>>518774041
>why don't they scrape up all the piles of trash on their streets and floating in their "rivers"
Trash recycling is a negligible market in India. They only want to salvage metals because it commands export value, usually to their Chinese enemy because external money is worth more than their national welfare.
If they cleaned up their act and got their trash situation in order, they'd probably do the SEAmonkey thing and burn it for energy. SE Asia burns so much plastic for fuel that they're probably at least 5% microplastics. It's probably not safe to source food products from SE Asia in general due to their trash burning habit.
India could also incinerate trash for electricity or heat for industry, but their population is so poor that they have little need for electricity and their industry is too unproductive to make use of the heat.