New Delhi, Nov. 30 -- It's 10am and Kumudha, whom everyone calls Kumudha Ma, is at the Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) in the JP Nagar area of south Bengaluru, separating bundles of old clothes from the other garbage. Kumudha is a former waste-picker who was supported by Hasiru Dala, a Bengaluru-based social impact organisation that has been working in the solid waste management space since 2013, to become a waste entrepreneur. She now operates the DWCC in JP Nagar (although the DWCCs come under the city's municipal corporation, they are often managed by waste pickers or self-help groups).

"Every three days, we go around the ward collecting the textile waste. We have educated residents to keep it separate from the other dry waste, bec...