The Role and Experience of Women in Plastic Waste Management

This sector is operated on unregulated, purely market driven demand and supply, and often employs thousands of individuals in any urban context. Women constitute a sizeable portion of the informal plastic waste management workforce. They find themselves facing disproportionate exploitation and marginalization due to low pay, tough hours, no social security net, limited opportunities with little or no support and the pressure to earn money alongside executing traditional ‘womanly’ duties such as caregiving. This factsheet examines the gendered experiences of women in plastic waste management, based on literature evidence and first-person narratives.