Economic Empowerment of Women Through the Processing of Household Waste into Marketable Products
Abstract
Household waste is usually framed as an environmental burden, yet a growing body of community-based initiatives treats it as a raw material through which women can earn income and gain voice. This article examines how the processing of household and domestic waste into marketable products contributes to women's economic empowerment, and what conditions separate short-lived training projects from durable livelihoods. Using a systematic literature review, records were retrieved from the Consensus academic database, deduplicated, and screened against inclusion criteria covering publication between 2021 and 2026, an active DOI, a focus on women, and an explicit link between waste processing and economic value. Twenty studies met the criteria and were synthesised thematically, supported by five recent conceptual and empirical sources. The review identifies five value pathways: organic and biological conversion, plastic and packaging upcycling, textile and agricultural residue crafts, mixed household recyclables, and collective collection services. Across these pathways, empowerment advances through four mechanisms: skill acquisition, product diversification, market and digital access, and collective organisation. However, most evidence comes from short community-service programmes that report outputs rather than measured income or agency. The article proposes a Household Waste-to-Value Empowerment framework and argues that market linkage and collective institutions, not technical training alone, determine whether waste becomes a sustained source of women's economic power
Keywords
References
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