It is a weird irony I see in industries all too frequently – one truck departs laden with slag or other waste material while another one comes in with newly mined stones or some other virgin raw material required for construction purposes.
To my mind, this particular image epitomizes the concept of circular economy in India. The problem does not lie in waste management alone. There are valuable resources in places where they are not supposed to be located in the first place.
This potential goes far beyond the waste collection. It is estimated by India’s 2025 Voluntary National Review that by 2050 the value of the country’s circular economy can be worth $2 trillion and create nearly 10 million job positions.
The ingredients of this new economy have already begun to collect around us.
The forecasted e-waste generation in India is likely to increase from 6.19 million tonnes in 2024 to 14 million tonnes in 2030. There may be an increase in the number of end-of-life vehicles from 23 million in 2025 to 50 million in 2030. The forecasted demand for lithium-ion batteries is to increase from 29 GWh in 2025 to 248 GWh in 2035.
These are precious amounts of steel, aluminum, copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel in these discarded vehicles, batteries and electronics. If not retrieved, India would have to keep importing these very resources despite economic and environmental costs.
Construction represents a similar opportunity. Throughout the country, steel slag, fly ash and demolition waste pile up close to industrial and urban areas. Simultaneously, there is massive use of new materials for construction of highways, factories and towns.
It is not a matter of whether waste can replace new materials. In a number of uses, we know that it can. What matters is whether it can be processed, tested and supplied at the consistency industry demands.
Indian firms have started to show that it can be done.
CMR Green Technologies, a prominent aluminium recycler in India, has generated revenues of roughly ₹8,640 crore in fiscal year 2025-26, having an annual recycling capacity of more than 6.15 lakh tonnes. The company’s $66 million public issue in 2026 witnessed bids worth almost $6 billion.
Gravita India, which deals in lead, aluminium, plastic, and rubber recycling, has generated quarterly revenues in excess of ₹1,000 crore in fiscal year 2025-26. The Recykal, a digital waste management platform, has achieved revenues of ₹1,200 crore on an annual recurring basis and has recycled over one million tonnes of waste.
These figures are relevant since they indicate that circularity is no longer just a social exercise or small-scale recycling operation.
It is also a key component of climate action.
As per the United Nations Environment Programme, the extraction and processing of resources are responsible for more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Even the transition to renewable energy will not be able to address the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of cement, steel, aluminium, plastics and batteries.
It has been estimated by the International Energy Agency that recycled lithium, nickel and cobalt generate, on average, 80 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions compared to primary mined resources. Secondary aluminum takes only about 6 per cent of the total energy required to manufacture primary aluminium.
The Indian government has promised to cut emissions intensity of its GDP by 47% between 2005 and 2035, along with net zero emissions by 2070. Recycling can help achieve these targets by reducing mining, energy use in industrial processes, transportation, landfill emissions, and process-related emissions.
However, noble intentions won’t make a circular economy. The industry won’t accept any recycling of a material simply because it is environmentally friendly. It should be consistently performing, commercially viable, and available on large scale.
This will call for better separation at source, testing and certification, traceability via digitization, and procurement based on performance. Informal waste collectors and recyclers in India should also be incorporated into this process through advanced technology and safer work environment.
Indians have always known how to fix, retrieve and reuse things. The challenge for India is to build up enough industries to be able to achieve these things on a grand scale.
Waste from yesterday can become the roadways, structures, batteries and production resources of tomorrow. The country which masters this technique would not only have a cleaner planet but also an edge economically.
