Circular economy is a global sustainability strategy pursued by national governments and multinational corporations looking to reconcile ecological concerns with economic growth imperatives. It also finds expression in informal work and community-based initiatives in cities across Europe and Asia. As sites that bring together state and corporate-led initiatives with everyday circular practices and arrangements, the city is fertile ground to examine the environmental politics of the circular economy. Drawing on fieldwork examining informal recycling work in Indian cities, the author argues that in an eagerness to realize the “win-win” sustainability solutions that circular economy promises to businesses and the state, the actual socio-spatial work practices such as waste picking, sorting, and repair, which comprise resource circularity, are ignored. Attempts at establishing circular cities are undermined by competing urban sustainability agendas, the lack of recognition of informal expertise, and the fundamental contradiction between accumulative and redistributive goals. Reclaiming the circular economy from green growth will require transformational politics and grassroots involvement and resisting growth in favor of equity and ecological reparation.