Plastic Scrap Trading in India – Characterising a Plastic Trading Cluster (Tikri Kalan, Delhi)

In India, hundreds of thousands of people make a living by collecting, sorting, and recycling valuable plastic materials recovered from waste. The material basis for this mostly informal economy is provided by rising levels of domestic plastic waste, as well as increasing scrap imports from other countries. Large plastic scrap markets exist in India’s main cities, where all sorts of plastic resins, grades and colours are traded in staggering quantities. One of the biggest of those markets, Tikri Kalan, is located on the outskirts of Delhi.

In this study, literature and field research was conducted to characterize the organizational, material and economic functioning of Tikri Kalan.