JNARDDC, MRAI and Ministry of Mines shared stage at AKAM 2023 to promote recycling & the circular economy

The 6th AKAM Awareness Conference on “Sustainable & Circular Bharat: Towards Zero Waste in Metals Processing” successfully occurred on Thursday, June 15, at Taj Bengal, Kolkata, India. It was a 2-day event with a combination of conference and plant visit, organised by MRAI and the Ministries of Mines and Steel, in collaboration with JNARDDC, Ministry of Mines PSU (NALCO), Ministry of Steel PSUs (NMDC & MSTC).

The event marked the celebration of the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) - CIRCULAR ECONOMY Campaign - 2023”, and it was an honour for AL Circle to be present and witness the initiatives and policies framed by the Indian government to promote recycling and the circular economy in both the non-ferrous and ferrous industries.

From the aluminium industry, Dr Anupam Agnihotri, Director of JNARDDC, Mr Sudarshan Bagaria, CEO of Bagaria Aluminium Alloys Pvt Ltd, Anirudha Agarwal, Director of Manaksia Aluminium Co Ltd, and Mr Sanjay Gadia, Director of Gadia Aluminium Pvt Ltd, graced the conference with their presence.

The event was addressed by Mr Amar Singh, Secretary General of MRAI, with a welcome note, wherein he stated that MRAI had 60 members when he joined ten years ago, but now the number has grown to 1400. He said the main objective behind organising this event was to promote the recycling industry and address the issues faced by domestic recyclers.

Over the past ten years, MRAI, together with the Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Envrionment Forest, and Niti Aayog, has undertaken a lot of initiatives and framed many policies, rules, and regulations for recycling, said Mr Singh.

Mr Sudarshan Bagaria drew attention to the fact that big steel companies run by the government use primary aluminium to re-oxidise their steel, while the aluminium product produced through recycling is cheaper and readily available in different forms and densities as per the requirement of furnaces. So, Mr Bagaria tabled his request to the government officials to bring the matter into kind consideration.

Dr Anupam Agnihotri highlighted the recycling industry would value $20 billion by 2023. According to him, the circular economy is an inevitable measure to curb adverse climate change. Representing JNARDDC, which is a part of the Ministry of Mines, he assured the companies associated with the secondary aluminium sector that the government plans to set up common testing facilities and dross/waste treatment facilities for recycling clusters. He also said the government is working on making the recycling sector an organised one to help it reap a maximum benefit. Recycling is the only way to turn the linear economy into a circular one and rotate the extraction-dependent market into regeneration, resulting in sustainability, concluded Mr Agnihotri.