Environment › Waste and circular economy › Recycling and circularity
Circular economy
A circular economy keeps materials in use instead of making, using and discarding them, and India is putting it to work in the least glamorous place available: the road. Steel slag is going in where quarried stone would, and the surface milled off an old highway is going back into a new one. India hosts the World Circular Economy Forum at Gandhinagar from 15 to 18 September 2026, its first meeting in South Asia.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2020: uses of steel slag
Where the material comes from
- Road building consumes quarried stone aggregate and bitumen, and both can be replaced by material that already exists: an industrial residue, or the surface milled off an old road.
- Both road technologies below come from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's Central Road Research Institute (CSIR-CRRI).
India's stake and standing
Over 2 trillion US dollarsPotential market value of India's circular economy by 2050
Close to 10 millionJobs it could create by 2050
- India launched the Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Industry Coalition (RECEIC) during its Group of Twenty (G20) Presidency.
- India co-chairs the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP), the international machinery behind Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 on sustainable consumption and production.
What has happened
13 Sep 2026
India is hosting the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) 2026 at Gandhinagar from 15 to 18 September, the forum's first meeting in South Asia.
- Its theme is Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity.
- It is organised by the Central Pollution Control Board with Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund.
12 Sep 2026
A 1.85 km road laid with processed steel slag aggregate at Raigarh was recognised by Guinness World Records.
- CSIR-CRRI puts such a road at about 40 per cent cheaper to build and four times as strong as a conventional one.
- Steel slag can also go into road bases, soil improvement and cement production.
2 Sep 2026
A Dense Bituminous Macadam layer made of 60 per cent Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement was laid on National Highway 716.
- The aged bitumen in the reclaimed material was restored with REJUBIT, an indigenous rejuvenator from CSIR-CRRI and Ooms India.