The political ecologies of waste in India are built upon complex economies of informal waste work, underpinned by hidden networks, underacknowledged socio-spatial relationships, and subaltern lives. Every consumer object imaginable passes through the intricate supply chains that feed Mumbai’s recycling hubs, yet the hyper-consumption of these mass-produced products and who should be ultimately responsible for their disposal are rarely considered. Compound 13 Lab in Dharavi, Mumbai, built on a collaboration between a team of UK and Indian artist-researchers and local NGO ACORN India, creates spaces for shared learning that offer opportunities to explore issues of waste, work, and survival using arts-based methods. Compound 13 Lab extends ACORN’s established approaches in creative education by inviting artists from a variety of backgrounds to work with ACORN’s young people, providing a platform which supports an ambitious programme of creative engagement that includes elements of design and innovation. Recent thinking on sustainability, circular economy, recycling, and emissions reduction point to the introduction of new technological innovations in materials use and reuse, carbon capture projects, and clean waste-to-energy solutions. Compound13 Lab offers a space where these emerging approaches can be brought into relationship with the actually existing circular economy of cities.