Women creating jobs in the waste Industry in India

The Indian company Gemcorp is working to create efficient, fair, and formalized value chains for plastic across India, offering different solutions depending on the state.

In Kerala, the authorities have entrusted the women’s cooperative with collecting plastic waste from households, which has proven to be more efficient than if the municipalities were to do it themselves. Households pay a fixed fee to the cooperative, which forms an essential part of the women’s income. The result is a system that employs women who were previously not a part of the workforce, while plastic waste is efficiently recycled.

See how the system works:

Formalized Value Chains

The plastic collected by the women’s cooperative is sent into GemCorp's recycling system, which ensures that the collected plastic is recycled.

– The women receive better physical facilities and get their wages paid into bank accounts, not in cash. This way, they become part of a formal circular economy that can be replicated in any part of India, says Vikas Chhajer, Director of Sustainability and Strategy at Gemcorp. He adds that they require all transactions they are involved in to be cashless

Several Stages

– The women go door to door, collecting plastic waste and bringing it to their nearest collection point, where it is roughly sorted. From there, it is transported by truck to a sorting facility, where it is finely sorted before being sent for recycling, says Sooraj Abraham, founder of the non-profit organization Plan@earth.

Plan@earth operates the sorting facility where the waste is processed after the initial sorting. Abraham says the facility is one of the largest in Kerala right now, where they ensure the plastic is sorted into different plastic fractions. Once the plastic is fully sorted, it is fed into a baler, which compresses the plastic into a much more manageable and space-saving size.

This means that more plastic can fit into each truck transporting the waste to the recycling facility. Overall, efficiency increases by eight to 20 times.

– The balers (compactors) are a game changer, Chhajer explains, adding that they can now utilize space much better without additional costs, and transportation expenses have significantly decreased.

Plenty of opportunities

GemCorp sees enormous potential in the project and aims to expand it across India and possibly to other countries.

Through the project, they aim to reduce plastic littering while changing people’s perception of waste and recycling. By offering high-quality recycled plastic to brand owners, they also provide this group with the opportunity to become more circular.

Additionally, the project is a way to ensure that the underprivileged in society gain access to economic stability, sanitation, and medical facilities. The women’s improved financial situation also allows them to provide better education for their children.