Encouraging Circular economy , Study of Indian scenario a proposal.... Concept note

“ Supporting circular economy is supporting sustainable livelihood”

“ What is waste here is raw material there”…. Based on this principle, circular economy or recycle economy reduce waste footprints from anthropogenic activities.

Recycle economy is simply what waste we generate, recycle / reuse them to produce another product , we may call re entry product which has a demand and introduce it into market. For an example oil soaked machine or vehicular filters carry waste oil, few people recycle them to extract oils from filters and market them back.

A Hyderabad based plastic recycle start up “ Banyan Nation” got circular award in Davos for their contribution in circular economy.

From long ago multi level circular economy based on Rag-Pickers is practiced in India.

They collect recyclable / re usable materials consisting metals, paper, plastic etc. then sell them to receivers. Receivers stock wastes and segregate them, then sell them to recyclers, sometime segregation and recycling done in same facility, then raw materials supplied to producers.

Most lucrative recyclable materials consists Metal, petroleum oil soaked materials and paper, then plastic (HDPE). Glass has lowest value for recycling.

During my long experience in Industry, I have seen dynamism of the demand supply of recycled products and market failure of few, despite utmost try, like re using construction debris as road construction material . So there was no other alternative but directly dispose them off to disposal sites. But waste cement and sand may have a good market for mixing with disposed Arsenic from filters and arrest them for longer time.

In plastic waste scenario, LDPE or Low Density Polyethylene, PP or Polypropylene and Polystyrene, mainly Styrofoam based product wastes has no demand as lucrative Shampoo bottles.

Alarmingly In India,” consumption of per capita plastic produced is 11 kg/ capita. A recent estimate predicted a 10% annual compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in next five years”. ( Source: FICCI). “ India produced approximately 80000 million tones Plastic waste in 2010” (BBC).

Now, we understand one of the most viable procedure to reduce waste pressure on earth is to encourage circular economy by either increasing value of recycled products or create more demand for re entry products by creative innovation and marketing .Which first needs to address present valuation of recycling at every stage of their life cycle. It needs more technological innovations and economic measure to make a sustainable market ecosystem valuing from Rag Pickers, house hold sellers to recyclers, transporters, producers and buyers which in return enable us to see a sustainable livelihood.

This needs an in-depth study of valuation for the products through entire lifecycle. Modeling Market failure possibilities and awareness generation among people to encourage them buying recycled products.

Here we propose a systematic study of valuation of waste material recycling at every point of their life cycle along with valuation of employment generation, which is mainly unorganized sector and Tax structure associated with recycled materials produced for scoping further research and suggestions for increasing demand.

We shall assess costs of buying from house holds by loose item buyers and their commission selling to recyclers , income of Rag Pickers per kg collection / per day collection, approximate collection at receivers end by volume, cost of recycling specially labour charge for segregation and other works , workers engaged by numbers and thereby calculate value of labour, then the transport cost to producers, then production cost identifying employment cost. Then we shall identify the Tax structure associated in each phase.

Along with we shall make awareness drive to citizens through school children and other campaigns to promote recycled products and value of life of workers engaged in recycling process or circular economy.

Pilot project we choose paper waste product due to its return in impacting restoration of forests and vegetation and locally available resources to make a viable budget. Pilot study will be done for one year and extension may be sought if require.