Dharavi's recycling industry processes an estimated 80% of Mumbai's recyclable waste, turning plastic, aluminium, paper, and electronic scrap into raw materials that re-enter the manufacturing supply chain. The 13th Compound in Dharavi is where much of this work takes place — hundreds of small units sort, clean, shred, and reprocess waste materials in a dense informal industrial ecosystem that has no peer elsewhere in India.
Tours through the recycling district are included in Dharavi guided tours and offer a vivid demonstration of circular economy principles at an informal scale that far predates the concept's popularity in Western sustainability discourse. The workers who manage the city's waste in this way earn modest livelihoods but perform an essential service. The scale and organisation of the operation is genuinely impressive.