The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : No proper mechanism for disposing of end-of-life and used vehicles

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Thursday, Apr 09, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

No proper mechanism for disposing of end-of-life and used vehicles

Staff Reporter

Managing large volumes of waste generated from such vehicles will be a challenge

— PHOTO: M. Karunakaran

HAZARD: A labourer at work in the vehicle scrap industry in Pudupet, Chennai. Industry experts say legislation is needed to deal with the increasing pile of vehicle scrap.

CHENNAI: Although India is witnessing an expansion of the market for private vehicles, the country is yet to develop a proper mechanism for disposing of end-of-life vehicles and used vehicles.

Industry experts say the used vehicles market would take a beating with more and more individuals opting for swanky, new vehicles. With the informal sector handling much of the existing vehicle scrap market, managing the large volumes of waste generated from end-of-life or used vehicles would become a challenge in the future.

“By 2020, we estimate that recoverable materials from recycling will be 1.5 million tons of shredded steel scrap, 1,80,000 tons of aluminium scrap, 7,50,00 tons of recoverable plastic and 7,50,00 tons of rubber,” said Capt. N.S.Mohan Ram, adviser, TVS Motor Company Ltd, who had quoted these statistics at a seminar recently.

“This calls for developing an industry to recycle end-of-life and used vehicles,” he said. At a meeting of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) recently, industry experts expressed concern over the absence of any legislation for recycling vehicle scrap.

“Though standards for recycling used cars exist in the European Union, there are none available for recycling two-wheelers anywhere in the world. India can be a pioneer in this area,” Mr.Mohan Ram said.

An experimental project to recycle used two-wheelers was coming up at Oragadam, he said.

“Components of old vehicles such as connecting rods, pistons and engine components can be easily reused if proper standards for these are developed,” said R.Krishna Kumar, professor of engineering design at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He said if the government developed strict standards for reuse of old vehicle parts, owners could realise a better value for their vehicles at the time of disposing it.

Unhygienic condition

A stroll along South Cooum Road in Pudupet, a hub for recycling end-of-life and used cars in Chennai, is enough to introduce one to the issues facing junkyards. Jawahar Ali, a vehicle scrap dealer here says he has been managing a shop on the road side for the last 20 years. Drawing attention to the broken bonnets and stack of old tyres spilling on to the roads, he says he desperately wants more space to run his business.

Here you also get to see the hazards of unhygienic disposal of old cars. The labourers work without protective gear, inhaling the toxic fumes that billow every time he runs a gas-cutter on the old vehicle.

Most of the vehicle components are non-biodegradable, says Mr. Kumar. “If promoted in an organised fashion as most European nations have done already, recycling used vehicles can help scrap dealers consolidate their income while preventing pollution,” he said.

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