Recykal turned waste quality into data to keep India's recyclers supplied (interview)

In a 5 September 2023 Rest of World interview, Recykal co-founder Anirudha Jalan describes the company as "an e-commerce company, but for waste": a marketplace founded in 2015 where informal and semi-formal sellers — kabadiwalas and waste aggregators — sell to recyclers ranging from small family businesses to Reliance Industries Ltd. and the Aditya Birla Group. He says it has helped recycle at least 200,000 metric tons of material that would otherwise have gone to landfill (self-reported in the interview).

His answer to the marketplace's core problem — recyclers operating at 50-80% of capacity because they cannot get consistent supplies — is verification rather than volume, he says. Recykal inspects seller quality on site at onboarding and makes that quality visible to buyers. Cameras above the conveyor belts at waste-sorting facilities differentiate bottles of one brand from another; since heavy rain raises a bale's moisture content, the technology plugs that in too and can warn a buyer that 2% additional moisture is on the way.

The same data plumbing feeds a second line of business, he says: technology that helps brands like LG, Unilever and Samsung manage extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations to recycle what they "pollute". The marketplace started with plastics and has widened into electronic waste, paper and metals — it sells steel scrap to Tata Steel, among others, according to Jalan.

Verified quality is the lever: Jalan says consistent, inspectable supply is what lets recyclers operate above the 50-80% utilization they tolerate today.

On-site inspection at onboarding replaces reputation with evidence for sellers the buyers have never dealt with.

Cameras above sorting belts capture composition continuously, differentiating bottle brands without manual sorting audits.

Weather-aware moisture adjustments let buyers price bales before they arrive instead of disputing quality on delivery.

A marketplace over an informal supply chain lives or dies on verified quality: making invisible attributes visible — composition, moisture — is what turns sporadic sellers into dependable suppliers.

The interview offers self-reported figures only: at least 200,000 metric tons recycled (self-reported in the interview), a category expansion from plastics into e-waste, paper and metals, steel scrap sales to Tata Steel, and EPR compliance tools used by brands including LG, Unilever and Samsung. No third-party audited outcome appears in the material.