Gender, Informality, and Carbon Accountability in the Circular Economy

Gender, Informality, and Carbon Accountability in the Circular Economy

The transition to a circular economy offers significant opportunities for climate mitigation, resource efficiency, and sustainable development. However, its environmental and social benefits are not automatic. They depend on how waste management systems are designed, how workers and communities participate, and how emissions reductions are measured, verified, and rewarded.

This session brings together empirical research from Burkina Faso, India, and Brazil to examine three interconnected dimensions of circular economy implementation: community-led resource recovery and women’s economic empowerment; the social and occupational risks associated with informal recycling; and the methodological challenges of accounting for methane mitigation and renewable fuel production.

Drawing on evidence from decentralized plastic recycling and organic waste valorization in Burkina Faso, informal lead-acid battery recycling in India, and biomethane certification under Brazil’s RenovaBio policy, the presentations explore how circular economy initiatives can generate environmental and economic benefits while also exposing inequalities, institutional weaknesses, and gaps in climate accounting.

The discussion will address three critical questions:

1. How can circular economy initiatives create inclusive economic opportunities while protecting workers, particularly women in informal waste management systems?

2. How can policies and regulatory frameworks ensure that resource recovery delivers measurable environmental benefits without transferring social and environmental risks to vulnerable communities?

3. How can robust lifecycle assessment, carbon accounting, and verification mechanisms strengthen the environmental integrity of circular economy policies and improve investment incentives?

By connecting experiences across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the session aims to identify transferable lessons for designing circular economy policies that integrate social justice, credible climate mitigation, and sustainable economic development.

The central message is that circularity alone does not guarantee sustainability. Effective circular economy policies must demonstrate measurable climate benefits, protect workers and communities, and distribute economic opportunities equitably.

The description preserves the distinct contributions of all three papers without suggesting that they address identical research questions.

Circular Economy in Action: Empirical Evidence on Plastic Recycling and Tech Waste Management in Rural Burkina Faso.
Authors: ILBOUDO Omer Jeanin Wendkaato
Affiliation: Association Song-Taaba pour le Développement (ASTD), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Transitioning to a circular economy in Sub-Saharan Africa is critical for climate mitigation, yet empirical evidence on community-led waste management remains scarce. Drawing on the finalized evaluation report of the "YOLEMDE" pilot project (UNDP Accelerator Lab, 2023), this submission presents documented evidence on plastic recycling and organic waste valorization in Burkina Faso. Led by ASTD in partnership with the Young Women Entrepreneurs Association (AJFEB) and local agricultural cooperatives, the 6-month study employed a mixed-methods approach. It combined quantitative tracking of waste streams with qualitative socio-economic assessments of beneficiaries in Ouagadougou and Koubri. The findings reveal critical insights for global policy. First, the decentralized model successfully diverted over 1 ton of plastic waste (transformed into pavers and utility bags) and 2 tons of organic waste into bio-fertilizer. Second, field tests on 500m² of market gardens demonstrated that YOLEMDE bio-fertilizer was more cost-effective and yielded higher quality crops (onions, cabbage) compared to chemical NPK fertilizers. Third, the initiative directly empowered women waste collectors, transitioning them from informal labor to structured green entrepreneurs. This evidence proves that inclusive, community-integrated circular models are both environmentally transformative and socially equitable. We recommend that global climate finance mechanisms prioritize direct, accessible funding for grassroots CSOs to scale decentralized waste-to-value infrastructure, ensuring a just and resilient climate transition.

Informal Lead-Acid Battery Recycling and the Gendered Costs of Climate Action: Towards a Just Circular Economy
The global transition towards electric mobility and renewable energy has accelerated demand for batteries, making battery recycling central to climate mitigation and circular economy strategies. Yet the social dimensions of battery recycling remain largely overlooked, particularly within informal economies where environmental and occupational risks are disproportionately transferred to marginalised communities. This paper examines the gendered implications of informal lead-acid battery waste management in the Delhi National Capital Region, focusing on women from socially and economically marginalised backgrounds engaged in battery collection, segregation, dismantling, and secondary recycling. Drawing on an interdisciplinary Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspective, the study explores how climate-oriented resource recovery systems simultaneously advance material circularity while reproducing structural inequalities. Using mixed methods, including household surveys, semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, and policy analysis, the research finds that women workers face intersecting vulnerabilities, including chronic lead exposure, poor occupational health protection, insecure livelihoods, limited agency, and exclusion from formal circular economy governance. Despite their critical contribution to recovering valuable secondary materials, their labour and associated health burdens remain largely invisible within climate and waste policies that prioritise resource efficiency over social equity. The paper argues that climate and circular economy policies cannot achieve genuinely just transitions unless they integrate labour rights, gender equality, occupational health, environmental justice, and the recognition of informal work into governance frameworks. It proposes strengthening Extended Producer Responsibility through inclusive, gender-responsive policies that safeguard workers while supporting equitable, low-carbon resource transitions.

Accounting for Methane Mitigation: Evidence from Brazil’s RenovaBio Carbon-Intensity-Based Fuel Policy
Authors and affiliations: Karina GC do Amaral¹; Camila E Hollas¹˒²; Vanice Nakano¹; Nilza P Ramos³; Alessandro Sanches Pereira¹˒⁶; Anna LMT Pighinelli³; Leidiane F Mariani¹; Adriana MM Pires³; Marcela V Lange¹; Joaquim EA Seabra⁴; Lucas G Pereira³; Marília ISF Matsuura³.
¹ Instituto 17 (i17), Brazil; ² UTFPR, Brazil; ³ Embrapa, Brazil; ⁴ UNICAMP, Brazil; ⁶ Curtin University, Australia.

Biomethane from organic waste can simultaneously mitigate methane emissions, produce renewable fuel and improve waste management. Yet its recognized climate performance depends strongly on how carbon-accounting boundaries and avoided emissions are defined. This study evaluates four methodological approaches for biomethane certification under Brazil’s National Biofuel Policy, RenovaBio, covering swine manure, sugar-energy residues, the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and landfill biomethane. Life cycle assessment was used to compare alternative system boundaries and treatments of avoided emissions. Results show substantial differences in carbon intensity, environmental-efficiency scores and potential Decarbonization Credit (CBIO) generation across methodologies, with fugitive methane emissions driving much of the variation. Scenario 2 provides the most balanced near-term approach for RenovaCalc, improving emission attribution while maintaining regulatory predictability. Approaches recognizing avoided methane emissions offer greater potential to value biomethane’s mitigation benefits but require robust measurement, verification and safeguards to preserve carbon-market integrity. The findings demonstrate that carbon-accounting rules are not merely technical choices: they determine which mitigation benefits are recognized and rewarded, influencing investment incentives and biomethane competitiveness. The analysis offers transferable lessons for carbon-intensity-based climate policies seeking to integrate methane mitigation, renewable fuels and credible carbon incentives.