Across large parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the people who keep packaging out of rivers and open dumps aren’t municipal crews or big contractors but informal recyclers—often called waste pickers—working streets, markets and transfer points.
Their networks of pushcarts, buy-back centres and micro-depots supply much of the post-consumer resin (PCR) used in local packaging, especially PET and HDPE. For a global packaging readership, this isn’t a side story; it is central to how recovery truly works.
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Understanding informal recycling in emerging markets helps brands design better packs, secure more reliable recycled content and deliver credible circular economy claims.
How informal recycling actually functions
Informal recycling is a fast, market-driven system. Individuals collect high-value items—clear PET bottles, natural HDPE containers, aluminium cans, clean cardboard—and sell them to neighbourhood aggregators.
Those aggregators sort, bale and trade upwards to larger dealers or material recovery facilities, which in turn feed reprocessors producing flakes, pellets or fibre.
Price signals drive behaviour. When clean, colour-sorted PET commands a premium, collectors spend more time separating at source. If resin prices dip, they pivot to metals or cardboard until spreads improve.
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By GlobalDataThis agility often yields higher capture rates for valuable materials than formal systems achieve, especially where kerbside coverage is patchy.
The structure varies by city. Co-operatives may organise routes and negotiate with authorities; private buy-back centres might compete for feedstock; in many places both models coexist.
What they share is responsiveness: routes shift daily, sorting practices evolve quickly, and new packaging formats enter the stream as soon as there’s a profit to be made.
For packaging teams, three features stand out: quality defines value; simplicity speeds sorting; traceability must be practical. Design and procurement choices that respect those realities strengthen supply and social outcomes.
Designing packaging and policy that work with informal systems
Good packaging design raises kerbside value; good policy protects livelihoods while improving safety, data and scale.
Design for value at first glance
Clear PET and natural HDPE are the workhorses of informal recycling.
Avoid dark colours and heavy opacifiers that lower resale value. Use wash-off labels and adhesives compatible with standard hot washes so flakes meet converter specs.
Keep closures and sleeves simple and, where possible, mono-material. Embossed resin codes and visible material cues help even when labels are missing.
Right-size recycled content specifications
When buying PCR, specify realistic quality tiers: food-grade where strictly necessary; non-food grades for detergents, household care and secondary packaging.
Allowing minor colour variation or blended grades (within performance and compliance limits) widens the supplier base and encourages investment in washing and decontamination lines that informal networks can feed.
Inclusive extended producer responsibility (EPR)
EPR can formalise partnership rather than displace livelihoods.
Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) in emerging markets increasingly contract co-operatives and buy-back centres as service providers, paying for verified tonnes while supporting PPE, child-labour safeguards and training.
Where deposit return schemes (DRS) are considered, design redemption to include informal actors—co-ops running return points or back-room counting—so return rates remain high without pushing workers out.
Invest in micro-infrastructure
Small assets deliver big gains: stackable crates for bottles, simple sorting tables, basic balers, shade structures, rinsing stations and affordable moisture testing.
These upgrades lift bale quality (and price), reduce contamination and improve safety—without the overhead of a large MRF.
Procure with a social lens
Build social criteria into PCR contracts: verified fair pay, safe working conditions, women’s participation, grievance mechanisms and no child labour.
Third-party audits or co-operative certifications provide assurance. Paying a modest premium for verified, traceable material stabilises supply and protects reputations.
Building credible value chains and data
Converters and brands need quality and proof. Informal recycling can deliver both when tracking is light-touch and incentives reward clean material.
Practical traceability
Start with the basics: bale IDs, batch logs at buy-back centres, and weigh-and-pay receipts capturing date, material, weight and price.
Where smartphones are common, simple QR receipts or mobile apps can record collections and issue digital payments, creating a usable ledger for EPR reporting and recycled-content claims.
Keep it quick; if data capture slows trade, it will be bypassed.
Pay for quality, not just kilograms
Differential pricing for clear versus coloured PET, natural versus pigmented HDPE, and hot-wash-compliant inputs rewards better sorting long before material reaches a reprocessor.
Clear, posted price bands help collectors learn what to prioritise. Co-fund rinsing and drying where water access allows; moisture and dirt are the biggest drags on yield.
Safer, more dignified work
PPE, secure sorting spaces and basic amenities reduce injuries and improve retention.
Co-operatives that demonstrate safer practices often supply more consistent volumes—vital for extrusion lines that rely on steady throughput.
Municipal partnerships can include access to transfer points and safe storage, reducing the time collectors spend guarding materials.
Stabilise demand with forward contracts
Multi-month offtake agreements for PET and HDPE PCR, indexed to virgin resin but with quality-based bonuses, reduce boom-and-bust cycles that ripple down to collectors.
Predictable demand encourages traders to invest in hot washes, flake silos and quality control—investments that lift the entire value chain.
Close the loop locally where feasible
Shorter, regional loops reduce freight emissions and tighten feedback between packaging teams and recyclers.
Where food-grade decontamination capacity is scarce, pooled regional hubs can process PET to higher standards while neighbourhood centres focus on aggregation and pre-wash.
The aim is a ladder of value—from street collection to pellet—within reach of the markets that need PCR most.
Communicate for real capture
On-pack guidance should match local reality. Simple cues such as “clear PET bottle—sell to a collector or take to a buy-back centre” work better than vague recycling icons.
In e-commerce, integrate take-back with delivery for secondary packaging—tapes, films, mailers—turning a doorstep into a reliable recovery point.
The takeaway for operators
Informal recycling in emerging markets is not a temporary workaround; it is the backbone of recovery for many packaging materials.
Brands that design for value, purchase PCR with clear quality tiers, include informal actors in EPR and DRS, and invest in micro-infrastructure and practical data systems secure cleaner feedstock and stronger social outcomes.
The result is steadier recycled content, fewer leaks into the environment and circular economy claims that stand up to scrutiny.
