The business case for a circular economy

Inclusive systems and policy development for circular practices

This session examined how circular transitions become just and workable when they recognise existing informal expertise, put the right policy levers in place, and make the economics add up for workers and cities.

Together, the talks reinforced that inclusion requires governance, data and traceability, and social protection – not just new infrastructure – and that transitions must be sequenced, context specific and economically viable.

Presentations

Waste-picker led, city-scale solid waste management

Lakshmi Narayanan

Lakshmi Narayanan showed how SWaCH, India’s largest waste-picker-owned cooperative, delivers door-to door service funded by user fees and governed by elected representatives. Integrated with the Pune Municipal Corporation, the model achieves ~98% source segregation, ~35% dry-waste and ~37% plastic recovery, alongside social welfare access for workers and ~$11.6 million annual savings to the municipality.

Narayanan emphasised how inclusion was central to the success of the project, saying, “recycling without waste pickers is just garbage”, and emphasising how the scheme fostered dignity and identity among pickers. SWaCH was framed as being part of a just transition, promoting gradual systems change while drawing on the strength, expertise and depth of knowledge of pickers.

Building inclusive circular economics

Zoë Lenkiewicz

Zoë Lenkiewicz argued for the “Sympathetic Formalisation Framework” based on six key principles:
• recognise existing expertise
• build capacity
• create incentives
• maintain autonomy
• ensure sustainability
• support a gradual transition.

Giving Colombia as an example, she noted 697 organisations registered, 56,800 workers formalised, and 5% monthly growth in recycling rates. Lenkiewicz explained the progress is meaningful yet uneven and sensitive to market conditions – underscoring the need to tailor pathways for villages, small islands and megacities rather than impose one-size-fits-all rules.

Policy levers for circular economy implementation

Kiera Crowe Pettersson

Kiera Pettersson translated inclusion into policy design, mapping measures against EMF’s five goals:
• Standards and design for durability and modularity
• Systems to preserve value (such as collection and sorting, product as-a-service)
• Fiscal shifts to make the economics work
• Investment in infrastructure, innovation and skills
• Platforms for collaboration and
cross-border alignment

The message: pair legal recognition and finance with capacity, data and skills so local governments can build circular economy systems that fit their realities.

Waste valorisation
and financing strategies

This session explored how waste streams become economic inputs with the right mix of infrastructure, skills and finance. Speakers highlighted how key themes, including decentralisation, “plug-and-play” accessibility, targeted incentives and credible data can make valorisation investable at scale.

Key takeaways:

• Valorisation is investable: clear revenue models exist across e waste, organics and agri-residues when infrastructure, skills and offtake are in place.
• Design for inclusion: facilities and finance must be designed with and work for informal operators (including tools, training, safe workplaces, and market linkages).
• Targeted incentives unlock scale: align user fees, public subsidies and carbon and impact finance to de-risk early-stage companies and crowd in private capital.
• Traceability builds trust: digital measurement of inputs, origins and emissions (such as blockchain and life cycle assessment) strengthens market access and policy credibility.
• Local systems, regional learning: decentralised models (such as Blantyre compost) thrive when adapted to context and connected to wider policy goals.
• Turning waste into value requires sector-specific solutions but also common enablers: traceability, new business models, and decentralised processing.

Presentations

The business case for better e-waste management

Deepali Sinha Khetriwal

Deepali showcased how E[co]work reframes formalisation as plug-and-play: a co-working facility where informal collectors, aggregators and dismantlers can access safe space, tools, training and buyer links without first navigating licensing and paperwork.
It’s designed as an interface that solves pain points for all parties: recyclers want reliable feedstock, producers need traceable EPR credits, and regulators can’t effectively police atomised informal yards.
The model emerged from participatory design with workers in Delhi, surfacing what they actually need: security, hygienic facilities, predictable market access, and acknowledging the diversity of roles along the informal chain. The pilot also highlighted the community dynamics at play: how cooperatives, family networks and peer-to-peer trust shape the way work is organised, and why a one-size-fits-all approach often fails.
The discussion drew out the role of the regulatory framework too, noting that without clear recognition and enforceable standards, informal workers remain vulnerable even when they enter more formalised spaces.

Waste not, want not: regenerating Africa’s soils through composting

William “Billy” Bray,

William Bray of Waste Advisers in Malawi demonstrated how unit economics improve when you fix the system, not just the site. To curb “fake compost” (sold as soil), the team created thermophilic compost certification with the Malawi Bureau of Standards, selling a “living product” (microbial activity as a quality signal) rather than a mere fertiliser substitute.
Malawi spends $90 million per year subsidising synthetic fertiliser, and globally $530 billion goes to agriculture-input subsidies, with less than 5% to sustainable inputs.
Waste Advisers’ pilot now buys and re-subsidises compost to 1,000 farmers at parity with fertiliser, with a university evaluating outcomes as part of a push to shift national subsidies. Waste Advisers also brought in the Malawi Circular Economy Network to keep the whole chain aligned.

Ugly Veggies Plus: advancing sustainability in organic agriculture through technology and waste valorisation

Associate Professor Phaninee Naruetharadhol

Between 30-50% of crops produced by farmers in Thailand’s Khon Kaen province are lost as “ugly veg”, unsuitable for consumer shelves. Associate Professor Phaninee Naruetharadhol presented a case study where, starting from a consumer preference problem, the Ugly Veggies platform lets farmers list produce, set prices and choose logistics, with the university helping on packaging and cold chain for transport to Bangkok.
After a year, about 5% residue still remained; the team valorised it into protein bars, compost soil and biodegradable plastic. They validated its performance with life cycle assessment, finding up to 40% CO₂ reduction, with 20 to 30% lower production costs, and a social return on investment (SROI) of 1.29. Crucially, the work changed vegetable production from a linear flow to a circular flow.

Keynote Speakers

Pavich Kesavawong, the Deputy Director
General, Department of Climate Change and Environment, Thailand

Mr Pavich spoke on ‘Propelling
the circular economy towards net zero policy:
the national and international perspectives’.
He explained how initiatives like low-carbon
communities and green hotels emphasised lowemission
and zero-waste communities, as well as
the circular economy measures outlined in the
Thai government’s Decarbonisation Pathway,
NDC Action Plan and National Adaptation Plan.
His keynote described circular economy actions
across the value chain. These included reducing
virgin materials, systematic recycling and reuse,
eco-design, circular business models (such as
product-as-a-service), and life-cycle carbon
management. He also highlighted the enabling
policy under the draft Climate Change Act.

Dr Kanittha Tambunlertchai, Chulalongkorn
University, Thailand

Dr Kanittha spoke on ‘Incentivising the circular
economy in Thailand and beyond’. She stressed
how a circular economy creates value but
faces cost disadvantages compared with linear
models, which currently have lower capital
costs, simplified supply chains and easier access
to finance. Dr Tambunlertchai suggested that
the key to unleashing the circular economy
was overcoming institutional barriers and even
creating new institutions that motivate the
protection of natural resources. After outlining
ASEAN’s Framework for a Circular Economy for
the ASEAN Economic Community and giving
regional case studies such as Malaysia’s reverse
vending machines, she warned that there remains
a lack of coordination between public, private, and
civil sectors and that rules and policies often exist
but are weakly enforced.