Grassroots Circular Waste Collaborative
Bringing unsung workers the credit they deserve
Inclusive livelihoods & informal economy
Across Asia, an invisible workforce keeps recyclables out of landfills. But they remain excluded from formal finance.
We set out to change that.
The challenge
Vital work. No credit history.
Grassroots waste entrepreneurs — the individuals and small cooperatives who collect, sort and sell recyclable material — handle a substantial share of urban recyclable recovery across South and Southeast Asia. Without them, recycling rates would collapse and overwhelm already overflowing landfills.
And yet, the formal financial system treats them as invisible. No credit history. No assets. No track record that a conventional lender would recognise.
The result is a structural paradox: workers doing environmentally critical work at the base of a multi-billion dollar supply chain cannot access a simple business loan.
Our research showed that the barrier was not creditworthiness. It was evidence.
Lenders had never had a reason to look closely at this workforce. No one had built the data, the intermediary infrastructure or the de-risking structures needed to make first-time lending possible.
“The demand was always there. What was missing was the architecture to connect it with formal capital.”
Our innovation
Civil society as the missing link
The breakthrough insight was that trusted civil society organisations already had what lenders lacked: relationships, local knowledge and the ability to support enterprise development over time.
We didn’t need to force waste entrepreneurs into existing financial products. Instead, we redesigned the architecture around intermediaries who could make lending viable.
We developed a blended finance product that positions these civil society organisations as last-mile credit intermediaries — building a pipeline of credit-ready borrowers while de-risking lender exposure through guarantees and enterprise support.
“The model doesn't ask lenders to take a leap of faith.
It gives them a good reason to lend.”
Implementation
Designing a scalable model
Phase 1: Demonstrating potential
A catalytic facility combining risk-sharing instruments, like guarantees, with structured enterprise support and civil society intermediation.
The goal: prove that first-time lending is feasible and replicable, generating the repayment data that unlocks Phase 2.
Phase 2: Scaling operations
A pooled revolving fund, complemented by a grant and technical assistance facility, expanding loan ticket sizes and strengthening enterprise operations as confidence builds.
Each successful repayment cycle reduces the need for concessional support.
Phase 3: Democratising access
Shifting decision-making and flexible capital closer to local intermediaries and the communities best placed to measure and improve impact.
Decision-making authority and flexible capital shift closer to local intermediaries and communities best placed to assess and improve impact.
Moving from a centrally managed structure to a community-led model.
The result
Proving the potential of an undervalued workforce
Phase 1 (Current)
___________
Facility live and validating demand
Scalable
___________
3-phase path based on defined triggers
Replicable
___________
Intermediation model built for replication
Phase 1 was designed to answer three questions:
Is there demand? Will borrowers repay? Can intermediation be done at scale?
The facility is structured so that every loan disbursed and repaid builds the evidence base for the next phase — and for catalysing a broader market transformation.
“The model has the potential to transform the waste economy – unlocking financial inclusion to lift the livelihoods of millions of underserved workers.”
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Who we are
Global experience.
Regional expertise.
Based across Asia and Europe, we combine global reach with local insights to create impact at scale.
Work with us
Collaborating to
accelerate impact
Whether you’re pioneering social innovations or funding on-ground change, we can help streamline your efforts.