An initiative of H&M Foundation in Bengaluru has turned waste collected by plastic waste pickers into 152 million buttons. These buttons are being featured on garments sold worldwide.
Ensuring sustainability completely, the buttons are traceable down to the source of the waste along with names of the workers, social security, salaries and working conditions at the aggregation centre.
Launched in 2020, this first-of-its-kind US $ 11 million initiative, Saamuhika Shakti, was targeted to address the gaps in the system that keep Bengaluru waste pickers in poverty and exclusion. Now, plastic waste collected by informal waste pickers is becoming a valued resource in the fashion and textile industry.
As per H&M Foundation, Saamuhika Shakti unites ten local experts and NGOs across sectors in a holistic ecosystem in Bengaluru, aiming to equip waste pickers to lift themselves out of poverty.
The initiative has already impacted 32,000 people in the community in various aspects like education, health and safety while contributing to a circular economy.
Maria Bystedt, Strategy Lead, H&M Foundation says, “If we collaborate holistically to circularity, we can catalyse solutions that allow both people and planet to thrive. By addressing challenges related to waste pickers’ lives, they have the potential to lift themselves out of poverty as well as contribute to a global circular system.”
