Fresh regulatory changes and government mandates are required to raise the consumption of scrap metal in India, according to members of the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI).
Demand for recycled materials must first increase to stimulate higher collection rates of scrap in India, Ekta Narain, director of business development at technology company Recykal, said in an MRAI webinar last week.
The Indian government should aid demand by mandating a minimum threshold of 25% recycled material to be used in finished products made in India supplied for government contracts, she suggested.
Indian metal scrap generation is still at very low levels, and rules for minimum recycled content in products would help to stimulate greater scrap volumes across the country, Dhawal Shah, director at recycler Metco Marketing and senior vice-president of the Bureau of International Recycling's (BIR) non-ferrous metals division, said.
Shah pointed to the use of recycled brass in Indian ventilators designed to provide care to patients fighting Covid-19 this year as a recent success story for the use of recycled material in the country.
Essential sector