What is the name of your organization?
Plastics For Change
What is the name of your solution?
Plastics For Change
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Creating dignified jobs and sustainable incomes for informal waste collectors through ethical plastic supply chains.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Ontario, Canada
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Canada
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
In India, over 1.5 million informal waste collectors are marginalised, migrant, or women worker who are the invisible backbone of the country’s recycling system. According to UN-Habitat, across the Global South, 15 million people work in informal waste, yet most earn less than $3/day and face daily risks of injury, harassment, and exclusion.
India generates 3.5 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, with 40% unmanaged which ends up clogging drains, burning in open air, or washing into rivers and seas (CPCB, 2021). Waste collectors are caught in the crossfire of this environmental crisis, exposed to toxic fumes and unstable incomes while lacking healthcare, insurance, or education access for their children. According to UNDP, 7 in 10 earn below the poverty line and face multiple intersecting disadvantages.
This is the broken loop Plastics for Change is solving by embedding waste collectors into ethical, traceable supply chains that pay fair wages, provide social protection, and unlock access to global recycled plastic markets. We’re building an inclusive circular economy which uplifts the very people holding it together.
What is your solution?
Plastics for Change offers ethically sourced recycled plastic through a mobile application that eliminates exploitative middlemen and uplifts informal waste collectors. Traditional recycling systems rely on opaque, multi-layered supply chains where workers are underpaid and unrecognized. Our solution replaces this with a transparent, traceable system powered by a mobile app and cloud-based platform that directly connects waste collectors and aggregators to global markets.
Each batch is digitally tracked from collection to recycling, ensuring fair pricing and compliance with Fair Trade, ESG, and EPR standards. Workers are onboarded and provided with training, fair wages, safety gear, and access to health and social protections. This model transforms plastic from waste into a pathway for dignity, inclusion, and economic opportunity.
Our solution enables global brands to confidently shift away from virgin plastic by sourcing ethically recycled material with full traceability and verified impact. To date, Plastics for Change has improved the livelihoods of over 16,500 workers and diverted more than 39,800 tons of plastic from landfills and oceans—demonstrating the power of inclusive, tech-enabled recycling.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Plastics for Change primarily serves informal waste collectors—many women, migrants, and members of marginalized communities—who rely on plastic collection for daily survival. Despite playing a critical role in urban waste management, they remain among the most underserved populations, facing exploitation, unsafe working conditions, low and inconsistent pay, and no access to social protections.
Our solution formalizes their labor by integrating them into ethical plastic supply chains. Through our mobile platform and community partnerships, we ensure they receive fair compensation, protective equipment, training, and access to health care and financial literacy programs. We provide tools that track and verify their contributions, restoring dignity to their work and creating pathways to upward mobility.
The impact goes beyond individuals: by improving income stability and working conditions, we support entire families and strengthen community resilience. Women collectors gain greater autonomy, children stay in school, and communities benefit from cleaner environments. Plastics for Change transforms a cycle of poverty and marginalization into one of empowerment and opportunity, making the invisible workforce visible, valued, and vital to the circular economy.
