Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM)– the apex national non-profit body representing the Indian automobile sector, in collaboration with Japan Automotive Recyclers Alliance (JARA), organized its 11th Asian Automotive Environmental Forum (AAEF) on 1st Nov’18 in New Delhi. The conference titled “Automotive Recycling in India: Pathway to the Future – Towards a Sustainable Society”. The focus of the conference was on understanding how to set-up viable infrastructure and providing solutions for handling End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) in India.
SIAM works toward supporting sustainable development of the Indian Automobile Industry with the vision that India emerges as the destination of choice in the world for design and manufacture of automobiles. It also works towards facilitating enhancement of the competitiveness of the Indian Automobile Industry, reducing cost of vehicles, increasing productivity and achieving global standards of quality.
Over 150 delegates from China, Japan, USA, India and other countries participated in the AAEF conference. Representatives from the government departments and key stakeholders also took part in the symposium to share their experience in establishing vehicle recycling infrastructure, ELVs and the learnings for India.
The participants urged for proactive involvement and help to reduce dependence on single technology and focus on varied forms of automotive recycling used globally to take on growing need for recycling ELVs as vehicle penetration is growing in India. The speakers also urged the government to ensure that issues related to vehicle recycling in India are addressed and adequate policy road map is put in place. SteelMint attended the conference and key takeaways were as follows:
–Gap between Imported vs domestic scrap likely to remain supported till policy rules out in actual – Mr Sanjay Mehta, President, Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) stated that recycling policy is expected come into action till April 2020. “Our vision is to make India a zero waste country by developing Circular Economy Parks. Metal Recycling Industry in India employs nearly 1.9 million people and has the potential to contribute around 5 % to country’s GDP,” he explained.
–MRAI’s presentation highlights – 1. Around 28 MnT volumes of ELV’s could be on road in India to be recycled per year 2. Around 25% of total ELV can be recycled with developing infrastructure putting availability of (6-7 MnT extra domestic scrap per annual) 3. Foundry grade manufacturing is increasing at 5% rate per annum 4. MTC is hopefully looking forward to build ferrous Shredding hubs and may initiate Aluminum ingot manufacturing. 5. Once policy comes into action many of the companies along with Mahindra and MTC will look forward to setup Shredding hubs across the country.
–Urgent need to build a viable infrastructure for dealing with ELVs in India – Mr Yu Jeong Soo Ph.D, Professor, Tohoku University urged responsible recycling and sustainable development is crucial for auto makers as he focused on Challenges faced in Japan’s Automotive recycling sector and its future recommendations.
–A big mismatch between Informal recycling industry with world class manufacturing in India – Captain N S Mohan Ram, Advisor, TVS Motors & Chairman, SIAM Recycling Group stressed on lack of ELV recycling procedures and infrastructure, makes it a big mismatch, as we are one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of vehicles and insisted that Indian automotive recycling industry needs to grow at the same speed as the Indian automobile industry.
–Along with ELV recycling concerns of disposal of hazardous elements must be addressed – Ms Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director, ARAI spoke about Indian Government’s vehicle scrappage policy, which will enhance the scope of ELV regulations, fleet modernization, vehicles nearing their end life, dismantling centers are located and controlled in structured manner. Systematic disposal hazardous materials like Li-ion batteries, copper motor, mercury and rare earth metals must be done, she added.
–Need of sufficient recycling centers across the country – Ms Neeti Sarkar, CEO & Project Director, NATRIP expressed her concerns over scrapping of vehicles and weak reporting of data of scrapped vehicles in India that is largely managed in unorganized sectors. The country need sufficient recycling centers that would ensure robust network between agencies and organizations involved in collecting, dismantling and disposing ELV wastes.
–AAEF will become a big platform across Asia to contribute to sustainable future – Thanking the AAEF for providing an opportunity, Mr Sosho Kitajima, MD, NPO JARA expressed that AAEF will become a big platform for relevant industry bodies across Asia to exchange latest vehicle disposal methods and build a sustainable future in upcoming days.
Market Reports in USA and Malaysia –
Malaysia faced similar challenges as India in recycling – Mr Cho Chee Seng, General Manager, ECO-R, Malaysia while submitting Malaysia’s industry report stated that almost 85% of the local used parts in automotive sector in Malaysia are unusable for reuse.
Self-governing will help to participate in formation of recycling laws – Ms Sue Schauls, Executive Director, IOWA Auto Recyclers Association while submitting her report on United States said “. All waste too have value to be reused or burnt”
In his closing remarks, Mr P K Banerjee, Executive Director (Tech), SIAM focused on “five E’s of ELV recycling in India as Engineering, Evolution, Enforcement, Education and Entrepreneurship. India needs to work on all of them altogether as recycling is the central theme of sustainable life.
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