Mapping Local Plastic Recycling Supply Chains: Insights from Selected Cities in India

Across the reviewed wastesheds, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, there is a well-established informal plastic waste recycling system, which enables considerable amounts of plastic recycling to be carried out via a network of entrepreneurial relationships and micro-businesses. Plastic waste that gets collected by Kurawalas or Kude-uthane walas (waste pickers) or Raddiwallas (itinerant buyers) goes through multiple levels of aggregation via aggregators, scrap dealers, and agents/brokers before reaching recyclers. 

This report further details the findings from the wasteshed assessments in India, offering insights into how the local plastic waste recycling supply chains typically operate and areas for intervention.

Key takeaways from this report include:

• Delhi has a large informal collection and aggregation sector with considerable recycling infrastructure within the city, whereas plastic waste from Mumbai and Chennai is typically transported to another state for recycling, indicating a lack of demand from local recyclers.
• Reliance on informal collection and trading impacts the economic viability of recycling plants and security of supply chains due to the differing quality of plastic waste feedstock. On the other hand, the formal waste collection systems and infrastructure such as material recovery facilities (MRFs) are also not optimized for source segregation, reducing supply chain efficiency.
• To improve the collection system and processes, harmonized sorting and segregation quality standards can be put in place as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system or more broadly to improve the quality of segregated waste before it is sent to recyclers.
• The EPR system helps increase demand from plastic recyclers through mandating recycled content targets in key applications, leading to new supply chains with improved aggregation and traceability.