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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

All 2 subjects shown; the 0 that changed from 16 to 31 August 2026 are marked.Show only these

World Circular Economy Forum

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Prelims and Mains

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.

  • 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.

Over 2 trillion US dollarsPotential market value of India's circular economy by 2050

Close to 10 millionJobs it could create by 2050

From the Press Information Bureau (PIB) release of 1 September 2026

What changed

  1. 13 Sep 2026

    PIB, 13 Sep 2026: India to host World Circular Economy Forum 2026, themed 'Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity', at Gandhinagar during 15th - 18th September, 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Industrial residues in roads

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Prelims and Mains

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.

What changed

  1. 12 Sep 2026

    PIB, 12 Sep 2026: Steel Slag Roads Can Cut Construction Cost by 40%, Deliver Four Times Higher Strength: Dr Jitendra Singh (opens in a new tab)

  2. 2 Sep 2026

    • Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement reuses the bitumen already in old road surfaces, though 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 the Central Road Research Institute and Ooms India.

    PIB, 2 Sep 2026: CSIR-CRRI, New Delhi, OSEPL and Ooms India Demonstrate Landmark 60% RAP Technology on NH-716 (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2020: uses of steel slag

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.