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NewsMint MoneyREITSHow Indian businesses are looking to profit from a circular economyWhile companies are reducing
packaging, using industrial waste as raw material and making recyclable products, circularity succeeds only when it
creates commercial value Neethi Lisa RojanPublished4 Aug 2026, 12:03 PM IST(L-R) Thimmaiah Napanda, MD and chief
executive of Alternicq; Naresh Tyagi, chief sustainability officer at Aditya Birla Fashion; Dr. Sandip Chatterjee,
senior adviser at SERI and Anupama Reddy V., vice president and co-group head at Icra Ltd.AI Quick ReadMUMBAI: The
circular economy was a buzzword and a checkbox for most corporations for the longest time. With the volatile
macroeconomic environment, this attitude has changed. Rising raw material costs, volatile supply chains and rising
transportation costs have made it difficult to protect margins, experts said.Speaking at the Mint Sustainability Summit
2026, executives from packaging, fashion, electronics and infrastructure industries said that while companies are
reducing packaging, using industrial waste as raw material and making recyclable products, circularity succeeds only
when it creates commercial value."The circularity will not work unless there's value or an economy collecting and using
the waste," said Thimmaiah Napanda, managing director and chief executive of Alternicq, India's largest plastic
packaging producer.Also Read | Packaging is the new preservative as food companies drive healthier snackingNapanda said
India already has examples of successful circular systems. He said that newspapers have been actively recycled for years
because old newspapers can be raw material for the new product, creating a steady market for waste paper. This showed
the importance of an economy to support collection and processing across segments to ensure recyclability.He said
manufacturers should focus on "design for recyclability" so products can be converted back into the same products after
use.Naresh Tyagi, chief sustainability officer at Aditya Birla Fashion, said Indian households have traditionally
embraced practices such as repairing, reusing and passing down garments long before the concept of a circular economy
became popular in corporate boardrooms. Those principles are now being applied to manufacturing.Tyagi said the company
substantially reduced the amount of packaging used per shirt. Almost a decade ago, each shirt required 185 grams of
packaging material spread across 22 separate items. That has been cut to 62 grams."That was kind of throwing money to
the landfill," Tyagi said, adding that the company achieved significant savings while eliminating unnecessary plastic.In
the electronics industry, executives said discarded devices represent a growing source of valuable metals that India has
yet to fully recover.Also Read | India eyes 50% global ship recycling share as Alang gets green makeoverIndia's rapidly
expanding electronics market is producing millions of tons of electronic waste each year, said Dr. Sandip Chatterjee,
senior adviser at the Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI) and former secretary at the ministry of
electronics and information technology.Much of that waste is processed by the informal sector, where valuable materials
are often lost because of inefficient recovery methods which needs to be tackled with importance."The informal sector is
losing 70% of high-value materials," Chatterjee said.He said that greater investment in repair and refurbishment could
unlock significant value without requiring large capital expenditure. Refurbishment should be encouraged as end of life
of a product is much longer than the end of use of an electronic product for most products, he added.Chatterjee said
that greater investment in repair and refurbishment could unlock significant value without requiring large capital
expenditure. Smartphones and laptops, he said, often reach the end of their first ownership cycle years before they
become technologically obsolete. He said that this should not be the case and refurbishment must be
encouraged.Infrastructure companies are also adopting circular practices as construction activity accelerates across the
country.Industrial byproducts are increasingly becoming mainstream inputs for construction materials, said Anupama Reddy
V., vice president and co-group head at Icra Ltd.Also Read | Centre eyes eco-friendly sachets to tackle plastic litter
surge"In the highway and real estate sectors, the circular economy is no longer a luxury. It becomes a necessity to
manage costs," she said.She pointed to fly ash from thermal power plants and slag from steel production, both of which
are now widely used in cement manufacturing. The exchange allows one industry's waste to become another industry's raw
material while reducing disposal costs and lowering dependence on virgin resources.The discussion showed how companies
across sectors are thinking of improving their profitability and efficiency by being environmentally responsible.
Experts agree that instead of looking at circularity as a virtuous checkbox, and instead becoming more about improving
competitiveness, it will get more active takers.About the AuthorNeethi Lisa RojanNeethi Lisa Rojan is a senior
correspondent focusing on the consumer goods and retail sector working from Mumbai for Mint since 2026. She has been a
journalist for a little over two years with Moneycontrol and The Morning Context. She has covered the consumer and
healthcare sectors in earlier roles. She was a double gold medallist during her bachelor’s from Mahatma Gandhi
University Kerala and post-graduation from Pondicherry University. With a background in commerce and journalism, she
brings a sharp analytical lens to stories on India’s fast-evolving consumer goods and retail
sector.<br><br>With an academic background in business administration and a keen eye for financial statement
analysis, she bridges the gap between corporate data and compelling narrative journalism. Her reporting is characterized
by a focus on how evolving consumer behaviours and regulatory changes impact India's largest mass-market brands.
She is a keen learner with diplomas in international business, human rights and journalism. She specialized in business
journalism at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. When she is not looking into shopping carts, you can find her
explaining the latest conspiracy theory.Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The
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