Richa Sharma

Environmental lawyer driving India's plastic waste revolution through legal advocacy

Richa Sharma is an Indian environmental lawyer and founder of Plastic Clean Gujarat, an initiative that successfully lobbied for India's 2022 Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules. Her grassroots campaign led to the ban of single-use plastics in over 100 Indian districts, influencing national policy changes. As a legal expert, Sharma has pioneered the use of public interest litigation to hold corporations accountable for plastic pollution, winning landmark cases that mandate extended producer responsibility.

In 2023, she launched the Circular Economy India platform to promote sustainable packaging alternatives. Her work has been featured in The Guardian's climate solutions series and earned her the 2021 UN Environment Programme's Young Champions of the Earth award. Sharma also advises the Indian government's National Clean Energy and Hydrogen Mission on waste-to-energy strategies. Through her EcoLex India legal consultancy, she trains rural communities to enforce environmental laws, creating a network of 500+ grassroots activists across 12 states. Her TEDx talk "How Law Can Save the Oceans" has garnered over 2 million views.