Vehicle scrappage policy: Circular economy faces recycling scale hurdle

Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and Maruti Suzuki have partnerships for scrapping vehicles

Targeted to promote a circular economy, India’s vehicle scrapping policy has sought to incentivise owners to dispose of their 25-year-old commercial and 20-year-old private vehicles. But beyond that, handling the scale of vehicles that have already been scrapped because of new emission norms or will be rendered unfit in a test, will still be a challenge since organised scrapping facilities are limited, putting a question mark on environmentally safe disposal of vehicle’s metal and even battery scrap.

While launching the policy on Friday, which also found mention in his 75th Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country will