Upcycling Plastic and Textile Waste into Catalysts for Livelihoods and Dignity in India & beyond

The Social Innovation

Magnitude of the Problem, and its Root Causes

India generates 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily, yet only 60% is collected and just 20% is treated—leaving 7,200 tonnes dumped into landfills each day. Globally, only 14% of plastic is recycled, with 40% going to landfills and 32% polluting oceans. The textile industry, contributing 5% of India's GDP ($108 billion) and employing 35 million people, generates massive post-consumer waste with no organized collection infrastructure. Both sectors rely on India's 80,000+ ragpickers—among the nation's poorest and most marginalized communities, often from rural migrant or Dalit backgrounds—who work in dangerous conditions without labor protections, minimum wages, or recognition despite performing critical waste reclamation roles.

During their participation in the Fabric of Change Globalizer, co-created by Ashoka and Laudes Foundation in 2017, the Conserve India team highlighted the following key factors contributing to the magnitude of the problem:

• Economic invisibility—waste isn't valued as a resource; virgin plastic remains cheaper than recycled alternatives, creating no market incentive for circularity.  
• Social exclusion—ragpickers operate outside formal labor systems, trapped by caste-based stigma with no pathways to skills certification or dignified work.  
• Unsustainable technology—dominant recycling methods (melting plastic) release 60 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne processed and produce lower-grade materials with limited applications.  
• Fragmented systems—municipal waste management is uncoordinated, with multiple unregulated middlemen extracting value while waste workers earn minimal income.  
• Capacity gaps—waste workers, artisans, and MSMEs lack training in circular economy practices, while policy frameworks fail to recognize diverse strategies like reuse, repair, and upcycling.

Based on their systems change analysis, the Conserve India team has made it a mission to transform plastic and textile waste from environmental liabilities into economic assets by creating a decentralized, inclusive circular economy that empowers marginalized communities, avoids carbon emissions, and integrates waste workers into formal markets. 

"The Globalizer program helped us step back from being implementers on the ground to becoming system orchestrators. It challenged us to articulate not just what we do, but how our work can be replicated, adapted, and scaled globally. For Conserve India, this meant moving from a single innovation, like Handmade Recycled Plastic, to building an open, collaborative ecosystem across textile and plastic circular economy where technology, livelihoods, and markets could travel across geographies.

Systems change doesn’t happen by scaling one organization, it happens by enabling many actors to move together. What we’ve learned is that openness, co-creation, and shared ownership are key. Whether it’s open-sourcing technology, building communities of practice, or co-creating policy pathways, the real shift happens when changemakers stop working in silos and start building aligned ecosystems around a shared mission." 

Strategy to Catalyze a Network of Changemakers towards the Targeted Mission

The strategy involved developing the upcycling field through prototyping, sharing technology, building data and capacity.

Some of the tactics they deployed towards the mission as a part of the strategy include:  

1) Collaborating with Partners to Inform & Involve Stakeholders in Replicating their Technology

Conserve India has made the strategic decision to open-source its proprietary HRP technology to maximize global replication and innovation, sharing collection methods, sorting processes, sheet-making techniques, and machinery blueprints via YouTube videos and formal training programs.  

• Through a "pull strategy," Conserve responds to demand from 20+ countries—including inquiries from Botho University (Botswana), World Vision India, African Millennium Foundation (Nigeria), and the British Council—offering in-depth trainings and machinery procurement support while allowing adopters to freely adapt and innovate.  
• Through a "push strategy," Conserve proactively identifies high-potential markets like Indonesia, partnering with local organizations (The Role Foundation, ecoBali Recycling, Danone Fund) to establish successful pilots that can be showcased to other countries (Congo, Saudi Arabia, Uganda).  
• Internationally, the  PlastiSkul global consortium (co-created by Conserve India in partnership with WAO Architecture, Takataka Plastics, Fab Lab Saigon, Lwanda Biotech, Volumes, and Fourth Line Ltd) has established PSK  micro-factories in countries like Uganda, Kenya, France, and India  using open-source technology, impacting territorial plastic waste and engaging local students and design schools (Leon School of Fashion France, UC Davis California, National Institute of Design India) in product innovation.  
• At the grassroots level in India, Conserve partners with 6,000 Gender Resource Centres (GRCs) under the Swachh Bharat Initiative, training women in collection, cleaning, and sorting of plastic waste, with sorted materials forwarded to local NGOs and citizen groups for processing. Women's empowerment groups are trained in sheet-making and product fabrication, able to sell independently or via Conserve's Lifaffa platform (which handles design and marketing).  

The technology's replication potential is massive: 1.8 million square meters of HRP fabric could be produced daily from India's collected plastic alone, creating jobs for 100,000+ ragpickers.

Conserve also supports decentralized enterprises like Pōsh Bag and Hunar in Kashmir (in partnership with the Indian Army) through technology transfer, design mentoring and platform visibility, demonstrating that open-source technology combined with hands-on support can catalyze circular economy micro-enterprises across diverse geographies.

2) Co-creating Skilling Courses with the Government to Involve & Integrate Waste Pickers into the Formal System

To integrate informal waste workers into formal economic systems, Conserve India co-created three government-recognized training curricula under the Skill India Mission in partnership with the Sector Skill Council (SSCs) under the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), transforming waste picking from stigmatized informal labor into certified skilled work.

• Working with the Skill Council for Green Jobs, Conserve developed courses covering the plastic waste value chain: collection methods maximizing material quality and worker safety; establishment of cleaned waste supply chains; integration of recycling technologies for different plastic types (LDPE, HDPE, PP); and entrepreneurship development.  
• With the Textile Sector Skill Council, Conserve created parallel courses on textile waste collection and sorting; operation of upcycling machinery (HRP machines, heat presses, injection moulding); and entrepreneurship development including business planning, financial literacy, and market linkages.

These NSDC-certified courses provide formal credentials recognized by the Ministry of Employment, enabling thousands of waste workers—previously invisible in India's labor statistics— to access better employment opportunities with higher wages, government entrepreneurship schemes, microfinance programs, and social security benefits.  

The courses create a standardized training model replicable across India's waste ecosystem, providing a blueprint for formalizing the contributions of an estimated 1.5-4 million waste pickers nationwide. The next step is to implement these courses with around 1000 beneficiaries.  

3) Getting Involved with the Ministry of Textiles to drive Circularity Initiatives like co-creation of the Upcyclers Certification

Conserve advocated for policy changes in the Ministry of Textiles, contributing to their  ESG Task Force and championing recognition of diverse circular strategies likerepair, reuse, and upcycling, beyond traditional recycling.  

This advocacy resulted in a major policy win: the creation of Upcyclers Certification, which certifies enterprises upcycling textile waste and integrates them on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.  

Self-help groups and micro-enterprises can now bid for public procurement contracts worth billions, with products made from textile waste eligible for purchase by government departments. This creates a semi-formalization pathway that provides recognition and market access without requiring full formalization, which can be prohibitively complex for grassroots enterprises.

4) Creating a Community of Practice for Upcyclers across India to Consult each other

Conserve India led upcycler forum, FABRIC (Forum for Advancing Bharat’s Recycling & Innovation in Circularity of Textiles)  operates as a national community of practice for upcyclers working with textile waste across India, creating a platform for peer learning, collaboration, and collective advocacy. FABRIC has been incepted along with social entrepreneurs in the Indian textile circularity domain like Material Library of India, Muddle Art, Upsurge Global, Oorjaa Designs, Upasana, Healing Himalayas Foundation, and prominent individuals in the artisan sector.

The forum convenes enterprises at different stages of maturity, from nascent self-help groups experimenting with waste collection to established brands selling upcycled products nationally, facilitating mentorship relationships, joint problem-solving workshops, and knowledge exchanges on technical challenges (improving material durability, expanding product applications), business development (accessing B2B markets, navigating certification processes), and policy engagement (contributing to EPR frameworks, accessing government schemes).  

Through this multistakeholder collaboration, isolated upcyclers become part of a movement, reducing the loneliness and vulnerability that often plague social entrepreneurs working in informal sectors. The forum also enables collective advocacy, amplifying the voice of grassroots circular enterprises in policy conversations where individual micro-enterprises would lack influence.

5) Collaborating with Universities to Advance Technology while Involving Students and building Capacity for the Field

Conserve India strategically partners with universities to simultaneously advance the technical capabilities of upcycled materials and build the next generation of circular economy practitioners.  

• Working with polymer scientists including Miranda Wang of Biocellection Inc. and Dr. Sriram Bagrodia, Conserve had explored innovations to increase HRP fabric elasticity and develop automation enabling roll production rather than individual sheets, addressing current material limitations that restrict product applications.  
• the British Council's "New Landscape India R&D" grant connects Conserve India with the University of Arts London (UAL) Fashion, Textiles & Technology Institute, bridging grassroots circular practice with cutting-edge design research for circularity amongst artisan groups.  
• Meanwhile, design schools—Leon School of Fashion (France), UC Davis (California), National Institute of Design (India), World University of Design, and many more - integrate Conserve's materials and case studies into curricula, engaging students in product innovation projects using HRP and upcycled textiles.  
• These collaborations create a virtuous cycle: students bring fresh design perspectives that evolve Conserve's product portfolio; academic research legitimizes upcycled materials as subjects worthy of serious scientific inquiry (not just craft experiments); and graduates enter the workforce equipped with circular economy knowledge and lived experience collaborating with waste workers and artisans—seeding sustainability thinking throughout fashion, design, and manufacturing sectors.

By positioning universities as co-innovators rather than external evaluators, Conserve ensures that circular economy knowledge is generated through practice, disseminated through education, and embedded in the professional pipelines that will shape the industry's future.

6) Collaborating with Design Students to Diversify Product Applications and  Inform & Influence the Field

To mainstream upcycled materials, Conserve is diversifying product applications beyond fashion accessories into apparel (windbreakers, jackets), home décor (wallpapers, shower curtains), and footwear—collaborating with design students to create prototypes showcased at global textile conferences (Bharat Tex 2025, Smart Fabrics Germany, Texworld France). Critically, Conserve sells HRP sheets as raw fabric to other designers and manufacturers, enabling external innovation and validating HRP as a legitimate fabric category like canvas or leather. The Lifaffa platform serves as a collective brand providing centralized marketing and sales for products made by grassroots women's groups trained in Conserve's technology, creating market access for decentralized producers through online retail (Amazon, Flipkart) and brick-and-mortar partnerships.

Commercial viability is proven: $160,000+ in sales, products in high-end European retailers (Benetton, London boutiques), 4,000 handbags/month at peak production, and awards from fashion industry competitions. Consumer research shows 90% of young Indian consumers are interested in upcycled products, while market potential calculations suggest $151 billion/year if HRP sheets were sold from India's daily collected plastic waste—demonstrating circular economy is economically viable at scale.

7) Collaborating Across Sectors to Involve Youth & Waste Workers in Prototyping a Circular Economy Micro-Enterprise in Kashmir

In Kashmir's Baramulla district—a conflict-affected near-border region with high youth unemployment and limited livelihood opportunities—Conserve India established its first decentralized micro-enterprise demonstrating that circular economy models can thrive even in the most challenging geographies. Partnering with the Indian Army's Chinar YUVA Centre, HDFC Bank Parivartan Initiative, SBI Foundation LEAP Program, and the Baramulla Municipal Council, Conserve trained youth and waste workers in plastic upcycling using injection moulding and heat press technologies to process LDPE, HDPE, and PP plastics into carry bags, pouches, laptop sleeves, planters, and daily utility items. The resulting Pōsh Bag brand, run by 30 youth and 10 waste workers, has recycled 1,200 kg of plastic and textile waste and generated ₹6,00,000+ in revenue over 1.5 years, featured at the ‘Unity in Style’ exhibition in New Delhi. Conserve provides ongoing technology transfer, design support, and mentoring, while the enterprises sell products independently or through the Lifaffa platform, creating a sustainability model that doesn't require continuous dependency.  

Beyond plastics, Conserve is conducting a Kashmir Wool Valorisation Study addressing the indigenous wool sector's 98% production wastage by innovating on "waste to felt" and "waste to yarn" strategies using solar-powered, decentralized scouring and carding equipment. A Women's Leadership Program (in partnership with Yuni) provided online training for 18-35 year old women covering goal setting, team collaboration, stress management, and assertive communication—building confidence for leadership and entrepreneurship roles.  

8) Co-creating a Transdisciplinary Research Framework — and Putting the Social Dimension of Circularity on the Global Policy Agenda

Together with fellow Ashoka Fellows Maria Almazan (Spain) and Dr. Lis Suarez Visbal (Canada), the three identified shared gaps — the missing social dimension of circularity, the disconnect between local practice and global value chains, the absence of gender equity in circular frameworks — and secured joint funding to address them.  

The result was a four-year transdisciplinary research project exploring the intersection of gender, textiles, and circular economy across three countries titled “Towards an Inclusive and Just Circular Economy Transition in the Textile & Apparel Value Chain”.  The project brings together researchers, industry actors and civil society in India, Spain and the Netherlands to co-create future scenarios for a more inclusive and circular fashion system.

As part of the PhD research led by Lis Suarez Visbal at Utrecht University, a dedicated India case study was undertaken with research leadership and field support from Conserve India. The study examined the social impacts of circular strategies within the textile and apparel value chain, combining insights from businesses, workers, NGOs, and policymakers. Conserve India played a key role in conducting the India-based research, contributing field evidence, stakeholder engagement, and contextual understanding of circular textile practices such as repair, resale, remanufacturing, and recycling.  

This collaboration enabled the research to integrate academic frameworks with real-world circular economy initiatives, helping generate policy insights toward a more just and inclusive circular transition in the global textile sector.