Building a Future for Women in South Asia's Plastics Waste Management

This report focuses on the role of key stakeholders (policy makers, waste management practitioners, civil society, informal workers' organizations, and the private sector) in contributing to pollution reduction in South Asia while also enhancing livelihood prospects for informal waste workers-the most vulnerable of whom tend to be women. The report also demonstrates how reducing pollution and enhancing livelihood prospects are commercially sound strategies for companies and investors. Through examining the role of women in South Asia's plastic waste management systems and the challenges they face the report provides recommendations for collaborative action to improve and safeguard women's livelihoods in this sector More specifically, it examines the role of women in South Asia's plastic waste management systems and the challenges they face and provides recommendations for collaborative action to improve and safeguard women's livelihoods in this sector. Plastic pollution requires 'upstream' (waste prevention, such as reuse and repair) and 'downstream' (waste management, including recycling) solutions (Pew and SYSTEMIQ 2020). Upstream and downstream solutions fall under the broad definition of 'materials management'. The report focuses primarily on the 'downstream' aspect and key vulnerable actors, who face an imminent threat of displacement, but highlights the need to better understand and engage with vulnerable actors within upstream solutions as well