circular economy

Once hit by a deadly plague, Surat is now India’s cleanest city. With smart tech, community effort, and a Rs 500 crore waste economy, it shows how cleanliness can become a habit.

For 100+ years, West Bengal’s Mathurapur has hosted Bhanga Mela, a fair where broken pots, cracked pans & old radios are repaired, reused & find new homes.

Hyderabad-based Pavani Lolla understood that while organic waste was a problem, it could also be turned into an opportunity. In 2020, she came up with an innovative composter that not only solved the everyday dumping of organic waste but also aimed at making composting people’s daily routine.

Samvit Govindani and Shaurya Sharma are tackling plastic pollution by turning discarded PVC banners into stylish everyday products. Their initiative, ‘Project ReFlex’, empowers women from low-income backgrounds by providing steady work and income, turning environmental challenges into meaningful opportunities.

What if waste could earn you money, feed your soil, and bring jobs to your village? That’s what Mohammad Aamir Khan is proving with Green Wave and Waste to Health in South Kashmir.

Can bioleather really replace animal leather? Pritesh Mistry’s The Bio Company is answering this question by turning tomato waste into eco-friendly bioleather.

At Narayanpur High School near Kolkata, students are learning valuable environmental lessons by turning everyday waste into art and useful products. This model of education combines sustainability with skill-building, offering a replicable framework for schools aiming to empower students and protect the planet.

What do you do with a weed that grows back in 14 days and kills everything in its path? In Trichy, 25-year-old ecologist Sushmita Krishnan found an answer — she turned it into handmade paper and trained 150 women to do the same.

At 27, Nishtha Chauhan left engineering to launch a zero-waste café in Gujarat that now earns Rs 12 lakh a month. But it’s more than a business — through millet meals and workshops, she’s teaching over 2,000 children to eat mindfully and helping reduce 47 tonnes of plastic and carbon waste yearly.

For decades, Rajkot’s Nakrawadi was buried under waste. Today, it’s a thriving urban forest with 2.35 lakh trees and water systems — reborn through a bold city-led transformation.