The Children Behind the Brands: From Aquafina to Zara, Plastic Bottle Recycling Chains and the Children They Exploit
- Jun 30
- 3 min read
On 14th July, Friends of Street Children Bangladesh (FSCBD) and their Dhaka partner LEEDO will be launching a report in the UK Parliament about the role of children surviving on the streets of Dhaka and the role they have in the multi-billion dollar plastic recycling industry.
Read on to hear from FSCBD as they share a preview and some insights from the report…
Discovering the Hidden Recycling Workforce
I had observed children on the streets of Dhaka selling bottled drinks and collecting waste bottles for many years. However, it was only after I contributed to and watched the film “Green Foot Soldiers” produced by Dr. Hasan Reza, Associate Professor at the Indiana University School of Social Work, that I became aware of the role these children play in recycling. I was curious to explore further: who produces the bottles these children sell and collect, and what happens to the waste after it is delivered to initial collection depots?
I developed an interest in the connection between the children’s work and the well-known brands consumed daily by the public—many of which emphasise their use of recycled materials.
In December 2025, I took part in a sleep‐out organised by Friends of Street Children
Bangladesh, the small UK charity that I chair, together with LEEDO, our partner
organisation in Dhaka, which has been working with children on the streets for over twenty years. The event was held on one of the bridges at the ferry terminal and aimed to raise funds for LEEDO’s open‐air schools and transitional shelters for children surviving on the streets.
The sleep‐out gave me the opportunity to speak with children who joined us before heading to their usual sleeping places nearby. I also spoke with two adults who supervised the children’s collection of bottles there. I found both the children and the adults very interested in sharing their life experiences. These conversations led me to realise that I could write a report based on these experiences and how they relate to recycling and products made from recycled plastic.
[Mike Sherriff, FSCBD Chair - from The Children Behind the Brands report]
Following the Journey of a Plastic Bottle
The Children Behind the Brands was written by the Chair of Friends of Street Children Bangladesh (FSCBD), who has visited Dhaka on many occasions and is familiar with the work of LEEDO, the partner organisation of FSCBD, that works with children surviving on the streets. Mike became interested in what happens to the bottles before and after the children sell them and collect them once discarded.
The report he has written is based on interviews with the children, who describe their work and their lives. It also draws on interviews with the people running the shops that supply water for sale and then take the waste collected by the children to larger centres, where it is made into flakes.
The report explains how many of the flakes, including those that are exported, find their way into products produced by mainstream High Street brands such as Adidas, Primark and IKEA.
It highlights how this invisible child labour is ignored by the multi-billion-pound global recycled-plastics industry. It questions why neither major brands, nor consumers, nor recycling advocates, nor international labour organisations acknowledge their role and argues that the rights of these children, like the rights of all children, should be recognised.
Consumers are connected to the children through the brands they purchase, and all members of society share a responsibility to protect them and help them build a brighter future.
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