Against the context of informality, this paper seeks to understand the changing dynamics of the wire scrap market, and the ways in which spatial relations, social institutions such as caste, gender and religion, as well as material structures (labour arrangements and prices) together shape capital accumulation. It accomplishes this through a case study of Wire Gully, which is significant to a flourishing scrap economy in India and is situated in Sakinaka, a locality in Lal Bahadur Shastri Nagar, in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. This case study covers the transformations that take place in Wire Gully and the surrounding area over the course of seven years, from 2017 to 2024. It identifies the market’s trade areas, key institutions that govern it, the flows of waste and recycled material and contextualizes it within the shrinking e-waste informal waste management system (specifically marked by two moments of disruption - demonetisation and the Covid pandemic). The paper investigates how the state facilitates the accumulation of private formal capital by appropriating and dispossessing the value and knowledge created by informality.