India's 4 Million Waste Pickers Remain Absent from Climate Policy

India's informal waste pickers — estimated at between 1.5 million and 4 million workers — manage 60 to 70 per cent of urban recyclable waste and underpin the country's recycling system, yet they remain largely absent from national climate and waste policy frameworks. Satellite analysis published in April 2026 by Carbon Mapper and the Stop Methane Project at UCLA identified Indian landfill sites in Secunderabad and Mumbai among the world's largest methane emitters.

India generates tens of millions of tonnes of solid waste annually, much of it directed to open dumps rather than engineered landfills. Delhi's Ghazipur landfill, accepting waste since 1984, has grown taller than 70 metres despite being designated for closure in 2002. Researchers using satellite and GHGSat data have detected significant methane plumes over both Ghazipur and Bhalswa. Most informal waste pickers are women from marginalised communities — Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim backgrounds — earning less than Rs 10,000 per month with no formal employment protections.

India's Extended Producer Responsibility framework and the 2022 Plastic Waste Management Rules set recycling targets of 50 per cent by 2024-25 and 100 per cent by 2027-28, but neither adequately includes informal waste pickers in compliance pathways. Bengaluru's Hasiru Dala found that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike saves Rs 84 crore annually on collection costs due to informal workers who receive no formal payment. Pune's SWaCH cooperative, which organises over 4,000 waste pickers serving approximately one million households, demonstrates that integration — not displacement — delivers better environmental and fiscal outcomes.

The SWaCH model, operational at scale for years, shows that formalising waste pickers improves recycling rates, lowers per-household collection costs and improves livelihoods simultaneously. Organisations including Hasiru Dala in Bengaluru and Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat in Pune are calling for waste pickers to be recognised as service providers in city systems. Analysts argue that waste policies excluding these workers cannot meaningfully reduce methane from landfills nor improve India's recycling performance, and that India's international climate commitments on methane reduction require integrating this workforce into formal waste governance.

Key figure — Rs 84 crore annually