India, Feb. 4 -- Plastic pollution is often framed as an environmental crisis, but it is equally a social and gendered one. As Governments make efforts to strengthen and enforceregulations on recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), women in the informal waste sector continue to handle harmful plastic waste without propersafety gear, healthcare protections or adequate pay structures. Although measures like single-use plastic ban, recycling targets, and EPR exists, plastic production and use is expected to triple by 2040. These policy targets along with human vulnerabilities reveal an underlying weakness: plastic governance prioritise materials and markets over people; they do not adequately address the structural drivers of p...