It ain't fashion, if it ain't sustainable

Saamuhika Shakti

Waste Management / Livelihoods

24 September 2024

3 minutes

Saamuhika Shakti has brought together eleven local partners who are working closely to support the waste picker community in various aspects such as safe working conditions, access to social services and good quality education, water and sanitation, up-skilling or access to alternative jobs, innovations in waste management streams, shifting the perceptions around waste pickers, as well as increasing economic opportunities.

9 Indian Startups Awarded for Innovative Solutions to Boost Inclusive Circularity

H&M’s multipartner initiative Saamuhika Shakti has selected nine startups for its ‘Techtonic – Innovations for Circular Economy’ award which supports innovations that accelerate waste management in India, while increasing and improving the stability of waste picker incomes.

Staff Writer

Going Circular / Waste Pickers

17 May 2023

2 minutes

Indira is one of roughly 1.5-4 million informal waste pickers in India. If challenges related to the waste pickers lives and the waste sector can be addressed, waste pickers have the potential to be a key player in a global circular system. The initiative Saamuhika Shakti aims to holistically equip waste pickers in Bengaluru to lift themselves out of poverty.

Bengaluru's Waste Pickers Find Fresh Lease of Life in New Textile Recycling Initiative

Waste entrepreneurs, waste workers in India’s Silicon Valley have been brought under the aegis of the H&M Foundation to enable textile waste collection, sorting, and selling to generate revenue for waste pickers, as also create a circular B2B textile service model, starting with the hotel industry.

Staff Writer

Going Circular / Inclusive Project

7 February 2023

2 minutes

Workers at a dry waste collection centre in Bengaluru.

Inclusive Circularity: Recycled Plastic Collected by Wastepickers Turned into 152 million Buttons

Saamuhika Shakti is a collective impact initiative wherein nine organisations have joined forces to enable informal wastepickers have greater agency to lead secure and dignified lives. The initiative has also caught the attention of the fashion industry looking for recycled plastic.

Staff Writer

PRESS RELEASE / Announcement

9 June 2022

4 minutes

Dry waste collection center in Bengaluru

Recycled plastic collected by waste pickers now featured on garments sold worldwide

BENGALURU, India: Together with an ecosystem of partners the non-profit H&M Foundation launched a first of its kind USD 11 million initiative in 2020, to address the gaps in the system that keep Bengaluru waste pickers in poverty and exclusion. Now, plastic waste collected by informal waste pickers is becoming a valued resource in the fashion and...