Kashtakari Panchayat (KP) operates India’s first large-scale, fully traceable, and socially inclusive Multi-Layered Plastic (MLP) collection and recycling system. Built in partnership with SWaCH and ITC Limited, the initiative demonstrates how a difficult-to-recycle material can be recovered responsibly while strengthening waste picker livelihoods. Over the last six years Pune’s waste pickers have segregated and sold over 5200 MT of MLP into this system– earning a stable additional monthly income and protecting the environment by diverting these plastics away from landfills and cement kilns.
Why MLP?
MLP—chips packets, biscuit wrappers, snack pouches—is made of multiple layers of polymers and metallised films. The 2021 Pan-India Brand Audit revealed that 35% of all plastic waste is MLP– a staggering 3.29 million tonnes each year. It is light, bulky, low-value, and extremely hard to recycle, choking up our waste streams. Pune generates close to 15 MT of MLP each day! Waste pickers interact with large volumes MLP everyday, but without any remuneration. We decided that we needed to change this.
How the model works:
The MLP initiative creates a complete, end-to-end system that begins with doorstep waste collection, where SWaCH waste pickers recover clean, source-segregated multi-layered plastic directly from households each morning. This material is purchased from them at ₹5/kg at feeder points across the city by a fleet of tempo trucks that run dedicated MLP routes. They transport it to PMC-provided satellite sheds, where it is consolidated before being taken to a Sorting Baling Centre. There, a trained team of waste pickers prepares the material for recycling by sorting and baling it. Because the MLP is collected clean and handled through a controlled system, it can go to authorised recyclers for board- and granule-making rather than to cement kilns. The model is sustained through viability gap funding– supported by ITC, ensuring fair payment to waste pickers and a stable pathway for low-value plastics to be responsibly recycled.
Impact
Transforming Livelihoods
- 1000+ waste pickers reached
- ₹750: average increase in additional monthly incomes of waste pickers
- 28 waste pickers employed full time at above minimum wage salaries at the SBC
- 9 tempo drivers employed across the city
Environmental Gains
- Over 5,000 MT of CO₂e emissions prevented, by diverting MLP from cement kilns and WTE plants, and sent for mechanical recycling
- Reduction in street-level burning, dumping of waste, and microplastic leakage
City-level Fiscal Gains
- Saved Pune’s taxpayers over ₹3.5 million (~$42,000) annually in reduced transportation costs.
What Waste Pickers (have to) Waste
Click to read our latest report on the MLP initiative, the economics of managing this difficult material, and the policy changes needed to make low-value plastic recovery both financially viable and genuinely inclusive.
Visit us/ Partner with us
The MLP initiative is open to engagement from municipal officials, researchers, CSR and sustainability teams, waste worker organisations, and civil society groups interested in understanding or strengthening inclusive plastic recovery systems. To arrange a visit, explore partnerships, or collaborate on research, please contact Kashtakari Panchayat.