The Indian Union Cabinet has approved a budget of ₹1,500 crore to boost recycling of critical minerals. The scheme aims to strengthen India’s domestic capacity. It will run from FY 2025-26 to FY 2030-31. The initiative will cover e-waste and lithium-ion battery recycling. Government expects to significantly increase annual recycling capacity, and also generate employment.
A new type of plastic that dissolves in ocean water overnight without leaving microplastics? Sounds bizarre, but is now a reality. Developed by researchers in Japan, this innovative material is designed to break down quickly and safely in marine environments, addressing the growing problem of plastic pollution. Unlike conventional plastics, which can persist for centuries, this new material decomposes within hours when exposed to seawater, leaving no harmful residues. Potential applications include single-use items like packaging and fishing gear, which are major contributors to ocean pollution. The breakthrough could significantly reduce the environmental impact of plastics, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics, especially for items at risk of ending up in marine ecosystems.
The article emphasizes how traditional trades contribute to reducing waste and conserving resources through ‘jugaad’, offering a deeply local solution to global environmental concerns. It depicts India’s fading but resilient repair and reuse culture through a visual and narrative journey across five cities, highlighting traditional artisans and marketplaces, it celebrates sustainability embedded in Indian daily life through jugaad!
Addressing plastic pollution is essential to climate action. Made from fossil fuels, it emits greenhouse gases throughout its lifecycle. By 2050, plastic could consume up to 13% of the global carbon budget. It also disrupts ecosystems and natural carbon sinks, with microplastics affecting climate processes. As the planet warms, plastics break down faster, releasing more emissions and creating a harmful feedback loop.
The slogan ‘best out of waste’ is now turning into reality through localized plastic upcycling, specifically converting waste plastic into polymer that can be turned into yarn. This provides a promising strategy for securing raw materials in manufacturing. This model, exemplified by EndOfWaste, involves processing plastic waste near production facilities to create “yarn-ready” polymers. This approach tackles the inefficiency of traditional long-haul recycling and offers manufacturers a reliable, eco-conscious supply of raw materials. It also helps address the global plastic recycling shortfall, which remains under 9%, while reducing dependency on virgin feedstocks
Cities like Lagos are using data to tackle plastic pollution, supported by UNEP and UN-Habitat. A waste audit showed each resident generates around 34 kg of plastic waste yearly, much of it polluting waterways. This led to a 2024 ban on single-use polystyrene containers. Tools like the Waste Wise Cities Tool help cities assess and manage waste more effectively, enabling smarter policies and investments to reduce plastic pollution.
Recycling is not just a stopgap—it’s crucial for a circular economy and climate action. It is not merely about sorting trash; it’s a systemic solution to some of the world’s pressing challenges.
The World Bank warns that global waste could surge by 70% by 2050 if we don’t change our practices. Each time we recycle, we reclaim precious materials—metals, plastics, paper—that help reduce our dependence on virgin resources.
Solid waste management is perhaps among the most overwhelming problems that Indian cities are grappling with today. But while the complexities around waste management in big cities are discussed widely, the challenges faced by smaller Indian cities and towns are even more complex due to limited scale, inadequate funding and institutional capacity constraints. Tier-1 and some Tier-2 cities have set up infrastructure and allocated resources for waste processing, but in general, small cities struggle to do so. As a result, waste processing in these cities is almost negligible, with only a few exceptions.
The rise of fast fashion, coupled with citizens’ limited awareness about waste disposal, has led to a textile waste challenge in Bengaluru. The city generates 220 tonnes of textile waste everyday, which accounts for 4% of its municipal waste.
Managing urban textile waste goes beyond collection, sorting, and recycling — it should also take into account the needs of the frontline workers, the waste picker community. To address this challenge, waste pickers, with support from NGOs, have developed multiple solutions. In the past few years, they have set up Bengaluru’s first textile waste processing centre, a decentralised system to provide waste to this centre, and even a separate upcycling system that fashions new clothes out of waste.
The Supreme Court on Monday (February 24, 2025) said segregation of garbage starts at home and it is a practice which is of vital importance for the well-being of the environment.
A Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan asked the National Capital Region (NCR) States of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan how smart city projects envisaged by their governments could actually become a reality unless there was proper segregation of waste at the source in compliance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
