India’s Waste Problem is Not What You Think It Is
(And why that’s exactly where the opportunity lies)
Let me take you behind the scenes.
It’s 6:15 AM.
We’re standing at the edge of a sprawling landfill outside the city.
On one side: ragpickers, already waist-deep in plastic, picking, sorting, sweating.
On the other side: trucks full of corporate waste, fresh from city offices and apartments.
No one talks to each other.
No one tracks anything.
Everything disappears into the system.
Welcome to India’s waste management industry — a space where
value leaks every single day, and no one even sees it.
And that’s the real problem.
🚫 Not “too much waste.”
The real issue is invisibility.
We’re told India’s problem is volume.
But I’ve seen firsthand that waste isn’t just piling up — it’s vanishing into a black hole.
Cities can’t trace where their waste goes.
Brands don’t know if their recyclers are real.
Informal workers handle 70% of recyclables, but don’t exist in the data.
I’ve spoken to Fortune 500 sustainability heads who spend crores on EPR compliance,
but when I ask where their plastic went, they pause.
They don’t know.
And if you don’t know where something goes,
you can’t improve it.
The real issue?
👉🏽 We have no idea where anything goes.
🔍 A simple test:
Do you know what happens to your garbage after it leaves your bin?
Do you know where your brand’s packaging ends up?
Can your city track the journey of a single milk pouch?
If the answer is no…
That’s where the system is broken.
💥 The waste crisis is actually an information crisis.
Forget AI for a second.
Forget net-zero pledges.
India needs traceability more than anything else.
We need to follow a shampoo sachet from shelf → home → bin → sorting → final reuse.
And do that for billions of materials, every week.
The good news?
We now have the tech.
We just need to build the systems.
⚙️ So what are we doing about it?
At Cercle X, we’re building that visibility layer.
🌱 Helping brands prove compliance, not just claim it
🏙️ Digitizing waste flows for cities and municipalities
🔁 Converting scrap into verified circular materials
💼 Creating transparent, traceable, accountable waste ecosystems
It’s not glamorous.
But it’s deeply powerful.
Because every time we track 1 ton of waste,
we unlock new value, prevent greenwashing, and enable actual impact.
And that’s how circular economies are built — not from theory, but from execution.
🤯 Why this matters — for you
You don’t have to be in climate-tech to care.
You could be a founder, investor, policymaker, or just a curious person trying to figure out where the world is heading.
But if you're reading this, here's what I want you to know:
👉🏽 Circularity is the next compounding frontier.
Just like software scaled in the 2000s and fintech in the 2010s…
Waste, reuse, recovery, and regeneration will define the next decade.
And the ones who understand these invisible flows —
will be the ones who lead it.
🎯 What to expect from this newsletter
Every week, I’ll share:
A raw story from the field (from landfills to boardrooms)
A hard lesson from building in a chaotic space
And a practical insight or opportunity for the future of climate action
Short. Honest. No fluff.
👋🏽 Join me
If you believe the circular economy is more than a buzzword…
If you want to build, invest, or just understand this space better…
Then hit subscribe, and let’s go deeper.
Because the circular revolution isn’t coming.
It’s already here — hidden in plain sight.
See you next time.
— Vishnu Vardhaan
CEO, Cercle X