Closing the loop for Waste,breaking the Loop for Poverty.
Setting Things Right
We're breaking barriers that once seemed impossible by ensuring safety, dignity and fair pay for those who have long been excluded from the value chain.
Environmental Justice
Addressing waste management inequalities in underserved communities
Worker Dignity
Creating safe, fair, and dignified employment for waste workers
Circular Economy
Transforming waste into valuable resources for a sustainable future
Recognized as Social Business Scaling Impact
Acknowledged by Yunus Social Business for scaling impact through corporate social procurement partnerships.
Our Growth Journey
Key milestones that mark our progress and impact.
Driven by Empathy
Green Worms was founded by Jabir Karat after witnessing the scale of India’s waste crisis during his Gandhi Fellowship. By working as a ragpicker, he gained firsthand insight into the challenges of informal waste work and envisioned a system built on dignity, structure, and inclusion.
Women at the Core of Waste Systems
In many communities, women had few opportunities to earn and grow. At Green Worms, we saw their resilience and strength and built our model around them, ensuring fair wages, safe workplaces, and dignified livelihoods.
Launching the Wastepreneur Model
Through partnerships with local administrations, Green Worms trained women-led groups to manage decentralized waste collection. Guaranteed income, traceability, and training enabled scalable, community-anchored systems across rural regions.
Expansion to Remote Islands
Operations expanded into vulnerable coastal and island regions like Lakshadweep and Andaman to address ocean-bound plastic leakage.
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Raise 1st Institutional Funding
Green Worms secured its first institutional funding from S3IDF and Upaya Social Ventures. Until then, we had not received any investment, as many investors felt our focus on low-value waste, job creation for the poor, and last-mile communities offered little return and underestimated the social impact. This milestone marked the first belief in our model to solve waste and poverty together.
Supporting Brand-Led Circular Transitions
Green Worms launched circular economy solutions for FMCG brands, including EPR compliance, Reycled materials Procurement, and verified impact services. This helped ecosystem to shift from virgin plastics to post-consumer recycled content.
Fundraising & Scaling Infrastructure
As our model proved effective and created meaningful impact, we knew scaling required stronger infrastructure. To make this possible, Green Worms raised a second round of funding from Acumen and Rainmatter, enabling us to expand traceable and climate-resilient waste systems.
Recognized by UNESCO
Green Worms was honoured by UNESCO Green Citizens for pioneering efforts to address the waste crisis, strengthen the role of women, and engage communities in sustainable change. This global recognition affirms that our model works, and today we are scaling infrastructure, traceable waste systems, and impact across remote and underserved communities.
In-house Recycling Facilities
Green Worms recognized the need for in-house recycling to accelerate circularity and help brands integrate recycled materials into their products. We chose to focus on low-value flexible plastics, which make up nearly 70% of plastic packaging, while most recycling facilities target rigid plastics that account for only 20%. By addressing this gap, we are creating circularity where it matters most.
Building Materials Specific Value Chains
Green Worms launched Waste Circularity Labs to co-create solutions for low-value, hard-to-recycle waste streams such as plastic sachets, textiles, footwear, polystyrene, mattresses, and polyurethane. By building material-specific value chains, we are transforming currently non-recyclable waste into opportunities for circularity and impact.
Our Core Values
Everyday behaviours that keep us true to our purpose.
We believe in teamwork
We are accountable for our work
We exhibit professionalism in all our engagements
We will be ethical in our decisions
We will be compassionate to all
We will strive for continuous improvement
We will build inclusiveness in all our work
We will appreciate good wherever we see it
Awards & Recognition
Recognized globally for our innovative approach to waste management and social impact
Recipient of the prestigious 'T. R. Raghulal Sustainability Innovations Award', 2019
Looking Ahead: Transforming Waste into Opportunity
Green Worms is building a trusted ecosystem for circularity where complex materials are recovered with dignity, processed with transparency, and reintegrated into the economy. We believe waste is not a burden but a powerful lever for climate action and inclusive development.
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