Page 18 from: Edition 7 2017
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machinery suppliers eager to do
Business
‘They proclaim they need shredders, but where are the
orders?’ asked Scott Newell III of US-based Newell
Recycling Equipment. According to him, India’s bureau-
cracy is the biggest problem, causing ‘major delays’ for
businesses.
In India, Newell is represented by scrap processing
equipment manufacturer Advance Hydrau-Tech, and the
two companies shared a booth in the BIR convention’s
exhibition area. ‘India has a huge recycling potential and
we as machinery suppliers simply need to be here in
order to get a piece of the cake,’ Newell explained.
Among other machinery suppliers present in New Delhi
were shredder manufacturers Metso and Hammel, as
well as recycling equipment producer Birim Makina of
Turkey, for which India is a market of ‘growing impor-
tance’, according to the company’s general manager
Aykut Karahan. ‘Over the past few years, we have
installed six inclined shears at Indian recyclers and we
are positive about delivering many more in the years to
come.’
major economic and environmental trans-
formation under the leadership of India’s
prime minister Narendra Modi, who
endorsed the BIR world recycling conven-
tion in a written personal message. From
US$ 2.3 trillion at present, India’s GDP is
expected to grow to around US$ 7 trillion
by 2028. ‘India continues to offer huge
potential for growth due to major infra-
structural development over the next
10-15 years,’ stressed BIR president Ranjit
Baxi in his opening address to what was
the world recycling organisation’s first-ever
convention in India. The event attracted
representatives from more than 200 Indian
number of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) becom-
ing available. An added boost to ELV flows is
expected to come from a new law – currently
in the preparation phase and expected to
pass through parliament in the first half of
2018 – which will oblige the scrapping of
vehicles aged 15 years and older.
‘The potential scrap generation from ELVs
can contribute 10% of the total domestic
scrap market,’ Singh said, adding that the
first car shredder to be installed next year
would be a stride in that direction.
major headaches
Amid all this growth potential, however,
India’s recycling industry is facing major
challenges, including a 2.5% metal scrap
import tax, as well as complex regulations
which continue to frustrate day-to-day
business operations for recyclers and trad-
ers both within and outside of India, such
as through delaying container loads of
scrap at the country’s main sea ports. Dr
Aruna Sharma, secretary of India’s ministry
of steel, hinted that the government will
do its best to temporarily lift, or at least
reduce, the scrap import tax.
In his presentation, BIR’s director general
Arnaud Brunet called for simple and work-
able regulation. ‘Legislation is not an end
in itself – it is a means to deliver tangible
benefits and address common challenges,’
he stated. He also called for: ‘fair enforce-
ment against companies that are under the
radar, rather than repeated checks on the
largest and most compliant’; and for pro-
motion, implementation and enforcement
of multi-lateral agreements by, among oth-
ers, the World Trade Organization and the
United Nations.
the social hurdle
For India, another challenge is presented
by what is often described as the ‘informal
sector’. New Delhi alone is home to some
100 000 waste-pickers while many millions
of these informal workers find a living from
scrap across India, often working in
unhealthy and dangerous conditions. ‘We
see waste mountains collapse and kids die,
and we just need to change this,’ said
KPMG consultant Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya.
Rita Roy Choudhury, assistant secretary at
the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, believes the infor-
mal sector ‘needs to be integrated in the
formal sector’ and to be helped to build
‘better life opportunities’.
hong Kong model to Be used in tacKling india’s
e-scrap challenge
Driven by a burgeoning middle class, some US$ 400 billion worth of electronics will
be consumed in India by the year 2020 as against US$ 150 billion in 2010. E-scrap
volumes are growing at around the same rate: some 5.2 million tonnes of e-scrap is
expected to be generated in 2020.
At present, India generates some 2 million tonnes of electronic scrap each year, of
which some 50 000 tonnes is processed ‘properly’, estimates Pranshu Singhal. He is
the founder of Karo Sambhav, one of the country’s 178 authorised electronics recy-
clers. Based in Gurgaon to the south west of New Delhi, the business handles some
5000 tonnes per annum and works together with consumer electronic brands such as
Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo. ‘We are a small player,’ he acknowledged. ‘We do only a
fraction of the huge volumes that are out there, of which most still ends up in landfill.’
According Dr Sandip Chatterjee, director at India’s ministry of electronics & infor-
mation technology, more than 90% of e-scrap volumes ‘are not recycled or are han-
dled by the informal sector’. But a plan initiated by the Indian government is set to
bring about change. Chatterjee announced at the BIR convention that, within the
next couple of years, a chain of Eco Parks will be established across India’s 29 states
for the collection and processing of all kinds of used electronics. The Eco Park
recently started up in Hong Kong – designed and developed by German recycling
major ALBA – ‘will be a model for India’s future e-scrap facilities’, he confirmed,
adding that India’s informal sector ‘will for sure be involved’.
tonnes – a deficit of 10 million tonnes that
needs to be imported,’ he underlined.
According to Singh, ‘some hundred’ shred-
der plants will be needed to handle India’s
growing domestic scrap volumes. ‘In the
far future, once you have this capacity,
India would no longer depend so much on
imports of scrap,’ he said. ‘However, given
this lack of recycling capacity and infra-
structure, imports of scrap remain crucial
over the coming years in order to feed
growing scrap demand.’
Singh sees enormous opportunities for auto-
motive recycling in India, boosted both by
rapidly accelerating car sales and the rising
companies. According to Baxi, India is ‘at
the forefront of growth and is soon to be
the second-largest steel producer in the
world’, clearly offering major opportunities
for the country’s metal recycling sector.
not enough domestic supply
Metal recycling in India offers ‘a huge
untapped potential’, agreed B. B. Singh,
managing director of Indian scrap trading
company MSTC. He estimated the coun-
try’s current recycling rate to be 20-25%.
‘By the year 2020, domestic scrap genera-
tion in India will reach 43 million tonnes
whereas demand will be around 53 million
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