Empowering Waste Pickers andImproving Working Conditions:
How Danone Strengthens Recycling andSupports Base of the Pyramid Workers inArgentina

Danone is a leading multinational food and beverage company. As
part of its goal to accelerate the transition to a circular economy,
Danone supports informal waste pickers who are crucial to waste
management and recycling systems in many emerging economies.i
This case study focuses on Danone’s work with waste pickers inArgentina, where its subsidiary, Aguas Danone de Argentina (ADA),
launched the Recuperadores project to improve waste pickers’
working conditions and empower them, while strengthening local
recycling systems.

The Challenge

Inclusive Employment Solutions

ADA wanted to distinguish its premium mineral water brand,Villavicencio, as a leader in sustainable packaging by using apercentage of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) in itsbottles. However, the Argentinean recycling sector could not provide
enough R-PET to meet ADA’s goals, and poorly-equipped informal
waste pickers were not incentivized to collect PET bottles. ADA saw
this challenge as an opportunity to increase recycling rates and toaddress social issues in its supply chain.

Danone’s Ecosystem Fund finances projects that strengthen
inclusion and sustainability, including ADA’s Recuperadores project.

Benefits for BusinessSupply Chain
Resilience:

Increased PET recycling capability, with
100,000 tons of recyclables diverted fromlandfills from 2016-2020. In 2022, ADA
launched its first fully recycled bottles.

Accessto markets

Demonstrating
CorporateValues

Since launching
Recuperadores, annual sales
increased 11%. The project is
key to Villavicencio’s brandidentity.

Aligns with Danone’s global
sustainability commitments
and ADA’s own sustainability goals.

Participation
Provides equipment and training to cooperatives
to improve their operations. Training for waste
pickers in health and safety, life skills, and financial
literacy.
Resilience
Enabled waste pickers to join a formallyregistered cooperative and access governmentsocial security benefits for the first time.

Empowerment
Strengthened cooperatives’ market accessand negotiating power with recycling companies.
Campaigns and uniforms raise public recognition.

Benefits for Workers
Through the Recuperadores project, waste pickers have been able tojoin a formal cooperative. Their earnings are now three to five times
more than the earnings of informal waste pickers, and they haveaccess to pensions, maternity leave, and other security benefits forthe first time.

1 Empowering Waste Pickers and Improving Working Conditions: How Danone Strengthens Recycling and Supports Base of the Pyramid Workers in Argentina

Industry: Multinational food and beveragecompany
Size: Operations in over 50 countries with global
sales of $26.7 billion in 2020.
Base of the Pyramid Workforce: Waste pickers
typically come from disadvantaged backgrounds
and live in low-income neighborhoods or informal
settlements. They have limited education and facesignificant financial and social challenges, including
homelessness.

How Danone Puts Inclusive
Employment Solutions into PracticeDanone is the lead funder for the Recuperadores project, launchedin 2011. Its key delivery partner, Fundación Avina, is responsible forday-to-day project implementation with 48 cooperatives across 38
cities.ii

Advancement: Build capacity for self-employment

The Recuperadores project has invested in equipment
to expand cooperatives’ collection and sorting capacity, andtechnical assistance to improve their operations. The project also
provides training for workers on health and safety, life skills, andfinancial literacy. These investments in cooperatives’ equipment
and workers’ capacity have improved cooperatives’ productivity
and the volume of recyclable material processed per worker. This
also enabled higher, more stable incomes for waste pickers.

Empowerment: Support self-organization ofinformal workers
The Recuperadores project integrates informal waste
pickers into cooperatives, offers administrative support to formallyregister cooperatives, and provides training and equipment to operatethem efficiently. Since the project began, some 5000 waste pickers
have been formally integrated into 48 cooperatives. When waste
pickers join a formal cooperative, they can earn three to five times morethan informal waste pickers, and they become eligible for a monthly
income provided through the government’s social security system.iii
The project also strengthened cooperatives’ market accessby facilitating their collaboration, which has improved theirnegotiating power with recycling companies. This collaboration
also created more opportunities to bypass intermediaries and sell
recyclable waste directly to the recycling companies, enabling
cooperatives to secure the best possible prices.

Resilience: Improve access to benefits

When waste pickers join a formally-registeredcooperative they are able to access government social security
benefits such as pensions and maternity leave—often for the firsttime, as these benefits are not available to informal waste pickers.
This access was particularly important when COVID-19 lockdowns
kept waste pickers at home. Through their participation in a formalcooperative, waste pickers were able to access financial support,
both from the government and from the Recuperadores project.

“When we first began, all the waste pickers
were selling to intermediaries and not directly torecycling companies … they were ultimately losingmoney.”
María Ayanz, Senior Sustainability Analyst, ADA

2 Empowering Waste Pickers and Improving Working Conditions: How Danone Strengthens Recycling and Supports Base of the Pyramid Workers in Argentina

Empowerment: Recognize value of work
The project conducts awareness-raising campaigns
that highlight the value of waste pickers’ work. It also provides
waste pickers with uniforms that give them a professional identity.
A recent ADA advertising campaign prominently featured theRecuperadores logo on Villavicencio bottles, along with a QR
code that consumers could use to learn more about the social
impacts of the project and the importance of waste picking. ADA
also contributed to the development of an online platform that
supports the participation of local municipalities and companies
in recycling initiatives, raises awareness about urban waste
management systems, and increases recognition of the value of
waste pickers’ work.

Access to markets
The Recuperadores project has become a key featureof Villavicencio’s brand identity and marketing. Having a sociallyresponsible brand, which leads the market in the use of R-PET, hasboosted Villavicencio’s sales performance. After launching its firstpublic awareness campaign about recycling in 2015, Villavicencio’s
year-on-year sales increased by 11 percent, compared to a
declining trend prior to the campaign. This success led ADA tolaunch an advertising campaign that prominently features theRecuperadores logo on the Villavicencio bottles (see Figure 1).

Demonstrates corporate values
The Recuperadores project aligns closely with
Danone’s global sustainability commitments, as well as ADA’s own
sustainability goals. As noted, as a result of the company’s efforts
over more than a decade to formalize and strengthen recycling
systems in Argentina, ADA has been able to overcome obstacles
to sourcing R-PET. Since 2015, Villavicencio has used a minimum of
50 percent of R-PET in its bottles, and in 2022, the brand launched
its first fully recycled bottle. By 2023, the brand aims to collect 100
percent of the plastic it produces.

Reputation and risk management

Figure 1: Villavicencio bottles with branding linked to the Recuperadores project

The Benefits for Business:
Danone’s Experience

The Recuperadores project has secured ADA’sposition as a leading private sector voice on recycling policy inArgentina. While no statutory recycling requirements were in placein mid-2022, ADA has gained valuable recycling experience ahead oflegislation that is expected to require companies to take financial
and/or physical responsibility for the treatment or disposal of theirproducts after consumers use them. It is also strategically positioned
to participate in government consultations on any new regulations.

Supply chain resilience
The Recuperadores project has significantly increased
PET recycling capacity and recycling rates in Argentina. Between 2016
and 2020, 100,000 tons of recyclable materials were diverted fromlandfill by the project. Importantly, ADA has secured preferential
access to R-PET supply through its longstanding contract withEcopek, a company that purchases PET from the cooperatives. ADA
aims to further increase the volume of PET collected in Argentina
by increasing the number of Recuperadores cooperatives from 36to 40.

3 Empowering Waste Pickers and Improving Working Conditions: How Danone Strengthens Recycling and Supports Base of the Pyramid Workers in Argentina

Endnotes & Sources
Danone. 2018. DANONE ECOSYSTEM: Handbook on Inclusive Economy. Recycling andPacking Cycles in Action. Paris: Danone. http://ecosysteme.danone.com/wp-content/
uploads/2018/01/Danone-Ecosystem-Fund-Handbook-on-inclusive-economy.pdf

iTechnoserve. 2021. Danone Ecosystem Fund Evaluating the Business and Impact Case ofCartoneros. Internal report. Unpublished.

ii

iiiIbid

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

4 Empowering Waste Pickers and Improving Working Conditions: How Danone Strengthens Recycling and Supports Base of the Pyramid Workers in Argentina