Lack of Financial Security

- 3 million Waste Pickers in India struggle to make ends meet.
- Barely earning daily wages based on the type of waste they encounter.

Health and Safety Issues

- Waste Pickers are informally employed with no protective gear as well as no Health Insurance.
- Life Expectancy of a Waste Picker is 39 years of age (versus 69 years for an average Indian) because of the dangerous working conditions (fumes, fires, dirt).

Untapped Potential of Waste

- There is untapped value in waste. 81% of waste in India is untreated (50 million tonnes every year), and half of total waste (62 million tonnes total waste every year) is dumped in landfill.
- Regularization in informal Sector can lead to more Recycling of Waste.

Lack of Recognition and Dignity

- Collection by Waste Pickers is the only mechanism to collect recyclables as of now. The informal recycling sector contributes to 95% of all recycling happening in India.
- Waste Pickers hail from the most margalised communities in urban spaces and their marginalization contributes to lack of recognition of their work to the society.

What are we doing

We, at Samarth are collaborating with brands under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Compliance which mandates them to eliminate 100% of plastic which has been produced by their brand from the environment.We are using Extended Producer Resposibility to revolutionize the recycling ecosystems for re-introduction of recycled plastic into Global Manufacturing Supply Chains. We help them in eliminating plastic from the environment through EPR compliance which in turn helps us in Improving lives of Waste Enablers with improved financial support.


Samarth Waste-Enablers is formalizing plastic collection by empowering Waste Pickers (Waste-Enablers as we call them) with better regularized rates for the recyclables they collect in form of digital Currency. We as a company want to provide Waste Enablers with a seemless experience of buying daily use items using digital currency in the form of a card. This will bring unbanked Waste-Enablers into the formal system. This fintech intervention will allow Waste-Enablers to enjoy benefits of various financial products like loans, insurance etc which will help in uplifting them. We want to provide Waste-Enablers with an Identity by enabling them with proper Uniform and ID-cards and also provide security by enabling them with protective gear and health Insurance.

Our Services


Recyclable Collection Infrastructure

Contributing to development of recyclable collection supply chain Infrastructure and upliftment of Waste Enablers and aggregators.

Empowering Stakeholders

Enabling stakeholders across the value chain and spreading awareness through training, capacity building and campaigns.

EPR Certification

Issuing EPR certification to compliant partner organisations and brands. An accountable and completely transparent system of aggregation and processing as per the EPR compliance.