India’s transition towards a sustainable, resource-efficient economy is being powered by a new generation of entrepreneurs who are redefining how waste is collected, processed, and reused. As demand rises across infrastructure, automotive, and energy sectors, metal recycling companies in India are becoming critical to ensuring raw material security while reducing environmental impact.
From building advanced lead recycling plant ecosystems to digitising scrap supply chains and enabling efficient connections with copper scrap buyers, these leaders are shaping the future of circular economy in India.
Here are five entrepreneurs driving this transformation:
1. Abhay Deshpande – Founder & CEO, Recykal
Abhay Deshpande is revolutionising India’s recycling ecosystem through technology. As the founder of Recykal, he has built a digital infrastructure platform that connects waste generators, recyclers, brands and regulators, bringing transparency and traceability to the entire value chain.
Recykal plays a crucial role in enabling Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance, helping businesses track waste movement and ensure responsible recycling. By digitising supply chains and integrating stakeholders, his work supports both plastic and metal recycling, strengthening the ecosystem in which copper scrap buyers and recyclers operate.
His approach reflects the growing importance of data and compliance in scaling India’s circular economy.
2. Kamlesh Jain – Chairman & MD, Jain Resource Recycling
Kamlesh Jain of Jain Resource Recycling represents a rare blend of legacy expertise and forward-looking strategy in India’s recycling landscape. Rather than just scaling operations, his focus has been on building depth, creating a system where sourcing, processing and end-use integration work seamlessly together.
His approach reflects a sharp understanding of how industrial demand is evolving. Today, recyclers are not just suppliers of scrap; they are strategic partners to industries that depend on consistent, high-quality secondary raw materials. By strengthening supply reliability and expanding into multiple non-ferrous segments, he has helped position recycling as a core industrial input rather than a peripheral activity.
In a sector where volatility is constant, his emphasis on diversification and operational discipline highlights how leading metal recycling companies in India are adapting to serve both domestic demand and global markets, while actively contributing to a circular economy.
3. Jabir Karat – Founder & CEO, Greenworms
Jabir Karat is building one of India’s most execution-focused circular economy enterprises through Greenworms, tackling the country’s waste challenge with end-to-end, on-ground systems rather than fragmented solutions.
His approach integrates door-to-door collection, source segregation, Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), recycling infrastructure, and scientific disposal, creating a seamless value chain that connects communities, local governments and brands. By embedding traceability, data-driven processes, and EPR compliance into operations, he is strengthening the backbone of metal recycling companies in India and the broader waste ecosystem that supports copper scrap buyers and organised recycling units.
What sets his work apart is the strong community focus, creating dignified livelihoods, empowering local workers, and ensuring that sustainability translates into real economic impact.
4. Nivedha R.M – Founder & CEO, Trashcon
Nivedha R.M is redefining how India tackles one of its most complex challenges: unsegregated waste.
As the Founder & CEO of Trashcon, she has developed breakthrough technology capable of automatically segregating mixed municipal solid waste, including materials that typically end up in landfills or are burned. Built through years of on-ground experimentation at dump sites, her solution converts difficult waste streams into usable resources, pushing the boundaries of what recycling can achieve.
By enabling efficient segregation at scale, her work strengthens the supply chain for recyclers, including metal recycling companies in India and networks connected to copper scrap buyers, where material quality is critical. Her vision of “zero landfill” cities reflects the true ambition of a circular economy, where even the most complex waste is not discarded, but transformed into value through innovation and persistence.
5. Paras Arora – Sustainability & Waste Management Entrepreneur, 3R Management
Paras Arora represents a new-age sustainability entrepreneur who is rethinking waste as a resource through innovation, technology, and systems thinking.
Through 3R Management, he focuses on building solutions that go beyond conventional waste handling, integrating IoT, engineering, and operational expertise to enable recovery across waste, water, and energy streams. His approach centres on processing waste at its source, especially organic rejects, ensuring minimal environmental impact and near-zero carbon footprint operations.
By aligning commercial viability with environmental responsibility, he is contributing to a model where even residual waste is reprocessed efficiently. This philosophy strengthens the broader ecosystem of metal recycling companies in India, where upstream efficiency and material recovery are critical for downstream processes involving copper scrap buyers and recycling units.
