Recycling step forward for India

A facility for recycling construction and demolition waste has been established in Burari, New Delhi, in India by India’s Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. The new plant has a capacity of 500 tonnes per day and has been successfully processing its waste stream form the construction and demolition industry to produce recycled aggregate for use in brick making and road building. The rational behind the establishment of the plant is to demonstrate the potential benefits of increasing the recycling rates of this waste in the Delhi area. The waste comes from three designated zones in Delhi – Karol Bagh, Sardar Pahargari and the City.

A total of between 10 and 15 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste is generated annually in the country and the normal method of disposal is to send it to landfill. According to the Indian Government’s Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation in a recent report, the Indian residential building industry alone is facing a shortage of suitable aggregate to the tune of 55 million cubic metres, (2 billion cubic feet). In addition, a further 750 million cubic metres (26.5 billion cubic feet) of aggregate would be needed to allow the Indian road building sector to meet its targets. This difference between the supply and the demand would further add to the pressure on natural resources.