WCEF2026 in India: A Moment to Showcase, Learn and Move Circularity Upstream
This September, India will host the 10th World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF2026) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The Forum, being organised by the Central Pollution Control Board and Sitra, with partners, will bring global leaders, policymakers, businesses, innovators and practitioners together around the theme “Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity.”
For India, this is much more than another international conference. It is an opportunity to showcase what we have achieved. It is equally an opportunity to listen, learn and ask ourselves a more difficult question: what must India do next if circularity is to become an integral part of our development and manufacturing pathway? India has a particularly interesting story to tell. Long before the term “circular economy” became part of the global sustainability vocabulary, Indian households and enterprises practised repair, reuse, refurbishment, sharing and material recovery. Today, that instinct is being complemented by a new generation of entrepreneurs working on recycling, alternative materials, resource recovery, product life extension, sustainable consumption and circular business models. The fact that Startup India now has a dedicated Circular Economy Innovator Award itself reflects the growing importance of this ecosystem. (Startup India) Some of the most interesting solutions are emerging not necessarily from large corporations, but from start-ups and MSMEs. Across India, small enterprises are finding value in materials that were previously treated as waste. Entrepreneurs are working on battery and e-waste recovery, textile reuse, recycled plastics, bio-based materials, repair and refurbishment, decentralised waste systems and zero-waste consumer products. Startup India, for example, has showcased enterprises such as Bare Necessities that are attempting to embed zero-waste and cradle-to-cradle thinking into products and consumption. These enterprises matter because India cannot simply import a circular economy model designed elsewhere. Our transition has to work at Indian scales, Indian price points andwithin Indian realities. It must include MSMEs, informal and semi-formal value chains, local innovation and livelihoods.
WCEF2026 gives us a global platform to tell these stories.
But showcasing India’s achievements should only be half the purpose of the Forum. The other half must be learning.India has demonstrated that ambitious environmental action and development do not necessarily have to be competing objectives. Its climate trajectory provides an important example. India achieved its earlier targets of reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 33–35 per cent and reaching 40 per cent non-fossil installed electricity capacity well ahead of their committed timelines. In March 2026, the Government approved India’s NDC for 2031–35, committing to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 47 per cent from 2005 levels, achieve 60 per cent cumulative installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources, and create an additional carbon sink of 3.5–4 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent through forest and tree cover by 2035. (Press Information Bureau)
For a large and rapidly developing economy, these are significant commitments and provide an important example within the Global South of how development aspirations can coexist with increasing climate ambition. However, climate action and circular economy action are not identical. And this is where WCEF2026 could help India initiate a very important next
conversation.
From managing waste to preventing waste, much of India’s circular economy policy architecture has understandably concentrated on the downstream end of the value chain. Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, has been an important development. India now has EPR frameworks covering streams including plastics, e-waste, batteries, waste tires, and used oil. These frameworks are strengthening producer responsibility, formalizing recycling systems, and creating mechanisms to ensure greater accountability for materials after products reach the end of their life. This work must continue and become stronger. But EPR alone cannot make an economy circular. If our policies intervene primarily after a product becomes waste, we are addressing the consequences of a linear economy rather than redesigning the system that created the waste. The next phase of India’s circular economy journey therefore has to move upstream.
We need to ask questions before a product enters the market. How much material does it use?
1. Can it use secondary or recycled materials?
2. How long is it designed to last?
3. Can it be repaired?
4. Can components be replaced rather than the entire product?
5. Can it be upgraded?
6. Can it be disassembled economically?
7. Are materials identified sufficiently for recovery?
8. Can products be refurbished and remanufactured?
And, importantly, can we design business models in which value is created without continuously increasing virgin material consumption?
These questions take circular economy policy from waste management to resource management, and ultimately to product policy and industrial policy.
Why upstream circularity is also becoming a trade issue
There is another reason why India cannot postpone this transition. Global markets are changing. Environmental requirements are increasingly moving beyond voluntary sustainability commitments and entering the realm of market access, product regulation and trade competitiveness. The European Union Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the emerging Digital Product Passport (DPP) framework illustrate this shift. Depending upon the product category, information relating to materials, environmental performance, repairability, reuse and recycling will increasingly travel with the product itself. The EU& DPP Registry became operational in July 2026, with product-specific requirements being progressively introduced. This represents a fundamental change. In tomorrow’s markets, it may no longer be sufficient for a manufacturer to say that a product is sustainable. Increasingly, the manufacturer may need to demonstrate it through data — where materials came from, what the product contains, its environmental footprint, whether it can be repaired and how it can ultimately be recovered. India trade relationships are evolving at the same time. Negotiations on the EU–India Free Trade Agreement concluded in January 2026, although the agreement will become binding only after the necessary signature and internal procedures. This wider convergence between trade, climate policy, product standards and sustainability means that circular economy policy is no longer only an environmental ministry concern. It is becoming a question of industrial competitiveness. For India’s policymakers, therefore, upstream circularity deserves urgent attention — not because another jurisdiction requires it, but because the direction of global markets is increasingly clear. If Indian manufacturers, particularly MSMEs, have to retrofit compliance after international requirements take effect, sustainability becomes a cost. If we prepare early — through eco-design frameworks, standards, material information systems, traceability, repairability, recycled-content markets and digital product information — circularity can instead become a competitive advantage.
An opportunity to learn — not simply replicate
This is precisely why having the international circular economy community in India is so valuable. Europe has important experience in eco-design, right-to-repair approaches, product information and digital product passports. Other countries are experimenting with circular procurement, industrial symbiosis, secondary material markets and new business models. India should learn from these experiences. But learning does not mean copying. Our solutions have to recognise India development context, affordability requirements, employment structures and enormous MSME base. A circular product standard that only a large multinational can comply with is unlikely to deliver an inclusive circular transition. The challenge before us is to create frameworks that enable a small manufacturer in Rajkot, Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Surat or Pune to participate in tomorrow circular global value chains. That will require technology, finance and standards — but equally capacity building, skills, testing infrastructure, accessible digital systems and handholding for MSMEs. And the learning can flow in both directions. India can bring to the global conversation its experience of frugal innovation, repair economies, resource-conscious consumption, decentralised entrepreneurship and the ability to find value in materials at relatively small scales. Our startups and MSMEs can demonstrate that circularity is not necessarily a high-cost environmental intervention. Done well, it can create enterprises, livelihoods, material security and new markets.
WCEF2026: From a Forum to a Turning Point
Perhaps this should be India& ambition for WCEF2026. Not simply to host the world circular economy community, but to use its presence here to begin defining India next generation of circular economy policy. We have made important progress in managing what happens at the end of a product life. Now we must increasingly influence what happens at its beginning. We need both. Strong downstream systems to recover resources — and strong upstream policies to ensure that products are designed to retain their value in the first place. EPR, recycling and responsible waste management must remain essential pillars. But alongside them must come eco-design, durability, repairability, recycled-content standards, material efficiency, traceability, circular procurement, remanufacturing and business models that keep products and materials in productive use for longer. WCEF2026 arrives at an opportune moment. India has much to showcase to the world — its entrepreneurs, MSMEs, innovators, policy experiments and the scale at which solutions can be deployed. But we also have much to learn from countries that are moving rapidly towards upstream circular economy frameworks. The real opportunity lies in bringing these two together. If we can combine India ingenuity and scale with global learning, and translate that exchange into policies suited to our own development pathway, WCEF2026 can leave behind something far more valuable than a successful international conference. It can help mark the moment when India begins moving decisively from managing waste to designing out waste; from recycling resources to retaining their value; and from viewing circularity primarily as an environmental responsibility to recognising it as an economic and competitive opportunity. For a country aspiring to become a developed economy while providing prosperity for 1.4billion people, that is not merely a circular economy agenda. It is an agenda for resilient growth.
Managing Director
International Council for Circular Economy