Recycling industry to hit $3 trillion by 2047

The shift towards a circular economy provides a huge economic opportunity to the recycling industry players as the sector is expected to reach $ 3 trillion by 2047, said Ved Prakash Mishra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

“The transition to a circular economy is a tremendous economic opportunity as it is estimated that the recycling industry will reach $3 trillion by 2047," Mishra said.

Speaking at the Global Symposium on Resource Efficiency & Circular Economy organised by ‘Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Industry Coalition’ (RECEIC) jointly with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and MoEF&CC, Mishra said, “Most materials that we manufacture can be recycled,” and for those that can’t “can be utilized in other ways including plastics which cannot be recycled but can be used for energy recovery and fuel.”


He further underscored the need to move towards more sustainable industry practices, stating “We cannot rely anymore on the take, make and dispose model. It is imperative for us to adopt, and we no longer have any other option as of now.”

The government is planning to expand the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) guidelines to other sectors, including ones jointly identified by the government with Niti Aayog.

He also said that the government is pushing different sectors to adopt circular economic practices along with promoting resource efficiency, waste-to-wealth initiatives, EPR, and sustainable manufacturing initiatives.

“The government is working with the industry to achieve circular economy objectives,” he added.

Circular economy refers to production and consumption that promotes reuse, repairing, refurbishing and recycling rather than scrapping products and extracting new resources.

It allows an industry to use a material again and again for as long as it’s possible.

Emphasising the need for a holistic approach rather than restricting to single manufacturing units or buildings, Janardhanan Ramanujalu, Vice President, Indian region, SABIC said “We need to extend our perspective beyond individual factories, manufacturing plants, buildings, and think about how we can interconnect and integrate for resource efficiency.”