Material Recycling Association of India ( MRAI) and NITI Aayog conducted International Conference on Sustainable Growth Through Material Recycling: Policy Prescriptions on 06 August in New Delhi. SteelMint attended the conference and the key takeaways were as follows:
1. Material Recycling need of the hour – Mr. Sanjay Mehta, President MRAI shared that material recycling policy is need of the hour so as to turn this unorganized sector into a formal one.
2. Provision of tax incentives in material recycling – Mr. Surendra Patwari, Chairman Gemini Corporation suggested not to impose GST on recycled material and if necessary to impose, grant some concessions. He also suggested on extra importance in govt on scrap purchase and let India be allowed to import scrap freely.
3. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Mr. Ranjit Baxi, World President BIR New Delhi highlighted on the importance of circular economy and concerns over plastic waste recycling. Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog also stressed the importance of the Circular Economy.
4. Bottlenecks with Indian Scrap Recycling –Inadequate infrastructure like roads, ports, dominated by informal and unauthorized participants, financial and technical aspects need to be resolved.
5. BIS standards need to be reviewed – Mr. Yogesh Bedi, Head Steel Recycling Business – Tata Steel highlighted that there is need to review and revise BIS classification of scrap so as to make it more comprehensive and avoid irregularities which are currently seen as against ISRI specifications which are updated on a more frequent basis.
6. Creation of Value Yards and not Scrap yards – Mr. Manoj Mehta, Promoter MTC Group stressed on setting up of green banks to finance and encourage startups on recycling sector, creating value yards and not Scrap yards, single window clearance.
7. Draft for Material Recycling Policy to be out in a month’s time – Mr. VK Saraswat – Member NITI Aayog announced that the draft for Material Recycling Policy will be out in a month’s time.
8. Setting up of clusters – The setting up of clusters using sophisticated technology can also be achieved with Tie-up and collaboration with foreign companies or amongst various zone wise domestic companies in India. Investment from foreign partners in terms of FDI can be availed.
9. Few other concerns – Safety and cost-effectiveness are major concerns and they can be achieved fully with only automation thus it must be promoted at every stage.
Shifting of everyone involved in scrap trade from informal to formal can be done with social awareness and initiatives
10. Increasing consumption of ferrous scrap – Current total annual consumption of 32 MnT ferrous scrap is likely to increase to 50-55 MnT in next 10 years in India out of which 8-10 MnT demand is likely to recover by EOV, End of Vehicle policy. Moreover, imports of ferrous scrap may rise to 8-9 MnT by 2025 from 5 MnT at present.
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