A ‘canful’ of possibilities

Recycling metal scrap is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Cosmos Green, a company focussing on metal recycling, has set up three units in the NCR region and is in the process of finalising plans for three more facilities in the country close to ports.

While working for a pre-shipping inspection company in the United Arab Emirates, Rajat Kapur, President of Cosmos Green, saw for himself how difficult, but important, it was to dispose of scrap, especially metal scrap, and decided to venture into this business.

His company, founded in the UAE in 2015, entered India in January this year, setting up three scrap processing yards in the NCR region.

The idea is to collect, process and recycle all kinds of metal scrap, both ferrous and non-ferrous, domestically, and supply to factories.

Kapur says, “We have already tied up with several companies, including Jindal Steel, Jai Bharat and several other aluminium factories for supply of recycled materials including ferrous, copper, aluminium, stainless steel and other items. These then get used in plants and replace mined materials.”

The market for metal recycling is huge and pegged at over $500 billion and some of the biggest plants globally too are dependent on recycled scrap.

“There is huge potential in India and we have just begun our journey by investing about $3 million and plan to raise and invest about $30 million by year-end as part of our long-term plan to invest $120 million,” he says.

One of the challenges recyclers face is the problem of segregating hazardous material, which can only be handled efficiently in an organised and well-established environment. Significantly, the metal recycling is mostly in the unorganised sector, he says.

“In order to address the huge market in India, we are planning to establish three warehouses-cum-processing centres by year-end. These will come up close to ports in Chennai, near Mumbai and in Gujarat and they will be operational by year-end.”

The company will be backed by blockchain technology and the entire supply chain will be 100 per cent transparent, providing traceability and authentication to end-users after recycling. One of the challenges for recyclers is to ensure that there is no radioactive material in the scrap, explains Kapur.

He says each of his company’s units in the NCR is spread across 50,000 sq ft, engages 100-200 trained employees and has a capacity to handle about 5,000 tonnes per month. It is planned to double the capacity in these units apart from setting up three new units with an investment of about $10 million.

Kapur puts things in perspective, disclosing that by recycling a metal can, we save energy consumed by a 60 watt bulb for four hours. So recycling is useful not only for saving precious natural resources but also energy. Only about 20 per cent of metal used is recycled, thereby wasting a significant amount of natural resource.

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