For many people, what happens to donated clothes or bags of recycling waste is a mystery — out of sight, out of mind. But for millions, this waste is a livelihood. All over the world, waste pickers wake before dawn to collect discarded items, from water bottles to T-shirts, as they arrive at landfills or are discarded on streets. They play a vital role in recovering the industry’s enormous waste problem and driving circularity, but their labor is often invisible to brands and consumers alike.

According to the World Economic Forum, approximately 15 to 20 million people in developing countries are working as informal waste pickers, recovering local and imported plastic and textile waste, which is either sold in markets, on the streets, or to aggregators for recycling. These workers are a

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