India’s first steel slag road, inaugurated in Surat last year, has a 32% reduced thickness, but its structural strength is four times greater than conventional bituminous roads and caters to heavy commercial traffic. The construction cost of the 1.2-km-long, six-lane road built under the technological guidance of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) is also reported to be around 40% less. The road was built using 100% processed steel slag aggregates in place of natural aggregates such as sand, gravel, and crushed stones. The successful application of this technology has triggered new hopes for converting industrial waste into wealth and conserving nature through the reduced use of natural resources in road construction. The push for connectivity to meet the country’s strategic and development requirements has increased demand for natural aggregates for road construction, which has also led to the destruction of hills while indiscriminate sand, gravel, and boulder mining has destroyed river ecologies, triggering a livelihood crisis. The Central Government made an announcement last year that this technology was going to be used in the construction of a steel slag road stretch in strategic areas. According to official statistics, India is currently the world’s second-largest producer of crude steel after China, producing over 118 million tonnes (MT), of which around 20 percent is generated as solid waste. Disposal of this waste is poised to become a big challenge for the steel industries, with the government estimating that steel slag waste generated in steel plants in the country will increase from its current level of 19 MT to 45 MT by 2030. Housing and construction sectors account for the highest consumption of 43% steel, while infrastructure sectors account for 25%, engineering and packaging for 22%, and automobiles account for about 9%. India’s efforts to reduce imports and become self-reliant on steel production will be a key driver for more production in steel plants in the country, increasing the likelihood of the generation of more steel slag waste in the coming decades. The “Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel” approved by the Union Cabinet aims at enhancing domestic production of value-added steel by attracting significant investment and incentivizing the production of specialty steel with incentives payable from 2023–2024 and will be applicable for five product categories: coated or plated steel products, high strength/wear resistant steel, specialty rails, alloy steel products and steel wires, and electrical steel. Companies registered in India engaged in manufacturing these products using steel melted and poured within the country are eligible to participate in the scheme. Altogether 67 applications from 30 companies have been selected under the PLI Scheme for Specialty Steel, which will attract committed investment of Rs 42,500 crore with a downstream capacity addition of 26 million tonnes by 2030, according to the December 2012 monthly summary on Iron and Steel from the Ministry of Steel. The trial use of steel slag in road construction is in line with the Waste to Wealth Mission of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). Two key objectives of the mission are identifying and supporting the development of new technologies that can help create a cleaner and greener environment and creating circular economic models that are financially viable for waste management. The use of plastics in bituminous mixes in highway construction, which has also proved to be cost-effective, has unlocked tremendous opportunities for viable solutions for turning plastic waste into wealth. Asia’s largest bio-CNG plant, set up on a municipal solid waste dumping site in Indore, has the capacity to process 550 tonnes of organic solid municipal waste to generate about 18,000 kg of bio-CNG and 100 tonnes of organic compost daily. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India estimates that the “waste-to-energy and waste management market in India is set to be a 14-billion-dollar opportunity by the year 2025.” Translating the theoretical possibilities into realities requires scaled-down planning not just by the central government but also by states, with robust participation from all stakeholders. Bridging the gap between policy formulation and implementation remains a huge challenge. Due to a lack of awareness among the general public about the benefits of new technologies such as steel slag road technology or plastic road technology in conservation of nature, reducing pollution, and waste management, they fail to play any role in mounting pressure on government agencies to adopt the new technologies. Governments as well as the private sector supporting research and technology development with adequate financial grants for the establishment of innovation laboratories and funding technology development will help develop more cost-effective and sustainable technologies for better waste management. Ironically, waste management does not figure in the list of priorities until it becomes unmanageable for the authorities concerned. Dovetailing the policy of turning waste into wealth in infrastructure planning with a clear roadmap for resource mobilization can yield better results.