Rethinking circular economy

It was in 1991 when the then chief economist of the World Bank, Larry Summers, had advocated that toxic waste, polluting factories should be moved to least developed countries

Sunita Narain 

Sunita Narain

I am inside a dark and dingy “factory”, looking at plastic waste being recycled. This was after I went to see how plastic waste — from our homes — was being separated and traded by the poor in our city. “Where does this plastic go?” I had asked in Tikri, located on the outskirts of Delhi. “To Bawana and Narela (industrial areas also in Delhi),” I was told.

So, here was I, standing inside one of the many factories that buy this waste and recycle it. Recycling is a big word, but what does it mean? It goes broadly like this. This waste has to ...

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Read our full coverage on waste recycling
First Published: Mon, July 01 2019. 00:36 IST