(From left to right: Sanjay Kulkarni, Shailesh Shinde, Nandkumar Gurav, Harshad Barde, Sneha Kamble)

With the rise of e-commerce and app-based consumption models, newer and increasingly complicated forms of plastics are entering India’s waste stream. From food delivery packaging and multilayer films to mixed-material convenience packaging, the nature of plastic waste itself is changing rapidly, creating fresh pressure on collection systems, recyclers, and municipalities already grappling with rising waste volumes.
At the Recycling Vision Series 2026 in Pune, stakeholders from the informal recycling sector, municipal administration, and regulatory bodies discussed how changing consumption patterns, evolving packaging formats, and implementation gaps are reshaping India’s recycling ecosystem.

Moderated by Shailesh Shinde, Director, Social Lab Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd, the session focused on the growing complexity of waste streams and the mounting challenges facing collection and circularity systems. Shinde pointed out that low-value plastics were traditionally associated with lightweight carry bags and thin-film plastics. However, he noted that food delivery services and changing packaging formats have significantly altered the nature of low-value plastics generated in cities.
Responding to this, Harshad Barde, Ex-Director, SWaCH and Managing Trustee, Kashtakari Panchayat, said the informal recycling ecosystem has witnessed a clear rise in low-value and increasingly complex materials, particularly in the post-COVID period. According to him, much of the waste entering the system today is no longer conventional single-polymer plastic, but mixed-material and multi-material packaging formats.
Barde explained that packaging linked to food delivery services, convenience consumption, and e-commerce is increasingly made up of combinations of polymers, coatings, and layered materials, making it difficult to classify and recycle within existing systems. He observed that while waste may appear mixed at the household level, downstream collection, transportation, sorting, and aggregation systems are highly specialised, with recyclers focusing on specific categories of material.
According to Barde, the quantity of low-value, contaminated, and difficult-to-process plastics is steadily increasing, making recovery commercially unattractive for recyclers. Shinde also pointed to a contradiction emerging within the ecosystem. While the number of authorised recyclers is increasing, many continue to hesitate in handling these materials because of operational and commercial constraints.

Building resilience in collection and recycling systems
From the municipal perspective, Sanjay Kulkarni, Chief Engineer, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), outlined the scale of the challenge faced by the city, which processes more than 1,500 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day. He stated that waste reaching municipal facilities often contains domestic hazardous waste, biomedical waste, plastics, e-waste, and construction waste, making scientific processing increasingly difficult.
Kulkarni said PCMC currently has nearly 23 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste at its disposal sites, creating significant environmental and operational concerns. He stressed that municipalities are not merely managing waste volumes, but also the nuisance and environmental impact caused by unsegregated and improperly handled waste.

Municipalities expand circular economy infrastructure
Detailing the city’s circular economy initiatives, Kulkarni said PCMC started a plastic-to-fuel plant in 2009 on an R&D basis. The facility currently processes around five tonnes of plastic waste per day and generates nearly 600 to 700 litres of low-density oil from one tonne of plastic waste.

He further noted that the corporation has established pelletisation facilities, construction and demolition waste recycling plants, and hotel waste-to-biogas systems. PCMC has also developed a 1,000-tonne material recovery facility to recover recyclable materials from mixed waste streams.

Kulkarni added that waste without recyclable value is being diverted to a waste-to-energy facility producing 14 MW of electricity, of which around 12 MW is used internally for sewage treatment and water treatment plants. He described this as part of the city’s broader circular economy strategy.

Technology and innovation reshape waste processing
Kulkarni also highlighted concerns regarding compost quality, stating that compost generated from mixed waste streams is increasingly showing traces of microplastics and heavy metals, making it unsuitable for food crops. As a result, the corporation is reconsidering conventional composting systems and exploring alternative treatment technologies.
He further stated that PCMC is planning additional investments in AI-based material recovery systems, expanded waste-to-energy infrastructure, biochar facilities, and sludge treatment systems using waste heat recovery. According to him, municipalities are being forced to continuously upgrade technologies because the complexity of waste itself is increasing.

Strengthening implementation and compliance systems
From the regulatory perspective, Sneha Kamble, Regional Officer, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), said implementation remains one of the biggest challenges across the recycling ecosystem. She noted that while directions and guidelines are regularly issued, meaningful change depends on how seriously industries and stakeholders implement them on the ground.
Kamble added that authorities are working towards streamlining systems and bringing more stakeholders into formal monitoring and reporting frameworks. She also indicated that compliance and reporting mechanisms are gradually becoming more digitised and process-driven.

Rethinking EPR and recycling economics
The discussion also examined the economics of recycling under India’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework. Barde argued that although recycling targets have steadily increased over the years, there has been no corresponding increase in financing support for collection and processing systems.
Referring specifically to metallised multi-layer plastics (MLP), he pointed out that the economics remain heavily skewed against recyclers. According to him, recyclers continue to incur losses because the actual processing cost remains significantly higher than the value recovered through EPR certificates.
Barde stressed that pricing alone cannot solve the issue. He argued that sourcing systems, traceability mechanisms, and procurement standards also need to evolve if difficult plastics are to be properly collected and processed.
He further emphasised that the primary responsibility for plastic waste management lies with producers and brand owners introducing such materials into the market. Referring to examples from Japan and South Korea, Barde noted that beverage companies there have adopted standardised packaging formats, including uniform bottle colours, sizes, and material compositions, to improve recyclability and collection efficiencies.

Moving towards a more integrated circular economy
The panel broadly agreed that circularity cannot be achieved through recycling alone. Strengthening collection systems, improving implementation, redesigning products for recyclability, and supporting innovative reuse models will all be critical to building an effective circular economy ecosystem in India.