ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tremendous increase in the world population, coupled with economic development and urbanisation has led to the motorization and privatisation of the transport system in urban cities. The global car production rate has increased around 40% between 2000 and 2013 and is expected to follow an increasing trend in future, presenting a challenge for managing the vehicles when they become obsolete and reach their end-of-life (EoL) stage. Vehicles that have reached their EoL stage have become a global concern over the years as automobiles are becoming affordable which has led to increased privatisation in many cities of both developed as well as developing countries. There has been a gigantic expansion in auto proprietorship in the non-industrial nations as India, and this development has made the administration of the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) area a genuine concern. Sustainable management of vehicles at their EoL stage offers a significant potential for resource recovery by closing the material loop and thus contributes to dealing with scarcity of resources. Although ELVs till date in countries like India are considered as waste and not as secondary resource material (SRM), but, if used judiciously, may obviate the extraction of primary or virgin materials. The Indian ELV sector is relatively neglected and unorganised. There exists enormous gap in existing composing that researches this region and elements that ground genuine variables, challenges, limits, and openings related with capable organization of ELVs in India. The present study seeks to bridge this gap and present the ground realities of the Indian ELV sector in a comprehensive and organised manner. It also aims to explore the secondary resource material (SRM) potential associated with this sector and if explored to its maximum capacity, the associated impact that can be created on the resource scarcity challenge of India would be a great leap towards circular economy.
The research was designed in a way that it caters the entire ELV landscape of the country through four main objectives, i.e., to outline the ground realities of ELV sector of India; to conduct mass-balance analysis of an ELV to understand its mass characterisation; to conduct material-flow analysis of iron and aluminium generated from an ELV and finally to assess the SRM potential associated with the informal ELV sector of India. The study adopts and integrated three-way approach of literature review, stakeholder consultations and field investigations to evaluate the informal ELV sector of India. At first a conceptual framework of the overall supply chain of one of the biggest informal ELV market of Asia, i.e.,Mayapuri situated in India was developed as a representation of standard informal ELV market operational in the country. The results indicated the presence of a multi-sector and multi-stakeholder supply chain within the sector making it a very dynamic as well as complex system. The results of the ground reality assessment indicated that dismantlers hold the most crucial position in the existing ELV supply chain. The informal dismantlers operate in not so organised and regularised system but are extremely efficient in processing most parts of an ELV and gaining maximum monetary benefits. The mass-characterisation of selected samples using the mass-balance analysis approach also indicated that most of the materials are recovered through the existing process with minimalistic waste getting generated from the sector. This indicated the high efficiency of the dismantlers, which is an important characteristic of the Indian ELV sector. The results indicated that iron (Fe) and aluminium (Al) represent more than 80% of the materials present in a hatchback passenger vehicle (PV) plying on Indian roads. The field investigations and interactions with relevant stakeholders also highlighted that majority of the Fe and Al generated as the SRM is generally taken back within the automobile sector with some amount also moving to other sectors like utensils, construction, and industries. The existing material flow-supply chain of Fe and Al present an important example of circularity which if manifested on a larger scale can surely address the resource scarcity challenges of the country. The results of quantitative estimation revealed that the existing informal set-up has the potential of achieving 88.8% and 91.6% recyclability and recoverability potential of a hatchback PV at its EoL stage respectively. This can lead to recovery of ~4 million Fe and ~0.34 million Al by 2030. These estimates clearly indicate the immense SRM potential associated with this sector and its ability to alleviate the resource scarcity challenge. However, the ever-increasing reliance on private modes of transportation and booming automobile sector presents a challenge of managing the mounting amounts of ELVs expected to be generated within in the country with the existing ELV management setup. This indicates the need of streamlining and regularising this sector by amalgamating the existing scenario with the best practices available across the world to ensure maximum recovery of SRM and efficient management of the mounting amounts of ELVs in India.
Key Words of the Research: End-of-life vehicle (ELV), secondary resource material (SRM), recyclability, recoverability, informal sector.
