The Fair Circularity Initiative (FCI) unites businesses to protect the human rights of informal waste sector workers and recognize their essential role in circular value chains. Guided by the Fair Circularity Principles and aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, FCI emphasizes using a gender lens to address human rights impacts.

This research, conducted in six locations across Bekasi and Depok near Jakarta, Indonesia, aligns with Principle 6, which highlights the unique vulnerabilities faced by women waste pickers, such as personal safety risks, discrimination, and livelihood challenges. The study aimed to understand these challenges, including working conditions, human rights risks, and gender inequality, and to provide companies with targeted recommendations for action.

Key findings reveal significant gender disparities, including the impacts of workplace hazards, limited economic opportunities, restricted access to services, and the burden of unpaid care and domestic responsibilities, which constrain women’s work and mobility. Despite these challenges, women value the flexibility offered by informal waste work, enabling them to balance their dual roles as caregivers and income earners.

The report calls on companies to support women’s economic empowerment and address the social norms that limit their roles, fostering more inclusive and equitable recycled plastics supply chains.

Partners

BSR, serving as the Secretariat for the Fair Circularity Initiative (FCI), produced this report, which synthesizes key findings from research supported by the FCDO-funded Work and Opportunities for Women (WOW) programme and Yayasan CARE Peduli (YCP). The original research was conducted by Nehik Sri Hidayati, and the report was edited by BSR’s Dr. Felicity Butler. The final report was reviewed by BSR, WOW, Tearfund, Unilever, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), and the International Alliance of Waste Pickers