Page 42 from: March 2016

42 March 2016

The Metal Recycling Association of India’s third international congress

was held in Delhi in late January and attracted some 900 delegates.

And there was good news to be had at the event: India’s steel ministry

is finally speeding up the process of framing a metal recycling policy.

Among those delegates to have travelled from abroad to attend the third interna-
tional congress organised by the Metal Recy-
cling Association of India (MRAI) was BIR world
president Ranjit Baxi. In his keynote speech,
he congratulated India over the International
Monetary Fund’s latest forecast that, at 7.5%, the
country was expected to enjoy the world’s fastest-
growing economy for the second consecutive
year in 2016. ‘The next 10 years belong to India
to lead the world, and so let’s ensure that recycling
takes centre stage as India marches on to lead the
world economies,’ he declared.
In this same context, Baxi praised the vision
for 2025 laid out by the MRAI, insisting: ‘With
your campaign to drive greater recycling and
with end-of-life vehicle and other regulations
under consideration, India’s recycling rates will
certainly increase.’ And he added: ‘I can also see
India growing to be an exporter of recyclables as
well as an importer over the next 10 years.’
Focusing on the here and now, Sandeep Patel –
founder of waste management company Let’s
Recycle – told delegates that India generates more
than 1.45 million tonnes of waste per day. Of this,
some 24% or almost 400 000 tonnes per day rep-
resents dry waste which could have been recycled.

However, he added, most of the country’s
municipal solid waste plants are either non-
operational or are running below 30% capacity.
‘Most technology failed because waste is not
segregated,’ he said. Recycling had the potential
to support the overall economy of India, gener-
ating 1.5 million direct and another 1.5 million
indirect jobs, the speaker also claimed.

Progress on recycling policy
Among its key thrusts of recent
years, the MRAI has been seek-
ing import duty changes. The
metals recycling organisation
has urged the government for
an exemption from the Special
Additional Duty and for the
removal of basic import duties
on inbound shipments of fer-

rous and non-ferrous scrap in order to boost the
metals recycling sector. In addition, the MRAI
has been asking the Indian government for sev-
eral years to frame a national policy for ferrous
and non-ferrous metals recycling.
Aruna Sundararajan, secretary of the Indian
ministry of steel, told the congress of the gov-
ernment’s resolve to frame such a policy. She
also announced that there would be a set of poli-
cies covering end-of-lifecycle commodities and
a new institutional mechanism framed as per
the industry’s requirements, something which
would best suit the country’s requirements too.
In addition, she stressed that the recommenda-
tions of a planning committee – set up to study
India’s scrap processing sector – would be con-
sidered and the steel ministry would commence

C O U N T R Y R E P O R T By Manfred Beck

India building towards
stronger recycling policy

After having served for more
than six years as MRAI Founder
President, Ikbal Nathani (left) of

the Nathani Group of Companies
stepped down from the role. He lit

the inaugural lamp with Aruna
Sundarajan, Secretary, Ministry of

Steel (centre) and Balvinder Kumar,
Secretary, Mines (right).