Secondary Materials in Indian Manufacturing - Factors, barriers and the implications for secondary materials brokers

Swedish. Consumer manufacturing brands are touting circular business models as the solution to current linear economy production systems that are overburdening the Earth’s ecological carrying capacity. Using secondary materials in manufacturing can reduce the waste generation and embedded environmental impacts associated with consuming manufactured goods. Companies such as Karo Sambhav seek to connect manufacturers, who have set secondary materials content targets, with secondary materials suppliers to help attract circular economy minded global manufacturing brands to India. While Karo Sambhav seeks to identify the secondary material needs of manufacturers, the task remains of understanding why consumer goods brands have until now largely avoided producing with secondary materials. This knowledge gap in secondary materials use and procurement practices is the focus of this study. Research in circular economies, supply chain management, industrial ecology and institutional theory provide the theoretical basis for an exploratory multiple case study analysis of consumer goods brands manufacturing in India. Qualitative data collected through structured interviews assesses the factors and barriers associated with secondary materials use and procurement in consumer goods manufacturing. Identified factors and barriers are analysed for their implications on efforts by secondary materials brokers to develop supplies of secondary materials from India’s informal waste management sector for global brand manufacturers. Findings from this research can be of value to stakeholder groups involved in promoting secondary materials systems including secondary materials brokers, materials and consumer goods manufacturers, and policy makers. Lastly, while these findings are presented with regards to the Indian manufacturing context, they can also be useful for practitioners and scholars in the field of circular production in other locations seeking to attract global manufacturers to regions where the informal sector plays a large role in regional waste management systems.