Plastic Bank — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Plastic Bank operates one of its most impactful collection programs along the coastline of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — a city where dense informal settlements meet the Atlantic Ocean and where plastic pollution flows directly from hillside communities into some of the country's most visited beaches. Collectors working with Plastic Bank intercept this plastic before it reaches the sea, exchanging it for fair compensation that meaningfully improves their household income.

Each piece of plastic collected is weighed, sorted, and processed into Social Plastic® — a certified, traceable material sold to global brands as a premium recycled feedstock. Collectors receive not just cash, but access to health benefits, life insurance, and grocery support through Plastic Bank's social benefit system. This transforms collecting waste into a dignified livelihood that offers stability and upward mobility in communities where both are scarce.

Brazil generates some of the highest volumes of plastic waste in Latin America, and much of it ends up in waterways and coastal zones due to inadequate waste infrastructure. Plastic Bank's Rio de Janeiro operations directly address this gap — building a decentralized collection network that extends into neighborhoods overlooked by municipal services, and creating a circular economy model that ties environmental impact to lasting social change.