Plastic For Change India Foundation

The organisation aims to strengthen waste collector communities, enabling them to fully exercise their fundamental human rights. It achieves this by facilitating:
1. Enhanced health, nutrition, and water security
2. Quality education opportunities
3. Advocacy for social and human rights
4. Emergency relief support

The mission is to empower economically self-sufficient waste collectors, particularly women, by offering avenues for improved prospects. The organisation achieves this through:
1. Financial literacy workshops
2. Professional skill enhancement
3. Access to financing and loans
4. Fostering women entrepreneurs

The objective is to enhance India's plastic collection infrastructure by elevating transparency, efficiency, and income prospects for grassroots plastic collectors. Additionally, it builds innovation and engagement capabilities within the informal waste ecosystem, the backbone of recycling. The key areas of focus include:
1. Achieving 100% traceability
2. Establishing health and safety governance systems
3. Ensuring social and environmental governance and compliance
4. Promoting research and innovation

States

Karnataka

In collaboration with Essence, the foundation has recently erected a fair-trade plastic collection booth at Ullal Beach in Mangalore, India. This kiosk serves as a drop-off point for beach visitors and informal waste collectors to deposit their plastic waste.
All waste collected at this facility is integrated into the recycling processes, and the foundation offers financial incentives to informal waste collectors who contribute significant quantities of plastic waste from the region.

An innovative dual-intervention initiative, the recycled plastic homes employ a novel approach to convert challenging-to-recycle plastic waste into dwellings for low-income informal waste collectors in India. This addresses both the problems of plastic pollution and homelessness.
Having initiated this effort with the 'Namma Manne' project in collaboration with The One Movement, the foundation is expanding its impact by partnering with Kimberly-Clark to construct an additional 15 homes in Karnataka, providing housing solutions for informal waste collector communities.

The Plastics For Change Foundation collaborated with Klean Kadal and the Town Municipality council to orchestrate beach clean-up initiatives at Ullal and Surathkal beaches, united in their mission to advocate for pristine shorelines and marine preservation.
A dedicated group of 150 volunteers, encompassing college students, waste collectors, urban local bodies, and the coastal community, actively participated in the clean-up effort, covering a vast 4-kilometer stretch of coastline and successfully removing 1.25 tons of waste.

Waste pickers face a heightened risk of health issues, with a significantly higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms like chronic cough and stomach problems such as nausea and diarrhea. Lack of access to healthcare services compounds these risks, often resulting in acute respiratory and skin ailments due to the hazardous working conditions in their communities.
The primary goal was to uplift waste collectors and establish a framework to enhance their livelihoods. In collaboration with local hospitals, the foundation organized health check-ups and awareness campaigns for 1,070 individuals.
The foundation supplied assistive devices to three children with disabilities. These devices enable individuals to harness their abilities, empowering them to overcome their disabilities and lead more fulfilling lives.

The foundation equipped children, placing a special emphasis on Mathematics, Science, and English, to offer them the best opportunities for becoming empowered citizens. In response to the pandemic, the foundation embraced a hybrid learning approach, extending both offline and online after-school teaching support to 188 children.
The foundation transformed an old shed into a creche facility, enrolling 15 children who benefit from a secure learning environment and receive nutritious meals daily.
The foundation granted scholarships to 15 deserving older students, supporting their pursuit of higher education.