Abstract
As our cities swell with millions, the dream of a sustainable future hinges on a ” transitioning from a ‘take-make-dispose’ linear model to a regenerative, circular economy. The concept of circularity emerges as a powerful encouragement, promising resilience and regeneration. However, as we embrace this vision, a critical question arises: Is this truly a revolutionary leap, or are we merely giving old problems a new name, thereby avoiding the profound, systemic changes that are truly needed? This paper examines how Indian cities are integrating circularity into their governance, infrastructure, and policies, with a particular focus on climate action plans, waste management, and innovation ecosystems. Drawing on recent policy developments and climate dialogues, we situate India’s circular transition within both a global and local context, identifying key pathways for mainstreaming circularity into urban systems.
Introduction
India is undergoing a rapid and profound transformation in its urban areas, with the urban population expected to rise from 30% today to over 60% by 2050. While cities are poised to become epicentres of economic growth, innovation, and sustainability challenges, they also bring challenges: overflowing landfills, polluted air, and strained infrastructure. For example, municipal solid waste is projected to rise from 62 million tonnes today to 436 million tonnes by 2050, exerting unprecedented pressure on infrastructure, ecosystems, and governance. While economic growth continues, true national wealth lies in the well-being, dignity, and sustainability of urban life. Infrastructure without community, or urbanisation without inclusion, is inherently unsustainable. A circular economy offers solutions: reduced waste, cleaner air, and new job opportunities. It’s about designing cities to reuse materials, such as turning food scraps into compost or repurposing old bricks into new buildings. It’s also about dignity—ensuring everyone, from waste pickers to policymakers, has a role in this transformation. It provides a robust framework for redefining urban value, emphasising resilience, sufficiency, and long-term regeneration. Achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of inclusive and empowered cities demands a redefinition of urban value beyond economic output.
From Policy to Practice: Institutionalising Circular Governance
Urban systems—including water, mobility, housing, and energy—are increasingly being reimagined through a circular lens. The concept of circularity provides a transformative framework for addressing India’s urban challenges. Indian states and cities are increasingly weaving circular economy principles into their climate action plans. Circularity in construction, for example, encompasses the use of recycled materials, modular design, and the adaptive reuse of existing structures. Urban mobility is transitioning toward shared, electric, and low-emission transportation modes.
Food and organic waste systems are being redesigned to support composting, urban agriculture, and the production of bioenergy.
Kerala’s State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) articulates circularity as a central pillar, focusing on decentralised solid waste treatment, reuse of construction and demolition debris, and circular agriculture practices. These strategies are particularly pertinent for Kerala, given its ecological sensitivity and high exposure to climate-induced disasters such as floods.
Tamil Nadu has initiated industrial symbiosis programs in select cities and is promoting e-waste and textile recycling through policy incentives. Gujarat champions eco-industrial parks for resource efficiency. Delhi, with its chronic air quality issues and growing landfill crises, is deploying biogas plants and construction waste recycling centres.
However, we must ask: Are these plans truly transformative, or do they primarily focus on “end-of-pipe” solutions? While diverting waste and reusing water are vital, do they fundamentally challenge the relentless consumption and production cycles that generate such immense waste in the first place? Are we genuinely “rethinking urban systems,” or merely making the linear model slightly less destructive? Can we change the narrative and make these local, traditional practices the heart of our circular journey, moving towards a community-led solution that is better suited for many Indian contexts?
Many Indian cities are already experimenting with circular principles and following simple, low-cost, people-driven ways that reflect circular thinking— even if we don’t call it that. Indore, known as India’s cleanest city, turns market waste into biogas and compost, creating jobs and reducing landfill use. A waste picker now works in organised recycling hubs, earning a steady income. In Pune, decentralised composting hubs process organic waste, while citizens lead “zero-waste” campaigns during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, cutting down plastic use. After devastating floods, Chennai adopted “sponge city” designs—urban wetlands and green roofs that absorb rainwater, reduce flooding, and cool the city. Patna processes market waste through biogas plants. Pune has established decentralised composting hubs, while Ludhiana recycles construction and demolition waste into aggregates. Mumbai’s revised climate action plan presents circularity as a central theme for reducing waste, improving air quality, and promoting sustainable mobility.
Additionally, the emergence of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), such as green roofs, sponge parks, urban wetlands, and biodiversity corridors, can help cities manage flood risks, enhance air and water quality, and mitigate urban heat island effects, and is increasingly seen as a complementary approach to circular strategies. Cities like Chennai have embraced sponge city features, while Delhi has developed a network of biodiversity parks by restoring degraded land. These efforts demonstrate the potential of integrating ecological design into urban resilience planning. National policies support these city-level examples but still require deeper local embedding and cross-sectoral coordination. India’s best examples of circularity—such as Indore’s waste ecosystem or Kerala’s community-driven sanitation models—are not top-down impositions but locally adapted solutions. Scaling these successes requires decentralised authority, flexible financing, and iterative policy design.
Mechanisms such as green municipal bonds, ESG linked grants, and climate-resilient budgeting can support this shift. Performance-based financing linked to climate action plans, outcomes, and lifecycle benefits can ensure circularity becomes fiscally viable, not just environmentally desirable.
Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) under the Smart Cities Mission are evolving to support environmental monitoring and management. This is promising. But can these centres truly foster a collaborative, cross-sectoral mindset in traditionally siloed government departments? Or will circularity metrics become another checkbox on a dashboard, detached from real-world impact? We need robust regulatory tools—such as green building codes, circular procurement guidelines, and practical Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks—to truly embed circularity into daily planning and operations.
To scale circular infrastructure, cities will need blended finance models, green bonds, and climate linked loans that reflect long-term co-benefits. Repair hubs, circular audits for public infrastructure, and guidelines for sustainable procurement at the municipal level can open up new budgetary opportunities and align ULBs with green goals. However, circular finance must be accompanied by administrative reforms. Budget structures, procurement processes, and accounting systems need to evolve to reflect circular metrics. Without mainstreaming these changes, circularity risks being confined to donor-driven projects or isolated innovation clusters.
The transition to circularity requires more than pilot projects; it demands a fundamental rethink of how urban systems are conceived, financed, and governed, and embedded in a larger cultural and governance transformation. Otherwise, such plans risk becoming technocratic checklists.
Governance and the Shift from “Jug” to “Mug” Thinking
Despite these successes, building circular cities isn’t easy. Many city governments (Urban Local Bodies, or ULBs, in India) face tight budgets, relying on state or central funds. Schemes like the Smart Cities Mission have upgraded infrastructure, but they often focus on quick fixes, such as waste disposal, rather than long-term solutions like resource reuse and recycling. Then there’s the “jug thinking” problem: top-down plans that ignore local needs. For example, a one-size-fits-all waste policy might work in Delhi but fail in the hilly terrain of Shillong or the coastal city of Kochi. Circular solutions require “mug thinking”—local, community-led ideas that reflect each city’s unique challenges, such as monsoon flooding or air pollution. Another hurdle is changing mindsets.
This reorientation is not just about mindset; it is about method. Place-based planning, citizen co creation, inclusive expertise, and rapid, tangible interventions must become the grammar of urban change. Nature-based Solutions underscore this approach, as they require site-specific knowledge, community stewardship, and adaptive implementation over time.
Circularity must also extend beyond efficiency to encompass justice. India’s informal sector, from waste pickers to repair workers, already performs the work of circularity, albeit without recognition or security. Integrating these actors into formal systems is not just a moral. imperative but an economic one.
Social protection, skills training, and representation are crucial for building inclusive circular cities. However, true circularity must be gender inclusive and socioeconomically diverse. It must draw upon the knowledge of those who inhabit, build, and sustain the city.
Policy to Action (Jug to Mug)
· Conduct a city-level circularity audit
· Co-develop local circularity roadmaps with communities
· Recognise and support informal waste/value workers Launch municipal-level repair and reuse hubs
· Use public procurement to prioritise circular products
· Invest in circular startups and frugal innovations
India’s vibrant startup ecosystem, particularly in climate tech and cleantech, presents a strategic advantage. From reverse logistics to circular packaging, cities are collaborating with innovators to trial new models. Platforms such as CITIIS and the Smart Cities Mission have facilitated partnerships through challenge grants and urban labs, enabling collaboration among stakeholders. Yet scaling these innovations requires more than pilots. It requires enabling regulations, blended finance models, and market access. Municipal procurement systems must become agile enough to engage startups, while universities and incubators must co-develop city-specific solutions. Circularity should not be siloed within the environment ministry, but championed across infrastructure, industry, and finance.
From Circular Talk to Circular Cities
India’s circular journey is unique, but it can learn from the world. Amsterdam’s circular roadmap, for example, promotes shared mobility and material reuse, much like Mumbai’s push for electric buses. Singapore’s water recycling systems inspire Delhi’s wastewater treatment plants. Yet India’s strength lies in its local innovation—think of traditional practices like reusing old sarees or repairing bicycles, which are circular by nature.
The central government has taken encouraging steps. Mission LiFE encourages behavioural shifts in consumption. The Green Credit Programme rewards afforestation and conservation. MoHUA’s “Meri LiFE, Mera Swachh Shehar” campaign operationalises reduce-reuse-recycle principles across cities. Revised SAPCCs are increasingly incorporating circular strategies, ranging from solar rooftops to decentralised waste treatment
India’s cities are indeed at a tipping point. The convergence of climate urgency, digital infrastructure, and policy momentum presents a unique opportunity to reimagine urban development fundamentally. Circularity isn’t a one size-fits-all solution; it demands localised strategies rooted in our unique realities. Circularity is also not just infrastructure—it is a culture. Cities must design for dignity, sufficiency, and stewardship, not endless accumulation.
Common principles are clear: systemic design, cross-sector integration, stakeholder participation, and the creation of long-term value. But moving from isolated pilots to systemic transformation requires bold leadership, unwavering cross-sector collaboration, and sustained investment.
India’s urban future will be defined not just by the scale of its infrastructure but by the inclusiveness of its systems and the resilience of its communities. Circularity is more than a technical solution; it is a cultural and governance shift. It invites us to ask whose knowledge counts, whose participation matters, and what kind of urban future we truly value.
Moving from circular talk to circular cities requires disrupting the status quo. Achieving true circularity demands more than just policy pronouncements. It requires a profound questioning of our consumption patterns, a radical re-evaluation of economic incentives, and an unwavering commitment to empowering the most vulnerable. Are we truly ready for that level of disruption, or will “circularity” become another buzzword, masking a continued adherence to the very status quo it aims to dismantle? India’s urban growth is still primarily driven by land politics and projects that prioritise GDP numbers over other considerations.
If circularity remains limited to high-level plans and elite areas, it will simply become a fanciful idea, while our cities continue to follow the same old, harmful path. We need to think in bold, new ways— not just make minor fixes to the existing system. Real change won’t come by adjusting the status quo; we have to break out of it altogether. In the end, a circular city is not built from blueprints alone—it is co-created, cup by cup, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, future by future.
References
- MoEFCC & MoHUA. (2023). State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs) 2.0 Compendium of Urban Strategies. Waste solutions for a circular economy in India. (n.d.-d). https://mitigationaction.org/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/NSP_Document/India_Waste/NAM A_Facility_NSP_Document_India_Waste.pdf ICF. (2025, June 19).
- Mainstreaming urban nature-based solutions in India. ICF. https://www.icf.com/insights/climate/urban-nature-based-solutions-india Sankhe et. al. (2010, April 1).
- India’s urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/urbanization/urban-awakening in-india
- Meri Life Mera Swachh Shehar campaign – Delhi. (n.d.-d). https://www.ndmc.gov.in/pdf/Meri LiFE Mera Swachh Shehar Campaign.pdf MoEF&CC. (2022b).
- Mission life – lifestyle for the environment. https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2022/nov/doc20 22119122601.pdf
- Circular economy in India: Rethinking growth for long-term prosperity. Circular Economy in India: Rethinking growth for long-term prosperity | Green Policy Platform. (n.d.). https://www.greenpolicyplatform.org/research/circular economy-india-rethinking-growth-long-term-prosperity University, C. (n.d.).
- Transitioning Indian cities into a circular economy. Transitioning Indian Cities into Circular Economy | CEPT Summer Exhibition 2022. https://exhibition.cept.ac.in/se22/studio/drp-um4050-spring 2022/transitioning-indian-cities-into-circular-economy-spring-2022 pum20034
- Progress in eight missions on climate change. (n.d.-e). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1845820 Munieshwer A Sagar / May 18, 2025. (n.d.).
- UT Climate Change Action Plan Gets Centre’s NOD: Chandigarh News – Times of India. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/ut-climate-change-action plan-gets-centres-nod/articleshow/121241583.cms?utm_ Jun 21, 2025. (n.d.). Cabinet OKs Green Law for eco-friendly ULBs: Lucknow News Times of India. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/cabinet-oks-green-law-for eco-friendly-ulbs/articleshow/121982087.cms?utm_ Editor. (2025, June 12).
- Designing India’s clean future: EARTH5R’s urban regeneration framework. Earth5R. https://earth5r.org/designing-indias-clean-future-earth5rs urban-regeneration-framework/
- To build circular cities in India, behavioural change is fundamental – the transformation begins at home. https://www.huhtamaki.com/en/think circle/articles/all/to-build-circular-cities-in-india-behavioral-change-is fundamental–the-transformation-begins-at-home/ Bhutani, A. A. & A. (2017, July 27).
- Building blocks of a circular economy in India: The Role of Public Policy. CIL. https://www.circularinnovationlab.com/post/building-blocks-of-a-circular economy-in-india-the-role-of-public-policy?utm_
- World Cities Report 2020: The value of sustainable urbanisation. UN. (n.d.). https://unhabitat.org/world-cities-report-2020-the-value-of-sustainable urbanization Financing the circular economy. (n.d.-b). https://content.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/m/40e9896bc9131b6b/original/Fin ancing-the-circular-economy-Capturing-the-opportunity.pdf Ministry of Finance. (n.d.-f).
- Framework of India’s climate finance taxonomy. https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2025/may/doc20 2557551101.pdf
