Environment › Waste and circular economy
Circular economy and resource efficiency
Using materials more than once: sector action plans, producer duties for tyres, oil and old vehicles, scrappage and repair, industrial residues in roads and buildings, and green procurement. Prelims has asked about the uses of steel slag and what a circular economy reduces.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: what a circular economy reduces
13 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains
World Circular Economy Forum
India hosts the World Circular Economy Forum at Gandhinagar from 15 to 18 September 2026, the first time the forum has met in South Asia. It is organised by the Central Pollution Control Board with Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, on the theme Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity.
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.
- It 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.
12 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Steel slag roads
Road building consumes quarried stone aggregate by the tonne, and steel slag is a residue a steelworks produces whether anyone wants it or not. Processing the second into the shape and strength of the first is the whole idea.
- A 1.85 km road laid with processed steel slag aggregate at Raigarh was recognised by Guinness World Records.
- The technology comes from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's Central Road Research Institute (CSIR-CRRI), which puts such a road at about 40 per cent cheaper to build and four times as strong as a conventional one.
- Steel slag also goes into road bases, soil improvement and cement production.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2020: uses of steel slag
2 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement
The other thing a road consumes is bitumen, which is refined from crude and does not come cheap. Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement already holds it, and the only difficulty is that bitumen grows brittle with age.
- A Dense Bituminous Macadam layer made of 60 per cent Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement was laid on National Highway 716.
- Its aged bitumen was restored with REJUBIT, an indigenous rejuvenator from CSIR-CRRI and Ooms India.
Also filed elsewhere
- Extended Producer Responsibility · on E-waste, battery and hazardous waste
The instrument that makes anyone pay for a product once it is thrown away is Extended Producer Responsibility, which moves that cost from the municipality to the producer.