Informal recycling networks in the Global South have stimulated debates about political economies of recycling in post-colonial contexts. This article retrieves the underrated Marxian notion of use-value to explore how used plastic materials are revalued in the plastic recycling networks of Kolkata, India. Focusing on the role of scrap shops within recycling networks, the relation between informal and formal economic spaces is discussed with reference to Sanyal’s (2007) distinction between needs-based and accumulation economies. It is argued that scrap shops perform the crucial role of translating concrete use-value of wasted plastics into new potential social use-value. Thereby, the analysis contributes to understanding the transformation of value between informal and formal economic space in post-colonial political economy of recycling in India.