Multi-layered plastic, the foil-lined sachets and pouches that hold shampoo, ketchup, gutka and milk powder, is about 21% of India's plastic waste by the government's own composition data, yet it is the one stream the scrap market barely touches. A collector earns almost nothing for it, because the layers cannot be cleanly separated and the money recovered hardly covers the cost of picking, moving and sorting it. A fresh survey shows the squeeze: Indians say they would pay more for sustainable packaging, the most willing of any country, but at the shop the cheapest sachet still wins. What is changing is not the scrap value. It is who pays, and the answer, increasingly, is the brand, through EPR.
Heavy melting scrap at Mandi Gobindgarh rose to ₹39,700 a tonne on 5 October 2026, up ₹1,300 from a week earlier, more than reversing the previous week's fall. Ship scrap at Alang, sponge iron, billets and rebar all moved up too. Power cuts at mills in Chhattisgarh and firm scrap markets abroad are behind the rise. Here is what the numbers show and what to do with them.
Prices for copper, aluminium, and zinc are climbing while nickel slides, creating clear opportunities for scrap dealers to sell the strong and buy the weak.
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Driven by AI demand and US stockpiling, the global rally is creating a seller's market in India. For buyers, it's a cost crisis; for sellers, a golden opportunity.
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