The concept of circular economy is not new to our daily life. It is a value engrained within our social values and the natural ecosystem. For millions of years biological life has grown, expanded itself and at the end of life gone back to nature to regenerate in another form. The forms of regeneration in certain cases are seeded in a separate ecosystem. For example from cells, plants grow and after attaining a certain life, they go back into the natural ecosystem only to re-generate either as food for animals or form energy products in the form of fossilised fuels. Issues come up if this circularity is broken and misused or decoupled from the consumption of finite resources or when the circularity of regeneration is slower that the rate of consumption or the goods and services.

Indian Society has always led the principles of circularity from the front. For example, the clothes that people wore and discarded were picked up by rag pickers and recycled into quilts and mattresses. These did not go back to the economically well to do sections of the society but were generally used by the disadvantaged. People have always sold newspapers and old books to recyclers and these have been transformed into packaging materials and other products.

However, with a rapidly developing economy and a growing population, the circularity principles followed and practiced earlier have changed. In India circularity in production and manufacturing systems is a preferred choice. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's latest report, launched in New Delhi in 2016 states that 'adopting circular economy principles would put India on a path to positive, regenerative and value-creating development with annual benefits of Rs. 50 lakh crore (USD 624 billion) in 2050 compared with the current development path – equivalent to 30% of India’s current GDP'. Thus, circularity is now not only a myth but a reality. It creates sustainable jobs, introduces resource efficiency in production and consumption of materials, drives towards a low carbon pathway besides providing large social benefits.

The circular economy principles are important and relevant for all sectors of the economy including the construction sector. The construction sector in India is the second largest sector with regard to material consumption accounting for over 20% of the material demand. This is also the fastest growing sector fuelled by rapid urbanisation and the need for infrastructure. It is slated to be the highest material consumption sector by 2020 (Dittrich, 2012). The predominant construction materials are sand, aggregate, bricks and cement. In the building material sector, India is the second largest producer of cement in the world and thus the single largest consumer of limestone. Although India has considerable reserves of limestone, but at the present consumption rate, we will run out of usable limestone by 2030. Similar is the situation of quality sand.

Unauthorised mining of sand has already been banned and alternatives are being looked at. Even the availability of bricks is an issue. Majority of the bricks produced in India are from agricultural soil with alternatives capturing a minor share in the market. Similar to cement, India is also the second largest producer of burnt clay bricks producing around 300 billion bricks each and every year. If the use of burnt clay bricks is not to be reversed, then India is looking at an acute shortage of food grains in the near future. Similar is the satiation of the stone aggregate industry. Each and every day a hill is vanishing from our geological map due to mining activity.

Considering the above situation, the circularity principles and the need of introducing resource efficiency has become extremely important for the construction sector in India. If we look at the construction sector, there are quite a large number of possibilities of reuse and recycle. During the demolition of a house or a building, 100% of the wooden doors and windows can be recycled. These can be taken out carefully and sold in the ‘Recycled Market’ at a good price. The steel can be recycled in a similar fashion. However, the reality is that with no proper construction waste management system in place in most of the cities in India, the demolition waste is dumped in and around unauthorised areas creating health hazards. The Government of India has recently brought out guidelines for management and use of construction and demolition waste. But with the absence of knowledge, demonstrated examples, favourable policies and strict regulation in place; the policies and intent remain ineffective.

In the Construction and Demolition waste areas, the example of the initiative of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) remains exemplary and worth mentioning. The model of C&D waste management in Ahmedabad is based on Public Private Partici¬pation (PPP). Amdavad Enviro Projects Pvt. Ltd (AEP) is managing and processing all of the C&D waste in the city. AEP charges AMC ? 160/ton tipping fee to pick up waste from any of the 16 designated dumping sites. AEP is responsible for transporting the C&D waste from the collection points to the processing facility, whereas the generator is supposed to dump the C&D waste at any of the 16 designated dumping locations. Collection and transportation of C&D waste from different unauthorised locations to the designated collection points is also carried out by AMC.

Currently the ground scenario is that C&D waste is actively dumped in only 2 designated dumping sites as large amount of C&D waste is generated in the vicinity of these sites. There are other designated sites where C&D waste is dumped but the waste is not picked up by AEP. This is due to the fact that financial viability to transport the waste over long distances is lost due to insufficient quantum of waste dumped at these sites. Transportation of waste is done by trucks owned by AEP and contracted tractors. To track the waste that is picked trucks are enabled with GPS tracking system and waste is weighed at the receiving station of AEP processing facility.

Amdavad Enviro Projects Private Limited (AEP Pvt Ltd.) is a joint venture company formed by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and a private firm (DNP Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.) for management and processing of C&D waste in Ahmedabad. Collected waste is processed at a centralised processing plant into coarse and fine aggregates. Processed waste is used for manufacture of secondary raw materials like paver blocks, kerb stones and other pre-cast structures which are sold under the brand name of Nu-Earth materials. These building materials then are reused in construction projects setting a perfect example of a circular economy.

However, to replicate these and many other examples, the most important initiative is information dissemination and capacity building. Without knowledge and the right kind of information dissemination, adoption will never happen even if there is a will to do so. ■

Dr. Soumen Maity
smaity@devalt.org

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