Contaminated Waste Paper Dumping Damaging Waste Paper Collection System Domestically

Contaminated Waste Paper Dumping at Indian Ports In 45$ Per Tonne Throwaway Price; Damaging Waste Paper Collection System Domestically 

People are not procuring the waste paper at home due to price down

Members of Waste Paper Merchants and Raw materials suppliers Association during a function in Delhi (IN ABOVE PHOTO)

New Delhi | 25 December 2019 | The Pulp and Paper Times: 

Nowadays, If you are not listening to the shouting of a 'Kaabadiwala' out of your window, for buying your waste recycled paper, the reason could be the possible shift of his livelihood from other means. “The Cheap import of waste paper in India, at CIF price of 45$ per tonnes, is damaging Indian waste paper collection system, Imported waste paper is available to paper mills at Rs. 8 to 9 per kg. Paper mills are not willing to buy waste paper more than Rs 8 per kg from the local merchants. This situation is creating a livelihood loss for a small rag picker. Earlier they were earning Rs. 500 to 600 per day by collecting waste paper from garbage but now the situation has changed.  Domestically, the price has been crashed which inclined them to shift to other work for earning. People are not seeing a 'small earning' in the collection of  newspaper and cartons, they are dumping it with wet garbage,” said Mr. Naresh Singhal, President, Association of Waste Paper Merchants and Raw materials suppliers to The Pulp and Paper Times     

India seems to have fallen prey to the bustling racket of global waste trafficking. Thirty-eight containers, carrying hazardous and contaminated waste from the US, were allegedly sneaked into the country over the course of a couple of weeks, raising concern among green watchdog.

According to TOI report, The containers, originally shipped for a paper mill in Indonesia, had been seized by Indonesian customs. According to the Basel Convention - Which was ratified by Indonesia and India, among others – Such containers carrying hazardous waste must be sent back to their countries of origin. But even though the Indonesia authorities claimed they never authorized the containers to be re-exported to Asia countries, these 38 containers made their way to India through two poets, revealed an expose by Indonesian environment watchdog Nexus3 and the US-Based Basel Action Network (BAN).

Between August 24 and September 7, 25 of these containers entered the country through Adani Mundra Port in Gujarat and 13 through Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Maharashtra. Many of the containers were then shifted to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh by trucks and trains, the exposé reveals

“The waste paper coming to India is mixed with plastic waste ranging from 3 to 12%. There has been a lot of quantity of household plastic and other hazardous garbage like a carry bag, toys, sanitary napkin. There is a lot of pressure from Europe and US on India to import all this garbage to its soil. Around 20 lakhs Tonnes of mixed waste garbage has been dumped to India port,” Mr. Singhal further said.

The basic collection cost in India has come down significantly due to the throwaway price of foreign waste paper. Four-month back, the local waste collector was buying Kraft cartons from the houses at Rs. 12 per kg but now it is come down to Rs. 5 per kg, and newspaper waste is down to Rs. 8 per kg from Rs. 13 Kg.

During the first half of 2018, there was a 200% rise in waste paper exports from the European Union to India, according to the Confederation of European Paper Industries. And from the US exports rose by more than 100% between January and October 2018 compared to the same period in 2017, according to the International Scrap Recycling Institute (ISRI).

The condition will become more severe after March 2020, when China will close down its door for waste paper import completely. “The complete ban by China will also increase the dumping of rich fiber waste paper at an Indian port,” Mr. Singhal said.

“Our industry is too heavily dependent on the waste paper or recycles fibre, the availability, which is very limited therefore we required to import a huge quantity of waste paper. The recovery rate in our country is only 27% as against the consumption of nearly 18 million tonnes. There is a need for improving the recovery rate, for which Government - Centre and State as well municipal corporation needs to work as a whole. The Paper industry should also be careful what they are importing, like trash and very inferior grade which might lead to serious complications in terms of environmental concern” said Mr. Sivashanmugaraja IAS, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd.  

Web Title: Contaminated Waste Paper Dumping Damaging Waste Paper Collection System Domestically