Scrap merchants tap recycling potential

He explains how, like any other modern business, his is a specialised trade with distinct needs. quot;Scrap is our raw material and we provide livelihood to a large labour force. My role is to manage the operation. Although, I am not highly educated and came into this business by chance, my sons, who are graduates and could find other jobs, see that I have created a profitable and growing business and they are joining me,quot; he boasts.

Every day more than 18 trucks laden with more than 500 tons of scrap roll out of the city bound for recycling units in Himachal, Punjab and Haryana. The scrap merchants preside over a far-flung network that extends from about 30 quot;scrap kingsquot; to thousands of small kabadis in different pockets of the city, who are linked with pheri-wallahs on contract basis. Squads of rag-pickers, mostly from Rajasthan, UP or Bihar, also contribute substantially to small scrap-dealers8217; business.

Scrap-wholesalers in Industrial Area, Ram Darbar, Burail, Manimajra, Darua and other labour colonies in and around the city number about 200. They deal in all sorts of scrap including metal, lumber and packing crates, paperboards, plastic, rubber, polythene and bottles. Their labourers sort the daily intake according to type of material and estimated value.

quot;Accurate assessment of items is one factor that decides profits. Only an experienced person can do this job,quot; explains Rajesh, who left his college studies midway to take over the business. Rajesh supplies all sorts of scrap quot;but mainly ironquot; to factories in Nalagarh and Mandi Gobindgarh. quot;A scrap unit needs a capital investment of about Rs 3 lakh. Less than that and the unit is not viable,quot; he says.

Per day profits are decided by the market fluctuation for the fresh raw material: quot;The costlier the fresh raw material, the greater is the demand for scrap for recycling,quot; says Rajesh. He reveals that even on the lower side, monthly profit margins from newspapers alone may be more than twice the salary of a first class officer.

Most Chandigarh scrap dealers are Income Tax assessees, pay sales tax, have permanent establishments for business and own recycling factories outside the city.

Currently, the market does not favour small dealers in polythene. quot;The Central Government notification banning use of coloured polybags has crippled us. Very few units take them for recycling now,quot; grumbles Ram Asre of Bihar, who is based in Ram Darbar.

At the bottom rung of the kabad trade are the rag-pickers who earn around Rs 12 for a day roaming from street to street gleaning anything of value from the garbage of homes and shops. They too are surprisingly well organised as a visit to one of their main addas along Dakshin Marg in Sector 35-A reveals. It8217;s another matter that they turn the area into an eyesore in the process of sorting their daily take prior to sale. Some of the larger kabadis also conduct their business without a proper premises.

But, while the kabadis can be accused of fouling their immediate areas, in a larger sense they all deserve credit for keeping the city clean. Were it not for the kabadis 8212; including the urchins dragging their boris full of plastic and paper, the city would have sunk under a mountain of garbage years ago.