Stockholm [Sweden]/ Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 6 (ANI/PRNewswire): In 2020, the philanthropic H&M Foundation launched a first-of-its-kind USD 11 million initiative, Saamuhika Shakti, to address the gaps in the system that keep Bengaluru waste pickers in poverty and exclusion. Plastic waste collected by informal waste pickers is becoming a valued resource in the fashion and textile industry. Buttons partly made from plastic waste are being featured on garments sold worldwide. The buttons are traceable down to the source of the waste along with names of the workers, social security, salaries and working conditions at the aggregation centre. With the fashion industry working to shift business models from linear to circular, new types of value chains arise - where recycled materials play an important part. But as the demand for recycled raw materials increases, there are urgent opportunities to create social inclusion along the new value chains. Of the 62 million tonnes of