ARTICLE | Innovative Emission Reduction
India spurring low-carbon innovation on a large scale The low-carbon transition could, and in some cases is already, driving a boom in innovation and emerging businesses, and a parallel shift in skills and the labour force. Innovations for lowcarbon transition is about moving from waste management to resource efficiency, sustainable business models, and the right support frameworks for innovations to be widely adopted. This includes addressing potential skill gaps through training and labour market policies Radhika Matta | Editorial Assistant
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t a global scale, the waste management sector contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, estimated at approximately three to five per cent of total anthropogenic emissions in 2005. Although minor levels of emissions are released through waste treatment and disposal, the prevention and recovery of wastes (i.e., as secondary materials or energy) avoids emissions in all other sectors of the economy. A holistic approach to waste management has positive consequences for GHG emissions from the energy, forestry, agriculture, mining, transport, and manufacturing sectors. Every waste management practice generates GHG, both directly (emissions from the process itself) and indirectly (through energy consumption). However, the overall climate impact or of the waste management system will depend on net GHGs, accounting for both emissions and indirect, downstream GHG savings. A range of activities focussed
34 October 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
on waste and climate change are currently being led by manufacturing units, both small and big. However, there is paucity of a cohesive approach, which has resulted in gaps, duplication, and regional disparity in programmes offered. A central mechanism is needed to collaborate with existing organisations to ensure accessibility to and dissemination of relevant information across the globe, effective use of resources to achieve climate benefit through integrated waste management, promotion of best practices, and rapid transfer of simple, effective, proven technologies and knowledge to developing countries. Several companies are extracting resource efficiency from their waste and, in the process, saving the environment from devastation.
Recycling PET bottles
Rupinder Singh Arora, Chairman of Arora Fibres Ltd, has been recycling discarded plastic bottles into polyester staple fibre since 1994 after he saw the colossal damage to the environment from mountains of bio-degradable plastic being burnt in the country.
“Apart from a commercial interest, converting PET (polyethylene terephthalate) into polyester has a huge positive impact on the environment,” says Arora. Arora brought the technology to India after tying up with Korean company Mijung, which is specialised in converting PET bottles into polyester yarn. His factory in the industrial belt of Silvassa in Dadra & Nagar Haveli has the capacity to process 18,000 tonnes of plastic a year and he plans to increase that to 48,000 tonnes by next year. Arora says the environmental benefit of recycling discarded plastic bottles is enormous. “By recycling 10 billion PET bottles, one can save one million square yards of landfill space and eliminate 0.25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere,” said Arora while speaking to Business Today.
Waste water treatment
Similarly, Wabag is helping companies clean up their act by reusing waste water. It is sometimes said that water, and not oil, is the real liquid gold today. Water technology company VA Tech Wabag would certainly agree. The Chennai-based company recycles industrial and municipal waste water either for reuse as drinking water or to plough back for industrial use. Last year, the company recorded revenues of `1000 crore in India. Six years ago, it stepped in to help Indian Oil Corp’s Panipat refinery when a farmers’s lobby in Haryana raised a hue and cry over the company’s waste water discharge. The water treatment company recycled the entire plant’s waste water discharge
