By: Charanya Srinivasan
Published: November 17, 2025
As the world population rapidly rises, waste production is increasing at an alarming rate;[1] consequently, the informal recycling sector has significantly expanded—especially in developing countries. Approximately fifteen million people are involved in the informal waste sector, playing a vital role in these nations’ economies.[2] Though the informal waste sector is often perceived as gender-neutral, it is shaped by gender inequalities and segregation. Women are the primary workers in this sector, but often remain invisible in governing policies due to the lack of recognition under current corporate due diligence frameworks.[3] The harms women face in the informal waste sector include unsafe working conditions, lack of personal protective equipment, and exploited labor.[4] Therefore, there is an imperative need for more inclusive and gender-responsive approaches in corporate governance.
Formal waste management systems are typically overseen by the state; however, a significant portion of waste in developing countries is processed through informal systems.[5] Through informal networks, these informal workers operate independently to collect and resell recyclable materials as a means of survival. Despite not being connected to direct employees, companies are still connected to these informal workers through supply chains.[6] The recyclable materials collected by informal workers often make their way into formal material streams that companies purchase and use.[7] Therefore, companies benefit indirectly from low-cost labor who collects these materials. Under the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles, companies take on the responsibility to identify and mitigate adverse human rights impacts, regardless of whether those impacts are caused indirectly or directly.[8] Further, the companies that source materials from supply chains that involve recycled content have a due diligence obligation to consider how that content was collected.[9] By failing to recognize the informal waste sector, and especially the women who work within the sector, companies overlook a critical point of human vulnerability. The lack of gender-specific and sector-specific guidance results in the invisibility of these workers.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) are composed of three core parts: the state’s duty to protect human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and the access to remedies for affected individuals.[10] To comply with these principles, companies must perform their due diligence and undertake the responsibility of identifying, preventing, and mitigating how they address adverse human rights impacts.[11] Though the UNGPs places emphasis on marginalized communities, there is no discussion regarding gender-specific risks. Because there is no guidance on the topic of gender-specific risks, companies often overlook gender harms within their due diligence efforts. [12]
Within the waste sector, women predominantly fill roles that are non-specialized and low paying. In India, for example, many women work as rag-pickers: people who reuse and recycle or sell to other companies as a source of income.[13] Due to urbanization, rag-picking has expanded, becoming a large role in the informal waste sector.[14] Notably, rag pickers are neither employed by companies nor formally recognized under corporate due diligence frameworks.[15] However, these women play a pivotal role in the formal market, despite the informal nature of their work. Companies benefit from the rag pickers’ work by purchasing the recycled goods at a discounted rate, then reusing the material in the formal supply chain.[16] Despite this indirect connection, the companies generally do not extend employment protections to informal workers like rag-pickers—leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, unsafe working conditions, and a lack of recognition or rights.[17] This creates an accountability gap, where companies profit from recycled inputs without assuming responsibility for the people who contribute to the recovery.
A similar pattern emerges in Ghana, where approximately 60% of females found in the waste sector’s workforce fall within the informal “waste picking” category.[18] Female waste pickers typically lack personal protective equipment, while systemic biases in favor of working men provide greater access to the necessary resources.[19]This is because the participants within regulatory sectors, are mostly men.[20] Men hold the higher ranks within these agencies, and those ranks involve decision making.[21] Because of the unequal representation of women in regulatory institutions, the impact of women on policy decisions are minimal.[22] Women are also expected to fulfill domestic responsibilities, and training and safety sessions can coincide with those times.[23] Consequently, female waste pickers may not even know how to obtain PPE or properly use it. Despite women making up a majority of the waste sector in Ghana, their voices are often underrepresented in decision-making positions regarding different strategies used in waste production and the waste sector.[24]
A similar phenomenon can be observed in the waste picking sector in the Philippines. Whether collecting from the streets or scavenging in landfills, waste pickers make their living by sorting and recovering valuable scrap—such as recyclable plastics—and selling them to junk dealers.[25] However, waste workers in the Philippines, who are predominantly women, are often undervalued and absent in waste management plans.[26] Female perspectives are not only largely absent from government-led waste management plans, but are also unacknowledged by corporate actors. This further reinforces the invisibility and vulnerability of these female workers. As a result, these women lack necessary employment protections and have less access to economic opportunities that could help lift them out of poverty.
While the UNGPs provide a framework for companies to identify and mitigate human impacts, it falls short in addressing the unique challenges faced by informal workers—specifically women. The lack of gender-specific and sector-specific guidance results in the continued invisibility of these female workers and leaves them without adequate protection or recognition. The UNGPs must include explicit guidelines on informal labor, with a narrow focus on gender realities. Under the UNGPs, businesses do have an obligation to identify and address human rights through their supply chains, whether it is direct or indirect. If companies do not focus on gender and social issues in the informal market, they cannot be held accountable, and progress towards inclusive supply chains will stall.
[1] Hong Yang et al., Waste Management, Informal Recycling, Environmental Pollution and Public Health, 72 J. Epidemiology & Cmty. Health 237, 237 (2018).
[2] See id. (defining the informal waste sector as individuals who participate in the collection of collecting and selling recyclables that are not formally regulated by the government or through a contract).
[3] See Elsie Odonker & Katherine Gilchrist, Why Gender is at the Heart of Transforming the Plastics Value Chain, World Economic Forum (May 26, 2021), https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/05/gender-women-plastics-ghana/.
[4] See Lidia Juarez Pastor et al., Caste, Mistrust and Municipal Inaction: The Interwoven Barriers for the Integration of Waste Pickers in India, 356 J. Env’t Mgmt. 1, 7, 10 (2024).
[5] Waste Not, Want Not – Solid Waste at the Heart of Sustainable Development, World Bank (Mar. 3, 2016), https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/03/03/waste-not-want-not—solid-waste-at-the-heart-of-sustainable-development.
[6] David C. Wilson, Costas Velis & Chris Cheeseman, Role of Informal Sector Recycling in Waste Management in Developing Countries, 30 Habitat Int’l 797, 800 (2006).
[7] Id.
[8] U.N. Off. of the High Comm’r for Hum. Rts., Guiding Principles on Bus. & Hum. Rts.: Implementing the U.N.’s “Protect, Respect & Remedy” Framework, ¶ 13, U.N. Doc. HR/PUB/11/4 (2011).
[9] Id. at ¶ 17.
[10] Joanna Bourke Martignoni & Elizabeth Umlas, Gender-Responsive Due Diligence for Business Actors: Human Rights-Based Approaches, in Academy Briefing No. 12, 12 (2018).
[11] Id.
[12] Id. at 12-13.
[13] Kamala Mohapatra, Women Workers in Informal Sector in India: Understanding the Occupational Vulnerability, 2 Int’l J. Humans. & Soc. Sci. 197, 199 (2012).
[14] Id.
[15] See id. at 203.
[16] Lidia Juarez Pastor et al., Caste, Mistrust and Municipal Inaction: The Interwoven Barriers for the Integration of Waste Pickers in India, 356 J. Env’t Mgmt. 1, 3 (2024).
[17] See id. at 10.
[18] Nafisatu Razak & Janet Amponsah, 60% Females Engaged in Waste Picking, Daily Guide Network, May 16, 2024, https://dailyguidenetwork.com/60-females-engaged-in-waste-picking/.
[19] Elsie Odonker & Katherine Gilchrist, Why Gender is at the Heart of Transforming the Plastics Value Chain, World Economic Forum (May 26, 2021), https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/05/gender-women-plastics-ghana/.
[20] Id.
[21] See id.
[22] Id.
[23] See The Double Burden: Balancing Work and Home Responsibilities, Gender Study, Mar. 29, 2024, (explaining that women are more involved in household activities, balancing paid work with unpaid labor and making it difficult for them to manage).
[24] See Elsie Odonker & Katherine Gilchrist, supra note 19.
[25] Philippines – In Informal Waste Work, Women Are Twice as Vulnerable, Invisible, Women’s U.N. Rep. Network (Oct. 21, 2022), https://wunrn.com/2022/10/philippines-in-informal-waste-work-women-are-twice-as-vulnerable-invisible/.
[26] Id.