Inclusive Recycling

In Indonesia, waste pickers play a pivotal part in the waste collection process. Yet, despite collecting 83% of the plastic waste in Java, waste pickers face challenges like low social recognition for their work, unsafe working environments, and a gender wage gap: on average, women earn around 50% less than men.

These challenges lead to:

• Difficult livelihoods
  • Low income: waste pickers’ income is equivalent or below the minimum wage in Jakarta (2013)
  • Unstable income: variation of waste value
  • Low financial literacy and difficulty accessing financial services
• Marginalized communities
  • Structural difficulties in accessing basic health and education services
  • Waste pickers are often misunderstood by their communities, who may not fully recognize their knowledge and contributions.

• Health problems
  • Daily exposure to hazardous materials
  • Waste collected without protection against the sun, sharp objects, and harmful bacteria

Resilient and widespread waste management infrastructure is essential to prevent environmental pollution from plastic. This is unfortunately a challenging task for Indonesia given its condition as archipelagic nation: lack of sufficient infrastructure, combined with an awareness gap in local communities regarding proper separation and dispose of plastic waste has led to over 340k tons per year of plastic making its way into Indonesia’s rivers and streams, and ultimately, into the ocean

The Indonesian waste management system is composed of both informal and formal actors. Informal actors include Collection Centers, which purchase recyclable waste collected by waste pickers. Formal actors consist of Sorting Centers, which collect waste from households picked up by Sorting Centers employees. Fostering the involvement of both informal and formal actors is critical in building an inclusive and efficient waste management system.

The Inclusive Recycling in Indonesia project supports the development of the waste management ecosystem through various initiatives:

1. Awareness Campaigns: These campaigns aim to increase recognition of waste pickers among citizens and raise awareness about the importance of separating waste at the source—especially at home.
2. Professional Empowerment: The project provides comprehensive support to both informal and formal actors, advocates for improving the working environment through use of PPE (personal protective equipment), and work uniforms to improve the self-esteem of waste workers.
3. Operations Support: Waste pickers and Sorting Center employees receive support in the form of training, social support, and equipment. Social support focuses on accessing the government social security, and

promoting financial literacy, like building the habit of saving money. This strengthensindividual resilience ,especially in times of crisis.

Empowering waste management stakeholders ensures the efficiency and productivity of Collection and Sorting Centers, allowing them to:

1. Ensure their financial sustainability.
2. Increase collection rates(which has a positive impact on the environment).

The collected PET material from the project is transported to the Veolia facility in Pasuruan, East Java Indonesia to be processed into recycled PET (rPET), enabling a full cycle of circular economy. Currently the project coalition is replicating the project model in other parts of Indonesia, especially areas outside Java that are more remote and face heavier waste infrastructure challenges.