Gandhinagar, Sep 15 (PTI) Circularity is not a new destination for India but a new way of looking at old wisdom and modernising values that have served society for generations, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav said here on Tuesday.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 10th World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF 2026), the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change said circularity is a collaborative effort requiring knowledge, technology, and finance to cross borders and sectors.
“India has made significant progress towards expanding recycling infrastructure, encouraging new recycling technologies, strengthening markets for recycled materials, and promoting eco-design and circular procurement practices,” he said.
The true measure of a circular economy will not be how much waste is recycled, but how little value we allow to be wasted, Yadav noted.
“The choice before us is not between growth and the environment. The real opportunity is to make growth itself more resource efficient, more resilient and more sustainable, and this is precisely what WCE provides,” he said.
Yadav said that India has always been more than willing to share its experiences and learnings from its journey towards the circular economy.
What is now described in policy language as “circularity” was once simply common sense in Indian life — repair before replace, reuse before discard, and recover before waste, he said.
“For India, circularity is not a new destination; it is a new way of looking at old wisdom. We are not merely adopting a new economic model, we are modernising values that have served our society for generations,” he said.
India has understood and practised the principles of reuse, repair, and respect for what we have, which are deeply woven into the country’s social and cultural fabric and are part of traditions and upbringing, he said.
“We are in many ways restoring an ethos that was already deeply embedded in Indian life. In India, little was ever wasted or thrown away. The neighbourhood cobbler, tailor, watch mechanic and cycle repairer were not merely service providers; they were an indispensable part of the circular system,” he said.
The Union minister stated that India’s circular economic strategy is being built for regulatory reforms backed by digital compliance systems.
Over the last few years, India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has progressively strengthened the legal framework governing waste management by revisiting factory-specific rules under the Environment Protection Act 1986 for different waste categories such as plastic waste, battery waste, e-waste, waste tyre, used oil, end-of-life vehicles, construction and demolition waste, non-ferrous scrap metal and solid waste, he said.
“Our objective is clear — waste should no longer be seen as the end of a product’s journey but as the beginning of another resource cycle. One of the most transformative reforms has been the introduction of extended producer responsibility (EPR),” he said.
Unlike the traditional regulatory approach of command and control, the EPR framework obligates the producer, importer or brand owner who introduces the product to the market to ensure its environmentally sound management at the end of life.
As of August, more than 83,000 producers and 4,802 recyclers are registered under the EPR framework, he said.
Through this collective effort, nearly 482.24 lakh metric tonnes of waste have been processed across regulated waste streams, with over 422 lakh metric tonnes covered through EPR certificate generation, the Union minister said.
He pointed out that these are “not merely numbers of compliance; they represent materials recovered, resources conserved, technology deployed and livelihood created”.
He also stressed that regulation alone cannot create a circular economy, but it begins from the way we consume.
“A circular economy cannot be built only at the recycling plant; it must begin at the marketplace, continue at our homes, and ultimately become a habit in our daily life,” he said, and cited the Mission Life, introduced by PM Modi, which calls for mindful and deliberate utilisation instead of mindless and destructive consumption, to protect and preserve the environment.
India’s initiatives have strengthened international cooperation on the circular economy, he said, adding that India-EU joint declaration of July 2020 identified resource efficiency and circular economy as key areas of cooperation for sustainable modernisation.
He noted that during India’s G20 presidency, the country launched a resource-efficiency and circular-economy industry coalition to drive industrial action and collaboration.
India-Germany cooperation through the joint working group for waste and circular economy and the Indo-German Environment Forum has focused on practical solutions, he said.
The WCEF is a leading global platform bringing together governments, businesses, international organisations, experts and innovators to share solutions and accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
WCEF 2026 is being held in Gandhinagar from September 15-18, 2026. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Forest and Environment Minister Arjun Modhwadia were also among the dignitaries present at its inaugural event. PTI KA PD ARU
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