Indian carmakers face large changes when it comes to recycling steel

New government regulations have made it clear that car manufacturers based in India will soon need to recycle a portion of the steel that is used in their vehicles. These new regulations will become effective in April and at this point manufacturers must recycle a minimum of 8% of the steel that was used in cars that were sold between 2005 and 2006. In 2035-36, this regulation will be increased to 18%.

It is evident that the new rules link steel recycling to vehicles that are reaching their end-of-life, currently estimated at 20-21 years. Once the Environment Protection (End-of-Life Vehicles) Rules were notified last week, they made it clear that safe collection and recycling of these vehicles is mandatory. Furthermore, another part of this change is that manufacturers are required to meet annual targets, and they must also prove compliance. The companies will prove compliance through buying EPR certificates, which will be sold from authorised scrapping facilities.

Manufacturers must ensure that consumers are educated about the product. The manufacturer should also create buy-back programs and finally, they must register their activities on a central portal. This portal will be managed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). It is clearly stated in the rules that “Every producer shall take measures for sustainable production of vehicles, including in accordance with guidelines issued by the central board.”

It has been agreed that the CPCB will issue EPR certificates through the use of an online portal to RVSFs and it will do this based off of the weight of recovered steel from scrapped vehicles. From there, it is then possible for car companies to buy these certificates, enabling them to meet their recycling obligations. Other parties that these regulations apply to include, vehicle owners, bulk consumers – who own more than one hundred vehicles, RVSFs, collections centres and finally automated testing centres. These regulations have been put in place, in order to promote and ensure the proper disposal of old vehicles.

Officials stated that, ‘these provisions aim to promote formal vehicle scrapping at Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs). Currently, India has 82 RVSFs, with a government goal of reaching 100 within the next three months. Most states are expected to announce policies for setting up RVSFs within two months.’