Recycling Business - Can it go Online with penentration of Internet like ITC e-choupal

Recycling Business - provides livelihood to as many people as an airlines sector in India. However only 5% of the people are educated and connected. Almost 80% of the people are kabadiwalas or petty traders who merely serve as channel handlers for the top 5%. This cream of 5% are thus able to mint money due to lack of information among the rest of people below them in the industry.

This is similar to agriculture business where farmers were not aware of the final price at which the dalal sells the stock in wholesale market. Lack of information had always allowed them (dalal) to earn money in the trade, until ITC chaupal came in. With ITC's e-chaupal, farmers are able to get best price of the offering and improve the efficiency in channel. Similarly Recycle Trade India - tends to get the channel partners informed of the pricing, requirement of scrap and business options available in this sector.

Increase in penentration of internet, education and newspaper will help reduce the dependancy of the channel on top layer and the margins will be then shared among the second layer of channel too. Measures will be required by Government to increase awareness of the business and help the channel improve the efficiency.

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What is driving the global recycling industry?

Recycling industry is indeed growing by leaps and bounds. The new version of the luxury automobile,Jaguar XJ uses recycled aluminium to save on weight while batteries and mobile phones may be recycled to minimise the damage to environment. According to Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) about 1.6 million people worldwide are active in the recycling industry.

"Together, they handle more than 600 million tonnes of recyclables every year. With an annual turnover of more than $200 billion, similar to the GDP of countries such as Portugal, Colombia and Malaysia, the sector has already become a key driver for tomorrow’s sustainable development. About 10% of this amount is spent on new technologies, research and development that contribute to creating high-skilled jobs and making recycling more efficient and environmentally sound.

The recycling industry has become an integral part of modern society not only due to its social and economic impact but also because it plays a vital role for the future of our planet. The use of recycled materials directly translates into fewer natural resources being used and considerably less energy being consumed when compared to production processes using virgin materials."

The motives driving recycling in each industry may be different. In the case of aluminium, the high energy cost involved in producing new aluminium is a major reason for companies to go for recycling. Recycling in aluminium can lead to 95% savings in energy cost while in the case of copper and plastic it is 85 and 80% respectively, according to a study by BIR. Tin and lead recycling can lead to 99% savings in CO2 emissions while in Aluminium it is 92%, according to BIR.

Environmental concerns are prime movers behind battery and e-waste recycling while energy concerns are of prime importance in metals recycling. However, gold, silver and those belonging to the precious metals group, price may be a critical factor that provides incentive to recycle. Until silver prices revisited the record high of $50, there wasn't any major interest in recycling. The gold rally has prompted many holders of unwanted and old jewellery pieces to take it out of their drawers and a booming market for 'cash-for-gold' was born. Even now, some nations have reported growth in gold scrap sales but in many places peope are not left with jewellery to sell as they unloaded their inventory in the past two years to face the financial crisis.

There are also incentives for corporates to recycle as it will lead to CO2 savings while many see it as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Local governments are realising that opening and maintaining landfills is a huge drain on financial and environmental resources.

Some information from
www.floridatoday.com

India gets its first e-waste Management Rules

The recent amendment which suggests that it will be mandatory for the manufacturers of electronic goods to ensure that recycling happens effective May,2012 is first step to push e-waste recycling in India.

I am sure this will help the e-waste industry which was in dormant stage till now will soon see the swift growth. Players like Attero and E-Parisara will surely be ale to leverage and help the manufacturers by handling the e-waste in a cost effective manner.

A lot of small scale resellers and reusers of e-waste will soon find value for the business that they have been doing at low profitability. I am sure these rules will give a major thrust to the recycling sector all together. Other industry which will also benefit will be recycling of paper, plastic, tyre and aluminium.

Lets wait and watch the boom in the recycling sector in next 5 years...