SWaCH Plus, supported by ITC Limited and in association with the PMC, has collected over 1,000 metric tonnes of multi-layered plastics and diverted them away from landfills and cement plants. This initiative has contributed to a direct increase in income for waste pickers and emissions reduction of over 1,030 Tonnes of CO2 Equivalent.

Designed as an ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ initiative, the model demonstrates the success of a Brand Owner (ITC Limited) working directly with a collective of informal waste pickers (SWaCH Plus) to create a market value for recovering and processing a difficult-to-recycle material.

Due to the physical properties and heterogenous mixture of materials in multi-layered plastic sachets, the quality of output and therefore the cost recovery from processing and/or recycling is very limited, barely covering the cost of compensation to waste pickers, transportation, aggregation, sorting and baling. ITC Limited covers the viability gap of the operations, allowing this initiative to continue at break-even costs.