Sachets, food waste, and crumpled paper fester and mix inside a residential trash bag in Vietnam.
A middle-aged woman rummages through the trash. She wears a long-sleeved, patterned garment and a cone-shaped hat traditionally referred to as a nón lá.
Before, waste workers didn’t take sachets because it had no trade value. It’s only until recently that they started earning income from it.
New technology by ReForm Plastic makes it possible to turn used sachets, plastic bottles, and hard-to-recycle plastics into formwork boards, bringing them back into production with up to 50% less environmental footprint compared to RDF technologies.
Photo by Evergreen Labs
“ReForm Plastic also empowers over 10,000 informal collectors by giving value to previously worthless materials,” said Dr. Kasia Weina, Director of Evergreen Labs, the venture studio behind the innovation.
The boards can be cut, screwed, nailed, welded, molded, and coated, making them suitable for use in the construction and furniture industries. Their durable nature also rivals that of plywood, cement, and high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
ReForm Plastic operates on a social franchise model, with 14 factories operating across South Asia and Africa.
This is but one component in a five-pronged systemic approach to formalize waste workers. Waste work is considered an ‘unseen green job’, according to a recent World Bank report.
Informal waste workers operate largely outside of the official waste management system. They gather recyclable materials from streets, landfills, and residential areas, selling their collections to aggregators or directly to recycling facilities.
About 60% of plastic waste is collected and recycled by informal waste workers globally. In Vietnam alone, they collect over 30% of recyclable plastic.
“Informal waste work, while vital, is highly unstructured, leading to unstable income, poor working conditions, and a lack of recognition for workers,” Dr. Kasia explained.
Without formal support, these workers often struggle with inconsistent earnings. A waste picker earns roughly 20,000 to 30,000 VND (0.81 to 1.21 USD) daily, well below the minimum wage. Informal waste workers also lack access to basic resources like protective gear, healthcare, social services, and safety training.
Making their jobs harder is the absence of waste segregation at source, inadequate infrastructure, limited recycling solutions, and a lack of transparency in the supply chain.
“Their contributions to waste management go unacknowledged, resulting in inefficiencies in the broader waste ecosystem and leaving these workers in precarious situations,” Dr. Kasia observed.
Infographic via Evergreen Labs’ From Margins to Mainstream white paper
A Systems-Focused Approach
Recognizing that the waste problem runs across the value chain—with informal workers playing a key role in addressing gaps—Evergreen Labs piloted a holistic approach to help informal waste workers.
Established in 2021, their first initiative is The Collector Network, a community hub that offers resources for health, safety, and livelihood improvement. Informal waste workers get occupational safety and health training, access to free healthcare services, and protective gear.
A business connection program then connects informal waste workers directly to 20+ local businesses. Through this component, waste workers visit places such as hotels, restaurants, and convenience stores to collect recyclables.
The partnership provides waste workers with stable income and professional recognition, while training businesses to segregate waste.
“At first, the staff at this cafe didn’t sort the trash at all, but after getting to know me, they started sorting it out more neatly. Although there has not been a thorough classification yet, progress has been made,” said Ms. Bich, a waste worker in the program.
Traditionally, businesses also charge fees to collect recyclables. The program helps eliminate these fees and provides sheltered environments for collection away from wind and rain.
Simultaneously, Evergreen Labs, together with local private businesses, established Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and Master Aggregators (MAs) in areas with large volumes of waste.
Photo by Evergreen Labs
These facilities serve as decentralized hubs where waste is sorted, pre-processed, and prepared for recycling. MRFs and MAs are designed to streamline waste processing and improve recycling rates, aligning with new environmental regulations and EPR laws.
“These collaborations also created a market for the recycled materials produced, ensuring the economic sustainability of the system,” Dr. Kasia added. To date, facilities received 1,234,744 kg of plastic and delivered 1,051,235 kg to recyclers.
The facilities also offer management roles, designated workspaces, and fair pay for informal waste workers.
To track progress, a group of experts dedicated to sustainability called EXN, developed a digital tracking system that monitors plastic waste throughout the supply chain. This system ensures compliance with EPR policies, offers plastic credit incentives, and integrates informal collectors into formal waste management processes.
The traceability system allows for the accurate monitoring of plastic waste from collection to recycling, providing valuable data that helps optimize the entire process and allocate responsibilities among key players.
For informal waste workers, this means more consistent work and fair compensation, as their contributions can now be accurately tracked and rewarded.
Since deploying the interventions, over 11,400 informal waste workers have been formalized, gaining access to stable income, better working conditions, and a sense of dignity in their work.
This has also led to improvements in waste management practices, with increased recycling rates and reduced environmental impact.
“A sustainable waste management system must integrate both social and environmental dimensions,” Dr. Kasia affirmed.
Photo by Evergreen Labs
Lessons from the Community
Evergreen Labs learned from the project that there is a need for flexibility in formalization models.
“Some informal waste workers express hesitation about transitioning to formal systems due to fears of losing independence or being subject to bureaucratic structures,” Dr. Kasia shared.
Not all integration models work in every context or in isolation—they need to be implemented with a flexible approach that allows workers to integrate into formal systems at their own pace, she adds.
“Once there is benefit brought to informal collectors, others will notice and also want to participate.”
Establishing long-term relationships and trust-building appears to be key.
Evergreen Labs has been engaging with informal waste workers since the beginning, even before the first initiative was developed. They started with research and talked to waste workers to understand their plight so that they could design interventions that truly help.
“Engaging with informal waste workers has shown us the invaluable local knowledge they possess,” Dr. Kasia underscores. “Their insights into collection routes, waste streams, waste types, and community dynamics have been instrumental in optimizing our interventions and improving overall efficiency in waste management.”
Looking ahead, Evergreen Labs is committed to scaling its initiatives. However, this is not easy.
“Scalability can be limited by infrastructure, particularly in regions where waste management systems are underdeveloped or where informal workers operate independently of formal structures,” Dr. Kasia admitted.
Sustainability challenges also arise from financial limitations, as scaling up requires significant investment in technology and training.
The organization is actively seeking partnerships with government bodies, private sector entities, NGOs, and academic institutions to expand its impact and create a more inclusive and sustainable waste management system.
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