Aafrin Kidwai 
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India has the potential to become a vehicle scrapping hub in South Asia. The Minister for Road Transport & Highways shared his vision to create at least one automobile recycling factory within 150 kilometres of each metropolitan centre. Apart from these scrapping centres, the minister also stated that multiple authorised collection centres can also be developed in each big city, which will have the authority to deregister a vehicle and issue deposit certificates.
Mr Gadkari said that the National Vehicle Scrappage Policy is a key initiative that will allow for the progressive elimination of outdated and unfit vehicles and the introduction of new, lower-polluting vehicles.
“We can import a significant number of old vehicles for scrapping in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka,” Mr Gadkari said.
He noted the road transport and highways ministry has designed the vehicle scrapping policy in a way that enables all levels of investors to come and establish scrapping centres.
Mr Gadkari also said that the material recycling sector gives direct and indirect employment to 4 crore people and this number is expected to go up to Rs 5 crores by 2025.
Mr Gadkari was speaking at the 9th IMRC conference organized by the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI).
The event saw vital panel discussions on topics like “Indian E-waste Industry– Time to Synergize, ELV the Road ahead, A Paradigm Shift: BIS Standards, Plastic Recycling to align with Advance Technology, Circular Economy, Role of Secondary Steel, etc.
Mr. Sanjay Mehta, President, MRAI said that “Indian government’s policy thrust on the circular economy becomes an important step to acknowledge the power of recycling. With this, we are very confident that ‘Recovery and Reuse of waste will play the key role in India’s growth story at the time when India is moving towards the manufacturing intensive green economy. We are also flagging off the campaign to sensitize students in schools & colleges to create massive awareness. There is a need to develop recycling parks and recycling hubs across the country. Most of the developed countries have banned cash transactions of scrap. We can adopt the same as India has its own UPI ecosystem.”
In view of the above, recyclers from across the country opined, that it becomes very important that we should promote not only importing more scrap till India generates sufficient quality and quantity of scrap from the domestic market. There is also a need to unlock the availability and systematic circular flow of domestic scrap. “We intend to create massive awareness amongst masses through our flagship campaign #recycleindia and request the Govt of India to ably support our initiative. India gives a steel output of 35 to 40%. By 2030, we will make the recycling industry a global hub of material recycling. Our products will be part of the global supply chain. We also request GOI to consider BIS on finished products instead of scrap “, shared Mr Dhawal Shah, Sr. Vice President, MRAI.
“Let’s do recycle not as an option for making money, but an obligation & responsibility towards future generation,” Mr Sanjay Mehta summed up the session.
Talking about the event Mr Amar Singh, Secretary-general, MRAI, further shared, “The 9th edition of IMRC took place at a key juncture when Indian eco-system is turning towards e-mobility and people are looking for answers about battery recycling or the correct way to dispose e-waste.”
Disclaimer: This article is taken from a press release issued by MRAI.
