope to grow and expand in years to come.
Before joining hands to improve their future, this group of hard-working women went door to door individually collecting mixed plastic waste and selling this on to an aggregator for sorting, often walking for miles. Work that provided them with meagre income, no contract, no security and no power to negotiate on price.
All this changed when they met the local FINILOOP team in their community and were motivated to form a self-help group; a space for informal waste workers to share experiences and recognise and collectively address challenges. A group which soon expanded to 10 members led by Megha as president and Rama as treasurer.
Unlocking the true value of waste
Understanding how to recognise different types of waste and their value was a vital first step on this journey. Through training provided by community mobilisers soon the group was able to recognise high value plastics and sort waste into different categories unlocking its true economic potential.
Armed with this knowledge, the group is now recovering cleaner materials sorted into categories rather than delivering mixed bundles of plastic waste to aggregators. Freeing them from non-negotiable meagre prices.
“We can hold it and decide the rate of that particular plastic as we have the knowledge of what goes at what rate.’’ – Megha
Unlocking the power of saving
As well as pooling collected plastic waste, each member of the group sets aside 300 rupees a month into a collective savings account. Something which previously lay out of reach for the group with no access to a bank account.
With the support of FINILOOP, each group member now has an identity card, unlocking basic social services for the group and the power to open a bank account.
With savings secured, the group no longer relies on unfair high money lending rates and can instead rely on one another during times of crisis:
“We collect money in our group, and we no longer have to take money from outside with high interest. For example, when my husband gets sick, I don’t take the money from outside I borrow money from our group.” – Megha
Unlocking business opportunities
With a new sense of economic independence and savings in hand, the group made the collective decision earlier this year to rent a space where they can store and sort collected waste. A decision which has unlocked fruitful business opportunities.
Dividing up responsibilities, organising well and having space to store recyclables means that now every 15 days collected waste is separated. The clean, sorted waste is then delivered to aggregators once ready, rather than relying on time-consuming daily deliveries.
Efficiency which means that, although the same amount of waste is being collected, it is being transformed into higher quality waste and increasing group member’s income by an amazing almost 50%.
Unlocking the future
For Megha and Rama this has brought economic independence and the power to decide on a better future for their children, their community, and their family.
Looking to the future they want to scale and earn more money with a bigger space, more waste and increased skills. Rama shares:
‘We also want to learn how to make things. They will give us training on how to make things.’’
With the help of FINILOOP they are on the path to turning this into a reality with training on how to comply with regulations and access to government schemes providing upcycling skills.
We celebrate that in Jaipur what started as two self-help groups, has now risen to 22 groups each on the path to unlocking their future through the untapped power of waste.
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.
