Now Reading: Indian companies tie circular economy efforts to lower costs
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Indian companies tie circular economy efforts to lower costs
Indian companies are shifting sustainability efforts from compliance exercises to cost-saving business strategies, executives told the Mint Sustainability Summit 2026. Rising raw material, transport and supply-chain costs are pushing firms to reuse…
The Story in Brief
Indian companies are shifting sustainability efforts from compliance exercises to cost-saving business strategies, executives told the Mint Sustainability Summit 2026. Rising raw material, transport and supply-chain costs are pushing firms to reuse waste, cut packaging and improve product recovery.
Aditya Birla Fashion reduced packaging for each shirt from 185 grams across 22 items to 62 grams. Alternicq’s Thimmaiah Napanda said circular systems need viable markets for collecting and processing waste. Electronics executives said informal recycling loses 70% of high-value materials. Infrastructure firms are using fly ash and steel slag in cement, while repair and refurbishment could extend the life of phones and laptops.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy narrative is that sustainability is either corporate virtue signalling or an expensive Western demand. The summit’s examples suggest a narrower, practical test: does a change save material, recover value or reduce lifetime costs? But claims of commercial benefit need measurement, not polished panel language. Companies should publish packaging savings, recovery rates and product-life data. The real test is whether formal recycling can recover more than the 70% of valuable electronic material reportedly lost today.
Sources (2): livemint.com, livemint.com (2)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
