Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Recognizing Plastek Industries for all-around excellence
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
    • Kickstart: Yes, this 'paper' bottle is really plastic, and yes, it's a bad look
      Kickstart: Plastics ready to take flight on Mars
      Kickstart: Let's hear it for leftovers
      Kickstart: Big data, big bowls and consumer packaging
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • PE resin trends highlighted in Shell report
      Dow's Lowry honored by World Economic Forum for sustainability work
      Africa impacts new colors from Ampacet
      Plaskolite marches into madness with its own online bracket
    • Climate debate in Washington increasingly includes plastic
      There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
    • Want prices? Introducing historical resin pricing, now available in a downloadable form
      A new annual ranking: Top processor gains
      Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
    • Working from home: Rugrats edition
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
    • PEX pipe maker Uponor donates $30,000 for Texas storm relief
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
      PPI puts $200 bounty on exhumed HDPE conduit
      Raise the roof: Housing starts hit a 12-year high
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Perspective: The Materials Wars: Is plastic actually better?
      Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Video: Structural foam molding
      Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - April 2021
      Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Bandera
      Bandera US was born for the North American market
      Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling systems customized for any process or budget need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei retools in US with investment from parent ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell Polymer
      Sponsored By Shell Polymers
      Food and beverage trends impacting the polymer industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
June 17, 2015 02:00 AM

India's recycling hub in danger over lower oil prices

Steve Toloken
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    DHARAVI, INDIA — Low oil prices are giving a nice boost to India's plastics industry, with one big exception — the country's plastics recyclers.

    Judging from a recent visit to Dharavi, one of the centers of plastics recycling in the country, falling oil prices have sent the price of recycled plastic tumbling down 50 percent and shut down many local companies.

    Dharavi is probably best known outside India as the setting for the 2008 movie “Slumdog Millionaire.” Located in Mumbai, it has several hundred thousand residents and is considered one of Asia's largest and most densely-populated slums.

    It's also home to more than 1,000 small-scale plastics recycling companies that employ an estimated 10,000 people.

    They're not recycling companies as you find them in North America, though — the work of sorting and cleaning waste plastic is all done manually, in difficult conditions, with workers earning $100 to $300 a month for more than 70 hours of work each week.

    Dharavi has a world-wide reputation in recycling. A Google search of plastic and Dharavi turns up many references.

    But its future as a major recycling hub could be in question, because of those low oil prices and more permanent challenges like high electricity costs and a shortage of space for factories, according to interviews Plastics News had during a mid-February visit.

    Other problems

    Even before oil prices dropped, companies were struggling with high power prices and a lack of space to make their factories more viable, said Hariram Tanwar, general secretary of the All Plastic Recyclers Association in Dharavi, which formed 18 months ago to advocate for industry.

    APRA President Ladulal Jain, for example, said power costs in Dharavi are four times higher than in Silvassa, an industrial area 120 miles north of Mumbai. That prompted his company to open a recycling factory there.

    Electricity costs in Dharavi, which sits in central Mumbai, have been rising for the last five years, APRA said.

    The low oil prices have meant the loss of thousands of jobs, at least temporarily, in Dharavi's recycling companies, Tanwar said.

    At one point during the interview, Jain sounded pessimistic about the future of local recyclers.

    “Because of all these facts, most probably it will finish it off, it will die,” said Jain, speaking through an interpreter in an interview at APRA's small office. “Because of less land and because of high power prices.”

    But the association leaders said they have some hope — APRA recently submitted a detailed proposal to the local government asking it to create a recycling zone, including setting aside land for companies and providing tax breaks and cheaper electricity.

    That kind of support is needed because the industry in effect performs a public service, helping to keep Mumbai cleaner and collecting what would otherwise be litter on the streets, Tanwar said.

    “We want to get recognized as proper recyclers,” Tanwar said, speaking through an interpreter.

    During a walking tour and interview conducted by APRA, association officials pointed out companies recycling all kinds of plastics, including bottles, food containers, computer parts and housings for big items like TVs and air conditioners.

    Working conditions were tough. In one small factory, eight workers squatted around boxes, hand separating different kinds of waste plastics. They said they worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, plus a half day on the seventh day.

    Hygiene is sometimes poor. In one small room with an open door facing the narrow street, a few workers sorted through plastic from food waste as flies buzzed around the piles of discarded plastic plates, cups and clamshell containers nearby.

    Much of the work was done by hand. Employees dunk buckets of waste plastic in water bins to wash it and break down large pieces by hand, or in one case, hacking garbage bins with a machete.

    Material testing often consists of burning the plastic to smell it and, workers said, letting trained noses identify the specific polymer.

    “Conditions are poor, unhygienic, and people are working in unsafe conditions,” said Vinod Shetty, director of the Mumbai office of Acorn International, an NGO which has one project advocating for workers in India's recycling industry.

    “Workers are handling contaminated materials, they are exposed to a lot of bacteria, a lot of diseases,” he said, in a telephone interview with Plastics News.

    Steve Toloken

    A worker on top of a shelter at the Dharavi recycling center. India recycles 70 percent of its PET bottles compared to 30 percent in the U.S., and nearly 100 percent of rigid plastic containers.

    Shetty, whose group has organized campaigns for better conditions for people who collect recyclable materials in the streets and landfills, said both the recycling companies and the factory workers face difficult conditions.

    Because of weak government enforcement of rules, companies that want to operate responsibly face a lot of price competition from recycling factories working in the “informal” sector of unregistered companies, which often ignore rules.

    And workers, most of whom are migrants who come to Mumbai to escape worse poverty in their hometowns, lack options and know that others coming from the countryside could replace them, he said

    “Where they come from is total desperation.”

    Shetty said he was aware of the APRA proposal to create a recycling zone, and said he hoped it would have a positive impact for the industry.

    But he said that without stronger government rules, he fears that “it will just be another Dharavi somewhere else.”

    “I always hope for the best, maybe something will come out of this, but unless you rectify the defects in the economy, the reasons people migrate, you only deal with the symptoms,” Shetty said.

    Tough economics

    Among companies interviewed during the walking tour, however, concerns were directed more toward the current economic situation.

    The owner of one small three-person company, who has been in the Dharavi industry a decade, said falling prices have forced weaker companies to close.

    Sheikh Mohammad Irfan, owner of Khizra Plastics, said recycled plastic used to sell for a little more than 90 rupees ($1.45) per kilogram but now, with the price of oil down, it's only about 45 rupees (71 cents).

    Irfan and others said that as a result, much of the equipment like grinding machines was sitting idle. He pointed to a grinder unused in a room across the narrow alley from Khizra's small space.

    India's not alone. Recycling industries worldwide are feeling the pinch.

    The British Plastics Federation in mid-March put out a statement saying it was concerned that low oil prices were making plastics recycling in that country “uncompetitive” and “threatening not only the viability of businesses but also, potentially, the recycling record of the whole supply chain.”

    Recycling remains a major part of India's plastics supply chain.

    About 25 percent of the plastic used in India comes from recycled sources, amounting to the equivalent of 3.3 kg of recycled resin used per person in manufacturing each year, compared with 10 kg from virgin plastic, according to the Mumbai-based Plastindia Foundation.

    India recycles 70 percent of its PET bottles, compared with 30 percent in the United States, and nearly 100 percent of rigid plastic containers, PIF said.

    PIF estimates that 600,000 people work in the plastic recycling sector in the country, including the people (known as “ragpickers”) who try to scrape out a living collecting on the streets and selling to factories like those in APRA.

    Because of their work, India maintains a high recycling rate with little government support.

    It's those large economic and social benefits of the recycling industry that APRA wants to focus on.

    The group formed only 18 months ago, based on recommendations from India's Institute of Chemical Technology, which sent a team to the neighborhood to study the industry. They recommended forming an association to help industry upgrade and better make its case to the public.

    APRA members say they want the industry to be better recognized.

    “Indirectly it helps the government because we take garbage from all of Mumbai and reprocess it,” said Ghopal Malpani, a recycling company manager who participated in the interview at APRA offices. “We help the government.”

    Shetty, from the time his group has spent supporting ragpickers with projects like safety training, believes that group of people should similarly be recognized as “green collar” workers.

    He said more should be done than establishing recycling zones.

    One idea he favors, similar to the pressure labor groups put on Apple for better working conditions in Chinese factories, is pressuring the large companies that use the recycled materials in their products, so that they in turn work with recycling companies to improve conditions.

    And he believes the plastics industry itself should help with financial or other support, since it's profiting from creating the products that at the end of their lives pass through Dharavi's factories.

    “While we talk about the recycling industry getting status, this will have to be done over time,” he said. “The solution is for government to regulate this industry.”

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions