Scaling Up Non-Recyclable Plastic Waste (NRPW) Management in India: Policy and Technical Insights from Cement Kiln CoProcessing and Waste-to-Energy Incineration

India generates ~26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily, with a large nonrecyclable fraction (NRPW) - notably films, multilayer laminates, and composites - that is difficult to manage due to heterogeneity and contamination. Mixed NRPW originates from RDF produced from municipal solid waste and legacy dumps; industrial streams (e. g., paper-recycling rejects, multilayer plastics from FMCG packaging under EPR, and composites); residues from sorting/recycling facilities; cleanup and remediation activities (river and beach cleanups, and upstream interception at barriers or dams); and persistent, hard-to-treat fractions (PFAS-containing materials, brominated flame retardants, complex composites). Cement-kiln co-processing and wasteto-energy (WtE) incineration are complementary end-of-life pathways that enable energy recovery, coal substitution, and landfill diversion within a circular economy. This paper evaluates technical, regulatory, and financial barriers RDF variability, feedstock contamination, chlorine and ash management, preprocessing limits, and enforcement gaps - and finds that co-processing of dry, low-chlorine NRPW maximizes fossil-fuel displacement, while WtE provides city-scale throughput for mixed, wetter MSW. A 2025– 2035 roadmap recommends a dual-track deployment - spec-grade RDF to kilns and mixed MSW to WtE - enabled by national RDF standards with quality-linked pricing, regional pre-processing hubs, progressive TSR targets (15–20%), CEMSbased emissions monitoring with public disclosure, outcome-based permitting, and integrated EPR tracking to scale compliant, financially viable NRPW management.