A Kerala-based green startup, Green Worms, along with Circularity Innovation Hub India, has initiated a revolutionary circular economy initiative that combines Circularity Credits with Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-issued Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). The historic project, the first of its kind in India, will revolutionize waste management systems while pushing sustainability and financial inclusion.

The initiative brings forth Circularity Credits as a new green asset, exchanged between $40 and $80, that seeks to incentivize green actions such as recycling and waste management. The credits have already contributed substantially by earning marginalized groups, including farmers and sanitation workers, an additional Rs 500-1,000 per month. The target is to ramp up this revenue to Rs 5,000 per month within the next three years, with the vision to impact one million lives in the long run.

By integrating these credits with RBI’s programmable CBDCs, the initiative ensures transparency, traceability, and secure disbursement of payments. This allows recipients, such as workers in waste management, to directly benefit from their contributions to the circular economy. Notably, over 100 women involved in plastic and textile waste management under Kerala’s Kudumbashree program have already received income through this system.

The project exemplifies the possibility of combining environmental sustainability and financial inclusion, creating a model that fills the gap between the circular economy and economic empowerment. The success of the project testifies to the climate tech-innovation potential of pairing digital currencies with climate solutions, providing an extensible model for the remainder of India.On its success, Circularity Innovation Hub India is going to upscale the rollout of Circularity Credits and CBDCs nationwide. This will bring about new valorisation opportunities of waste, and the environmental sustainability as well as financial resilience for underserved groups will be furthered.

As part of its broader vision, the startup is also in the process of establishing material-specific value chains with brands and manufacturers, encouraging waste collection and driving the shift to a circular economy in India.This initiative comes after Circularity Innovation Hub's previous pilot project with Maharashtra farmers, which demonstrated the success of integrating programmable CBDCs in the Indian agricultural landscape. By bridging technology with sustainability, the project opens the doors to broader uses of blockchain-based financial solutions beyond waste management sectors.