The Ministry of Mines, in an attempt to foster the development of an organized recycling ecosystem in India, issued the National Non-Ferrous Metal Scrap Recycling Framework, 2020. The Framework is expected to create an effective recycling ecosystem for non-ferrous metals like Copper, Lead, Aluminium and Zinc.
The Ministry added that the nation’s existing recycling system is highly unorganized, with most of its scrap dependency being met by importing rather than recycling. With the new Framework in place, the country can expect to have less dependency on imports. Plus, the Framework aims to provide a significant boost to economic wealth, as well as the overall GDP of the nation through Metal Recycling. The Framework will also create new job opportunities, the ministry added.
Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways, recently disseminated the much-awaited Vehicle Scrappage Policy rules 2021. The implementation of the Scrappage Policy will surely benefit the Metal Recycling Industry by ensuring a sufficient supply of domestic metal scrap in the country.
The Framework encompasses certain guidelines around implementation, along with clear timelines for different stakeholders, including Recycling Authority, Government, Manufacturers, Public, Dismantling and Processing centres to achieve the objective of developing an organized recycling industry in the nation over the next three years, which are,
- Establishing a Central Metal Recycling Authority to start-with to facilitate recycling of metals.
- Establishment of standards by the Government for the quality of scrap used for recycling.
- Development of a mechanism for the registration of segregators, recyclers, collection centres etc, in order to create an organized Recycling system.
- A concept of Urban Mines will come into practice, which would be a spot to collect and hold large volumes of similar materials.
- And last, but not least, is the creation of an online marketplace for recycled/secondary metals. How the Metal Recycling Framework will Reshape the Aluminium Industry?
There is a growing demand for aluminium. The production of aluminium was around 3.3 million tonnes (MT) till 2015. In 2019, the production volume tuned to 5 MT high with a compound annual growth rate of 11.99%.
Considering the demand growth, it is predicted that there will be a heavy dependency on domestic production as well as an import for aluminium. The dependency on aluminium is certain to be followed by the demand for fuel, i.e. coal, which is so far the main energy source for extraction and processing of aluminium.
Having a dependency on a non-renewable resource will eventually limit us from achieving global sustainable development goals, as utilizing coal will lead to higher carbon footprints. Even fulfilling the growing demand for imports is not a feasible option. So, the best solution to overcome all the problems is recycling. By recycling the aluminium, it is possible to save up to 95% of energy which otherwise would go into producing primary aluminium.
Copper: The metal of the future! Another important non-ferrous metal to benefit from the recycling framework is Copper, whose demand in India is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years predicted from the development of EV Technology and its infrastructure, to which copper forms the quintessential component.
India, at present, depends on import to fulfil the demand for copper. It is expected that recycling will provide an advantage of meeting most of the growing demand for copper domestically.
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