Candida Moraes

The Tata Group recognised the need to protect and conserve the world's natural resources long before it became a mantra of modern business. See how Tata companies are recycling and utilising their waste in innovative ways

With the earth's resources being rapidly depleted and most of the world chanting go green, it is not surprising that business conglomerates are finally waking up to the need to conserve and recycle. However, the Tata Group recognised the relevance of environmentally friendly work process many years ago. All 93 Tata companies have, in some way, been following the proverb "waste not, want not", an endeavour that is today one of the driving themes behind their productivity curve.

Here's a look at four Tata companies that have undertaken recycling and resource conservation projects and successfully integrated these into their work processes in order to reduce the ecological impact of their business.

A war on waste: Tata Steel
Tata Steel has laid great emphasis, over the years, on creating a green environment in and around its plants and on utilising the waste generated in the process of manufacturing steel.

Shedding light on the company's efforts, R. P. Sharma chief (environment and occupational health) says: "Solid waste management over the years has been considered a business opportunity and efforts have been made to increase the reuse and recycling of solid wastes."

"This, we believe will help improve business performance in terms of reduction in energy consumption, reduction in raw material consumption, reduction in production cost that will result in overall improvement in the environmental performance of the organisation."

The company generates roughly 700kg of various wastes (excluding fly ash) in the process of producing one tonne of crude steel. Of this, 83.16 per cent is utilised either through recycling and reuse in the company's own processes or they are sold as raw material to other industries. The remaining waste is sent for safe land filling.

"We have estimated the cost benefit of our waste utilisation, and considering the type of waste and present utilisation practices the entire process comes to around Rs 1.3 crore for every one per cent of waste utilisation. Therefore, for the 83.16-per cent waste utilisation that was carried out in FY 2004-05, the company saved around Rs 108 crore," explains Mr Sharma.

There are roughly three types of waste that are left behind namely; blast furnace slag (BF), BF flue dust and BF Sludge, with LD slag, mill scale, fly and bottom ash from the power plants. BF slag is used in cement making, in the manufacture of slag wool, soil conditioner, aggregate manufacture and road construction.

As BF flue dust and BF sludge is not suitable for recycling within the process, a part of it is sold for low-value applications such as making briquettes for use as domestic fuel. Efforts have also been made to use LD slag as a soil conditioner in paddy fields, tea gardens, etc.

The coarse mill scale is completely recyclable and Tata Steel uses this in its blast furnaces and sinter plants. However, part of the mill sludge contains very high levels of oil and R&D trials have been conducted to remove the oil. The company expects to bridge the gap very soon on this front.

A number of companies today look to Tata Steel for guidelines on efficient waste management, and the company is confident that its 'war on waste' will have far-reaching effects.

Painting the town green: Tata Tea
One of Tata Tea's most successful CSR efforts has been in its project Aranya that trains and employs disabled youngsters to extract dyes from natural sources. The tea waste produces dyes in a unique shade of green that is used for various dying processes.

All the packing material scrap is returned to the vendors and items that are to be disposed are disposed in the dumps provided by the Bangalore Corporation. Wherever these facilities are not available, the material is disposed of through shredding under strict supervision.

The volume of packaging scrap disposed at a particular time is of a minuscule quantity and does not become a pollution concern. Though the plastic re-cycling industry in India is in a nascent stage, Tata Tea ensures the safe disposal of all plastic that is used.

All the tea waste is sent to the company's instant tea operations for extraction of soluble solids, which are put to use. The used tea waste from the instant tea operations of the company is either converted to vermicompost on the estates or made into briquettes to be used as fuel for the boilers. The process of vermicomposting that the company undertakes ensures a plant-to-soil cycle thereby helping to build essential soil fauna and flora as well as addind to the organic matter content of the soil for improved nutritional efficiency and uptake.

Clinical waste from the general / referral hospitals is disposed through incineration, disinfection, deep burial and shredding, in keeping with the prescribed manner of the pollution control board. This ensures that the waste does not damage the ecology of the region and is not in any way harmful to the population in the vicinity of the hospitals.

The 4 R's: Tata Chemicals
The growth of Tata Chemicals has always been guided by four principles — replace, reduce, reuse and recycle — in the field of energy, water and other natural resources like limestone. Today, the company stands as the nation's biggest inorganic chemicals complex, which is recognised in its class of business for water efficiency, energy efficiency and limestone conservation.

Tata Chemicals replaces the use of fresh water by seawater or treated seawater wherever possible to an extent of more than 90 per cent of the total water requirements of its operations. For the township in Mithapur, the water supply is reduced to a minimum requirement rate through various awareness campaigns and through the deployment of the environmental management system. The sewage water treatment plant treats the sewage generated by the township that is then reused for sanitary flush tanks.

The company's cement plant manages the waste from the soda ash plant. The company has also reclaimed saline and alkaline waste dumps by using fly ash as sediment. About 12.5 acres have been converted into a green belt and a further expansion of 10 acres is in progress. This time soda ash effluent solids are being used along with fly ash.

Giving back to the earth: Indian Hotels
Indian Hotels has developed a programme on minimisation of waste that is being implemented across all its hotels. "We have effectively reduced our guestroom and other wastage from 1.2 kg / guest / day to approximately 0.9 kg / guest / day, and our target is to meet the international benchmark of 0.6 kg / guest / day, which, however, does not include kitchen biodegradable wastage," explains the company's director of engineering services, K. D. Deodhar. The waste programme is divided into five groups and a strict watch is kept on how the waste is either disposed off or recycled.

Solid waste is in the form of paper, cardboard boxes, etc, or from the kitchens, housekeeping, engineering departments, or from the purchasing departments. What all the hotels strive to do is minimise the use of paper and stationary in their offices. The company also advocates the use of rewritable CDs and rechargeable cells as much as possible.

All waste from the kitchen, such as vegetable peels or waste from food preparation, is sent to be used as animal feed and the excess food from the restaurants is donated to various organisations. Supplies are usually bought in bulk; an effort is made to buy concentrated products to reduce packages. All organic waste is sent to the biogas plant or used for vermiculture or for composting. Old linen is reused as dusters and aprons. The hotels also try and avoid using plastic or polyethylene bags wherever possible.

Care is taken to minimise the waste generated from housekeeping like old torn linen, old magazines and packaging materials. Jute or cloth bags are used in place of plastic bags, empty plastic bottles are sent back to the supplier and bottles of half-used shampoo and soap pieces are used in cleaning floors, etc. All garden waste is used for composting, wet / dry garbage is collected separately and a record of the waste generated is maintained.

Scrap wood, metal and glass are disposed off in the recycler, spares of old equipment are used before scrapping, and care is taken to separate all non-recyclable and recyclable materials in different bins.

Wastewater chemicals, used oils from air compressors, ACs, transformers, etc, are some of the liquid wastes that are generated on a day-to-day basis. The company treats the wastewater and uses it for cooling towers and gardening, among other things. Used oils are disposed off only to authorised dealers. Wherever possible, water is recycled and slurry from the wastewater plant is dried and used in the generation of manure. The company also tries to minimise gaseous wastes like exhaust from boilers, kitchen hoods, laundry machines, etc.

Keeping in mind the importance of energy conservation, the company has several built-in programmes. The company monitors measurement systems and has installed energy efficient machinery when old machines are replaced. It also uses various innovative methods, such as separate off-line filters for cooling tower circuits, to reduce the frequent cleaning of condenser coils.

All in all, the company is constantly looking for and devising new processes that will cut down on waste and ensure recycling wherever possible.

The companies do admit that several challenges still remain in the complete utilisation of solid waste but they continue to stand committed to the recycling effort exploring innovative new ways to reduce their ecological footprint.

Uploaded in May 3, 2006