GCCI Environment Committee organized Conference on “Waste to Product” on January 02, 2014 in reference to the concept of “Waste as Resource” which can bring pollution elimination and sustainable development of environment. Stakeholders from industry (steel rolling mills and textile), regulators, researchers and academia were present in the meeting.
In his welcome address, Shri Shankerbhai Patel, President GCCI, mentioned that “Waste to Product” is highly relevant for the industries of Gujarat since Gujarat is the hub of manufacturing sector in India and has been constantly under the radar of pollution control. Shri Shailesh Patwari, Chairman, GCCI Environment Committee highlighted in his theme address that “Waste to Product” is a win-win situation since through this, industry can eliminate waste from nature, produce other products of economic benefits and at the same time meet environmental compliance.
Sustainable Business & Climate Change Group from CEE presented the findings of their research on brick making from the ETP sludge of steel rolling mills. Shri J.K. Vyas, Sr. Environment Engineer, Hazardous Unit, GPCB and Shri A. A. Dolti, Regional Officer, GPCB (Ahmedabad Office) explained the participants about the regulatory requirements in commercializing brick making from ETP sludge. GPCB officers assured their full co-operation and regulatory support to the industry in their endeavor for conversion of waste to product and also suggested CETPs to set-up pre-processing facility for treating hazardous waste at their site, so that the toxicity of waste could be diluted at preliminary stage itself. Shri Prashant Pandya, Dy. Director, Solid Waste Management, AMC stated that solid waste management is also one of the critical aspects since land being a scarce resource, other options for disposing solid waste needs to be explored apart from dumping the solid waste at landfill sites.
In the interactive session, it was decided to set up Environment Help Desk at GCCI with support from GPCB, CETPs and industry. The conference concluded with Vote of Thanks by Shri Bimal Parikh, Hon. Sec. GCCI.
