Hon’ble Prime Minister’s visionary milestone of vehicle scrappage policy: A new era of sustainable mobility
Mumbai, August 19, 2021: In order to deliberate on Automotive Industry’s strides towards ELV recycling, circular economy and sustainable mobility, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex automotive industry body, organized a virtual webinar on Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021: Its Features and Implementation Planning.
Divided into three sessions, the webinar witnessed industry stalwarts and experts discussing the policy framework, best practices in material recycling, Extended Producers Responsibility and models related to environmentally sound management of ELVs recycling including the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders to devise the roadmap of transitioning to a circular economy.
In his welcome address, Mr Prashant K Banerjee, Executive Director, SIAM, said, “Unveiled by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the Vehicle Scrappage Policy is a robust policy. We are pleased that the implementation of scrappage policy will foster circular economy and help achieve energy security, road safety, better environment, and facilitate secondary material usage in the system.”
Mr Shrikant Deshmukh, Chairman, SIAM Recycling & Materials Group and GM, Mercedes- Benz India Pvt Ltd, gave a comparative perspective of EU directives for ELV recycling and highlighted Japan’s ELV recycling model. Elaborating upon the tremendous opportunity of ELV in India, he advocated the extended producer responsibility model and emphasized upon the importance of shared responsibility of all stakeholders including the Government.
One of the key architects of the policy, Mr Amit Varadan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, and the Chief Guest at the lecture, said, “There are over 1 Crore old vehicles, which lack fitness certificate and can be scrapped. It will greatly improve road & vehicle safety, environment, fuel efficiency and boost auto sector sales by 30%. The policy has the potential to generate 35000 jobs, while saving maintenance cost for customers and manufacturing cost for OEMs. From 1st April 2023, the heavy commercial vehicles will be mandated to undergo test at authorized fitness testing center and the rest of the commercial vehicles will be mandated to undergo test from 1st August 2023. We are proposing that 70- 100 fitness testing centers would be set-up all over the country.”
While outlining the salient features of the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility, (Scrappage Policy) 2021, Mr Paresh Goel, Director, Ministry of Road Transport & Highway, said that the Vehicle Scrappage Policy is like the health policy for all 25 Crore plus vehicles in the country. He shared the rules for automated testing centres, covering the owners’ eligibility, authorisation processes, infrastructure and manpower requirements, testing procedure, and audit process etc. He explained that citizens can book for testing their vehicles from anywhere in the country, and Government will launch an electronic portal for citizens to book fitness test for their vehicles soon.
Mr M S Anand Kumar, Co-Chairman, SIAM Recycling & Material Group and GM, TVS Motor Co., expressed that the scrapping policy has potential to increase the material yield from ELVs, resulting in resource conversation and reduced landfills. With limited battery recycling facilities and the increase in the sales of EVs there would be enormous battery wastage, the recently announced policy will create online and offline market for recycling and sale of certified use of parts.
Mr Masaru Akaishi, MD, Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India Pvt Ltd, elaborated upon the proper dismantling and recycling process and discussed the challenges of ELV generation, collection, dismantling and material sales. He pointed out that regulations should make all players follow proper systems. He emphasised upon the role of incentives and disincentives to encourage the ELV user to dispose old car and take it to authorized dismantler. The domestic steel scrap generation will replace requirement for imported scrap and save resources.
The replacement of old commercial vehicles will result in reduced fuel bills and will help in reducing pollution, says Mr Som Kapoor, Partner (Automotive Sector), Ernst & Young.
Mr Meenakshi Sundaram, CTO, Amalgamations Component Group, added that, “Adopting circular economy by recycling and re-using of automotive parts will lead to the creation of an estimated 8 to 10 billion USD economy.”
Mr Anand Kumar, Additional Director, CPCB, shared with the industry various responsibilities of producers under Battery (M&H) Rules, 2001, as amended in 2010. He discussed the applicable EPR framework under the plastic waste management rules and e-Waste (Management) Rules 2016 and shared the collection targets therein.
Mr Sanjay Mehta, President, MRAI, said, “We require informal sector’s help on day-to-day basis as they have got better sources to procure the material. We need to give them support in terms of equipment, facilities and incentives and the government has to support in this matter.”
In the panel discussion, Co-existence of informal & formal sector was highlighted and informed that multiple opportunity exists for private players to make the Indian Scrappage industry organised, transparent and environment friendly. With the thought-provoking sessions wherein, experts deliberated upon various aspects of ELV recycling, reduce-reuse-recycling models, remanufacturing, and continual utilization of resources, the webinar officially concluded with a thoughtful ideas and strategies for attaining circular economy, sustainable mobility and sustainable development goals 2030.
