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The enormous recycling operation in Dharavi is well known for collecting everything from glass and paper to aluminium, paints, tins and plastics. 4,000 tonnes of waste gets processed every day, which generates USD 72 million a year[1] and employs around 250,000 people.[2] These statistics have earned the industry the label of ‘Dharavi’s recycling miracle’.

However, headlines like this fail to take Dharavi’s recycling workers seriously, missing both the problems and potential in the sector.

Take, for instance, an international comparison. The UK-based firm AWS Eco Plastics has a turnover projected to rise to USD 65 million by the end of the year, which is roughly equal to the entire recycling operation in Dharavi.[3] And AWS is a medium sized firm that specializes in one field. The large Austrian company Altstoff Recycling has a turnover nearly three times the size at USD 200 million.[4]

Workers in Dharavi currently miss out on the most lucrative parts of the recycling process. Warehouse factories are too small, too ill equipped and too dangerous to process large quantities of materials. What is produced gets sold back to manufacturers, but this means that the high value in remanufacturing gets transferred elsewhere.

So what would it take to put the recycling industry in Dharavi on an international footing?

Certainly, some capital investment would be needed. The concrete tubs where aluminium gets melted down would have to become factories with industrial scale equipment. The army of informal workers picking-up waste would have to grow into an infrastructure that could safely collect large quantities of recyclable materials from an area extending beyond Mumbai.

Alongside this, workers would need training, not just to use better processes and equipment, but also to restore and remanufacture high value goods. The potential for growth is enormous if hardrives could replace tin cans as a staple Dharavi product.

Indeed, remanufacturing is becoming big business, especially for electrical equipment and industrial components like compressors. In the US it constitutes around 75% of the total recycling industry with a revenue of USD 180 billion.[5] This work is twice as labour intensive as conventional manufacturing, and demands higher levels of job skills. To provide a quality labour force, vocational schemes specific to the remanufacturing industry would need to be developed.

People working at the highest level would also be required. Management roles would be created by large flows of materials and goods, in the organisation of a highly skilled workforce, and through sales in international markets. There are implications for the education system here. Universities would need to offer courses that target top positions in the recycling and remanufacturing industries.

The structural adjustments involved in really committing to green industries, like recycling in Dharavi, are expensive, but there is an economic incentive to make them. The ILO has pointed to figures from the Bureau of International Recycling and the US, which have registered turnovers of USD 160 billion and USD 236 billion annually.[6] This is in the context of a global market for Low Carbon and Environmental Goods & Services projected to grow from USD 5 trillion to USD 7.25 trillion in the next 5 years.[7]

But these investments also have the potential to improve the quality of life for workers and their families. The Indian Express has recently reported on the effects of the downturn in Dharavi, where some businesses have seen a fall in demand of 50%.[8] Developing human capital and infrastructure in deprived areas is a way of helping poor people become more resilient to shocks that are beyond their control.


- Richard Strauss



[1] ‘Special Economic Zone’ Down to Earth Vol: 16 Issue 20071130 (November 2007)

[2] ‘Waste not, want not in the £700m slum’ Guardian (March 2007)

[3] ‘Focus on: Recycling’ Telegraph (December 2008) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/business/businesstruth/focus_on/3567616/Focus-on-Recycling.html

[4] http://www.ara.at/index.php?id=139

[5] ILO, Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world, (2008)

[6] ILO, Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world, (2008)

[7] BERR, Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services: an industry analysis, (2009)

[8] ‘Downturn in Dharavi’ Indian Express (March, 2009)

1 comments:

I think recycling is a great alternative to save our planet or decrease the pollution. I think this problem still have a sollution, just depend of us. We need to think about our vehaviour and make a change and start to make the difference.

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