Labour Day 2025: Uplifting Waste Pickers Through Verified Impact
Every year on May 1st, International Labour Day honors the contributions of workers worldwide. But in the fight for a sustainable planet, one group remains largely invisible: waste pickers—the frontline of global plastic recovery.
Often working in harsh conditions with little recognition or protection, these informal workers are essential to the circular economy. Yet their efforts rarely make headlines or ESG reports. That’s a problem not only of inequality but of missed opportunity.
At Plastiks, we believe sustainability must be inclusive, data-backed, and socially driven. Our mission goes beyond recycling stats—we use blockchain technology to trace plastic recovery and prove its human impact. From ethical accreditation to funding life-changing roadmaps, we're helping dignify the people who make sustainability possible.
And on this Labour Day, we’re making their stories visible—because progress isn’t progress if it leaves people behind.
The Problem – Informality and Invisibility in Waste Management
Globally, an estimated 15 to 20 million people work in waste management and recovery, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). These individuals are the silent backbone of recycling systems—sorting, collecting, and separating materials that would otherwise pollute our landscapes and oceans.
And yet, most waste pickers operate informally, without stable wages, contracts, or legal protections. They face hazardous conditions, social stigma, and systemic exclusion. Their essential work remains largely untracked and unrecognized in sustainability frameworks.
This disconnect is especially glaring at a time when businesses are under increasing pressure to demonstrate transparent waste management and ESG compliance. In fact, a staggering 80% of green claims lack proof, leaving companies vulnerable to greenwashing accusations and credibility loss. Without a system to trace impact to the people doing the work, sustainability remains just a promise.
Plastiks is here to close that gap—by turning informal recovery into verified, visible impact.
Interested in how to verify plastic recovery and avoid unproven sustainability claims? In the next section we are going to explain more.
Plastiks’ Approach – Verified Recovery with Human Impact
Plastiks is not just a platform for plastic credits—it’s a system designed to recognize, protect, and uplift the workers behind recovery efforts.
We use blockchain technology to make plastic recovery fully traceable and tamper-proof, ensuring that every kilo recovered is linked to a verified entity and every action is transparently documented. This visibility empowers waste pickers by integrating their work into the formal economy—and most importantly, into global ESG strategies.
But we don’t stop at traceability. Through our accreditation process, Plastiks evaluates recovery partners not just on output, but on the working conditions of their teams. This includes requirements for:
- Personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Defined working hours
- Access to medical insurance
- Absence of child labor
- Maternity leave
- Gender equity in the workplace
This approach ensures that the social component of sustainability is not an afterthought—but a core metric of accountability.
And as we’ve outlined in our recent ESG Reporting Guide, aligning with these standards is not only good ethics—it’s good governance.
Accreditation That Goes Beyond Compliance
In an era where ESG claims are increasingly scrutinized, accreditation isn’t just a box to tick—it’s a commitment to doing better. That’s why Plastiks’ accreditation standards go well beyond traditional recycling certifications.
Our process assesses recovery entities on both environmental output and human-centered criteria. As part of Step 2 in our certification journey, we specifically evaluate how organizations treat their workers—from safety and wages to social protections and equality.
Here’s what we verify:
- Proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Assigned and safe working hours
- Medical insurance and access to health care
- No child labor
- Maternity leave policies and support
- Active gender equity in recruitment and compensation
This methodology ensures that Plastic Credits issued on our platform represent more than just kilograms—they represent progress in real communities.
Where others prioritize offset quantity, we focus on qualitative, measurable impact—and that’s what makes our approach to sustainability not only verifiable, but truly human.
Roadmaps – Linking Recovery to Social Good
Every Plastic Credit on the Plastiks platform does more than certify a kilo of recovered plastic—it helps fund a roadmap: a targeted, transparent plan that channels value back into the communities doing the recovery.
Roadmaps are a cornerstone of our methodology. They allow recovery entities to design or select a tailored path for reinvestment—one that aligns with their workforce's most urgent needs. Whether that means health clinics for waste workers, educational programs for their children, or housing improvements, roadmaps bring the promise of sustainability full circle.
We offer predefined options to standardize impact, but we also guide partners in creating custom roadmaps based on local realities. In many ways, as our Head of Methodology puts it, a roadmap is an educational campaign in itself—one that teaches how to create lasting value from plastic waste.
This system not only delivers impact—it proves it.
Visibility = Value – From Informality to Inclusion
In the traditional waste economy, value is extracted from plastic—but rarely returned to the people who recover it.
Plastiks is changing that.
By making recovery traceable, transparent, and accredited, we bring waste workers into the light of formal recognition. With every Plastic Credit issued and every roadmap funded, we help transform informal labor into documented contribution, empowering workers to gain social security, fairer wages, and public acknowledgment for their essential role.
This isn’t charity—it’s a model of shared value creation, where businesses, communities, and the planet all benefit.
And for companies seeking compliance and reputation-proof sustainability, this transparency delivers more than good optics—it delivers real ESG performance, backed by immutable data.
This is how circularity becomes inclusive. This is how impact becomes visible.
Why This Matters?
The world is watching. Consumers, regulators, and investors are no longer satisfied with vague sustainability pledges—they demand evidence of real impact.
In the EU, laws like the Green Claims Directive are tightening the definition of “sustainable,” requiring companies to prove their claims with data. Businesses that can’t show where their plastic offsets go—or who benefits from them—risk more than reputational damage. They risk non-compliance.
This is especially relevant when it comes to social responsibility. Labour rights, ethical sourcing, and equitable supply chains are now core components of ESG performance. That means companies must understand not just how much plastic is recovered, but who recovers it—and under what conditions.
Plastiks bridges this gap by connecting ESG goals to verified outcomes in real communities. And as we explored in our feature on Europe’s sustainable roadmap, regional leadership is pushing global change.
The message is clear: sustainability isn’t sustainable without people.
Conclusion – Partnering for People and Planet
This Labour Day, let’s expand the definition of sustainability to include the very people who make it possible.
Waste pickers are not just workers—they’re climate actors. They reduce emissions, protect ecosystems, and close the loop on plastic waste. But without visibility, protection, and partnership, their role remains undervalued.
At Plastiks, we believe that every business has the power—and the responsibility—to support a better model. One that connects plastic recovery to verified social impact, uses technology for transparency, and uplifts communities through traceable roadmaps.
Because when sustainability is measurable, people win. And so does the planet.
📩 Want to align your sustainability strategy with verified impact and fair labor? Partner with us → contact@plastiks.io