A deep dive into localized plastic recycling supply chains

In partnership with Anthesis Group, The Circulate Initiative conducted a detailed assessment of wastesheds in India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

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This report provides a summary of the key findings for each of the wastesheds covered in this study, including aspects of the plastics recycling supply chains where improvements can be made.

Across the reviewed wastesheds, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, there is a well-established informal plastic waste recycling system, which enables considerable amounts of plastic recycling to be carried out via a network of entrepreneurial relationships and micro-businesses.

Plastic waste that gets collected by Kurawalas or Kude-uthane walas (waste pickers) or Raddiwallas (itinerant buyers)  goes through multiple levels of aggregation through aggregators, scrap dealers, and agents/ brokers before reaching recyclers where there are over 7,500 registered and unregistered recyclers across India. 

Indonesia has a dynamic network of collection and potential sorting sites through the Bank Sampah (Waste Banks) and TPS3R sites (material recovery facilities), including in the reviewed wastesheds of Greater Jakarta, Makassar and Surabaya.

These sites have great potential for diversion of plastics waste towards recycling. With considerable scale-up of these facilities and stronger implementation and increased funding, the effectiveness of the collection and aggregation networks for plastics recycling can be strengthened.

In the reviewed wastesheds in Thailand, Bangkok, Chon Buri and Rayong, there is an established and growing national recycling infrastructure, operated by local and international players but collection of recyclables is still heavily reliant on the informal sector or locally known as salengs.

Source separation of recyclables are increasingly  being encouraged across the wastesheds, such as through the Rayong model, but stronger implementation is needed.

Management of plastic waste in the reviewed wastesheds of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang have commonalities due to the significant role that national and local administration plays in waste management.

Large amounts of recyclable waste are handled through craft villages, which are unique to Vietnam, whereby many households in the village are collectively involved in informal waste collection, aggregation, pre-processing, and recycling.