Car recycling unit at GARC Chennai kicks off

The de-licensing of the Automobile industry in 1991 has triggered an increase in car population in India exponentially. With rapidly increasing population of new cars there is concurrently need for modern facilities for recycling and recovering materials from old cars and used cars, which reach the end of their useful life. In US, Europe and Japan car recycling facilities gradually developed along with the organic growth of automobile industry. End of life regulations mandate recyclability levels for new design vehicles in Europe and Japan.

An auto recycling facility made under the joint initiative of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) & NATRiP (National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project) and a part of the Global Automotive Research Centre (Under Ministry of Heavy Industries, Govt of India) was inaugurated on August 2, at Oragdum in Chennai. This facility was inaugurated by S Sundareshan, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries, Government of India.

The dump yards in India are full of the left out old cars such as Hindustan Motors Ambassador cars and Premier Fiat cars besides other Indian and foreign brand cars. Currently there are no regulations in India to deal with the disposal of used cars or the old cars which has no more usability. Two wheelers which account for 80% by number and about 40% by weight are particularly important in the Indian context. Cars which are old are dumped in large numbers since most of them have lost their workability and are of no use.

Currently, scrapped old cars and used cars are cut and sold for scrap by low-tech units in the unorganized sector. They use crude techniques polluting the environment, and operate with low recoveries. There is urgent need to upgrade their technology and processes and to set up modern facilities with greater capacity to deal with the expected increase in volumes of old cars and used cars which lost their functionality that are due for scrapping.

A recycling and dismantling demonstration centre has been set up by the Ministry of Heavy Industry under the auspices of National Automotive Testing and R & D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) at the Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) at Oragdum Chennai. The centre aims to develop recycling processes which employ manual labor to the maximum extent (as against automated processes used in the West), especially systems for dealing with our large population of two wheelers. The centre will also train and help upgrade current units in the unorganized sector dealing with such old cars and used cars.

The centre has been set up with the active co-operation of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) which helped to draw up the specifications for layout and equipment. The automobile industry has come forward and donated used vehicles consisting of nearly one hundred two wheelers and twenty-five used cars and old cars to help kick start the setup.

With efficient recycling India can hope to recover by the year 2020 over 1.5 million tons of steel scrap, 180,000 tons of Aluminum scrap and 75,000 tons each of recoverable plastic and rubber from scrapped automobiles. We may have to dispose over 25,000 tons of residues in landfills. These volumes will increase annually keeping pace with the growth of the industry. Recycling of automobiles such as old cars, used cars, and other two wheelers will create large-scale employment, save energy, have positive impact on global warming and protect the environment.

The centre at Chennai is a shining example of public private partnership (PPP) for a national objective. It is a significant first step towards establishment of a modern and capable automotive recycling regiment in India.

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