The informal sector plays a crucial role in the podcast episodes, as it highlights the importance of understanding and engaging with informal networks and waste pickers in African countries to enable circular procurement of IT products.

In the first episode, Joost de Kluijver, CEO of Closing the Loop, discusses how his social enterprise works with the informal sector in Africa to collect and recycle end-of-life phones, underscoring the role of the informal sector in their operations.

Similarly, in the second episode, Adriana Zakay, the executive director of Circular Economy Asia, briefly mentions her experience in understanding the informal sector of waste collection and the economics of the system in Asia, emphasizing the nuances of implementing circular economy initiatives across diverse Asian countries.