By enabling true material recovery and reuse, chemical recycling supports the principles of a circular economy and aligns closely with global sustainability goals. This shift marks not just a technological breakthrough, but a fundamental rethinking of how industries manage waste, resources, and environmental responsibility.

Leading industry experts discussed the latest scenario at the eighth session, 'Waste Management: Chemical Recycling, Circular Economy, and Sustainability’ at the maiden edition of Chem & Petchem Conference 2025 organized by the Indian Chemical News on May 07-10, 2025 at Baruch in Gujarat.

The session was moderated by Pravin Prashant, Editor, Indian Chemical News.

Experts Speak

Dr Mritunjay Chaubey, Global Vice President – Environment & Sustainability, UPL

“We must set clear targets and communicate them effectively. Unless and until our operating units don’t understand these targets, it is not possible to achieve them. At UPL we have adopted a top to bottom approach. We have given a clear message to all our 41 operating plants across India and globally to reduce the carbon emission by 25%, waste reduction by 25% and water reduction by 20%. We have overachieved our targets in 2025 itself, achieving 36% carbon reduction, 47% water reduction and 51% waste reduction. In terms of best practices, our focus is on operational excellence and we have also shifted to renewable energy and biomass. We are focusing on reducing water consumption in cooling towers through the latest technology and we have managed to get significant results. In terms of policies, we have sought certain government intervention who is required to push sustainability. Rule 9 considers all the waste material as hazardous and it needs to be coordinated with the State Pollution Control Board and Central Pollution Control Board for approvals. The lack of timely streamlining is keeping the files pending and a lot of companies are waiting for clearances to recycle their waste material. After a lot of discussions, the environment ministry has agreed to increase the limit to 1000 ppm COD for chemical industry towards the deep sea discharge in line with what is allowed globally, including USA. Because of market needs, we need to change the product mix but the documentations take a lot of unnecessary time.”

Dr Sharad Potghan, Vice President - Works, Aquapharm Chemicals

“Water is a major source for all the major industries and its deterioration is also a major factor with respect to the environment. At our company, we are working on technologies to minimize the use of water and ways to recycle the water. We are developing speciality chemicals that can remove the water from sludge in the chemical industry. The laundry chemicals and detergents used for cleaning eventually end up in water sources and we are trying to come up with biodegradable solutions. Similarly, in the case of surfactants used in paints, we are using green chemistry to come up with better options. While we have to match the global standards such as COD and discharge limits, we have not been able to live up to the standards in terms of using the technologies. Besides the policy interventions, we should have control with industry including the waste water reduction, we have technologies that are at par but we are failing at disposal as the charges are very high, leading to increase in the product cost. As a result we can’t compete globally. Comparatively, China is dumping because their product costs are too low. They have a centralisation and minimization of waste with separate units even for utility. As a solution, we too can have joint ventures and collaborations to create joint facilities.” 

Bhupendra Dalwadi, Chief Executive Officer, BEIL Infrastructure 

“Having started our facility in 1996, there were no rules or standards for hazardous chemicals. We visited abroad to learn the good practices and developed a landfill facility long back. We developed our own standards and collected one lakh metric tonnes of hazardous waste in the entire Baruch and were well appreciated for that. By 2000, the standards were announced but we have been doing much more beyond the regular compliances. We were the first facility to get ISO1400 for this facility. With innovative ideas, we have utilised the land to the best possible way, making 50 lakh metric tonnes of waste. In terms of challenges, the industry has to change the mindset and accept that there is moisture content beyond 15% and there is no filtration. We are getting slurry instead of dry waste and we have to convert it before dumping it in the landfill. The cost considerations are fine but there should be no short cuts while compiling the rules. Instead of focusing just on cost, we must strictly adhere to the standards if we have to really achieve sustainability and compete globally. While we also have the incineration process, the cost of maintaining an incinerator is more than Rs 2 crore annually and there is a lot of fuel required during conversion if the moisture content is more in the waste.” 

Shankar Karhale, Environment & Sustainability Head, Aarti Industries 

“At Aarti Industries, we are focused on specialty chemicals which have around 50% waste generation as compared to other segments where it is just 10%. Therefore, maintaining good practices is a huge challenge. In manufacturing we are focusing on the conversation part i.e how raw material is getting converted from 95% to 100%. It includes yield improvements and recovery improvements that focus on source reduction which is better than cost reduction, productivity improvement, water and energy conservation. Any environmental footprint reduction required all sorts of engineers, be it chemical, mechanical or electrical, a combination of all. We have used it effectively to reduce at the source.

Many industries don’t monitor waste characteristics so as to identify the waste ingredients that are not readily recyclable. Another important thing is the waste minimization by converting waste into valuable products like. We generate 10 lakh metric tonnes of waste and through various ways we have achieved 3.5 lakh metric tonnes of waste into valuable products. We are converting 300 metric tonnes of HCL per day to produce calcium chloride and exporting it as well.  We are converting  200 metric tonnes of sulphuric acid into a single super phosphate, a fertilizer that has high demand. We are also giving the by-products from waste as a raw material to many industries.” 

Mitesh Marvaniya, Head - EHSQ, Perstorp Industries

“Our home is a good platform to learn the best practices where we consciously re-use a lot of things for waste reduction and also to save the costs. That inspiration has to trickle down to our business as well. In our company we have a saying that a single molecule can change everyone, best example being H2O and H2O2. At the time of inception, we used a lot of best practices for construction and at peak time we had 1900 workers for us and we acquired the land near our facility for the labourers to live and also do the fabrication and other things to save the transportation cost. We initially identified 18 affluent streams and got it analysed to realise that only 4 streams have a high load of waste. We recycled these back to our facility to create valuable products. One of the Swedish plants is running with 100% municipality water. We are coming up with our prestigious project called Project Air approved by EU’s regulatory where we convert CO2 to produce methanol. We have also partnered with Balaji Formaldehyde to set up a unit near our facility as 70% of products need formaldehyde as a raw material. 25 metric tonnes of formaldehyde that we require annually is reaching us through a pipeline without any major transportation cost.” 

Shakunt Patel, Sales & Marketing Manage, Bicar & Solvair - India & Subcontinent 

“We are into the Soda Ash manufacturing process and through this process, we also have sodium bicarbonate manufacturing. Through the last many decades we have been providing the dry sorbent injection system for socks HCL and HF control. We have more than 5000 installations globally with 2000 installations only in the USA for different applications. These include sludge incineration as well as coal based boiler waste to energy projects. In India we are installing the system at Kandla mostly by October or November 2025. The technology is well known and proven world over but most of the industries have taken our proposals with no visible action. While we are targeting invisible enemies such as air, water and soil pollution, we must use real time data. Many leading companies say they are doing the best but dumping means emitting and omitting into nature. We must instead look at an effective solution for the sake of our future generations. Our dry sorbent injection system should be looked at in a holistic manner and not merely from a cost consideration point of view. This technology doesn’t require water and there is no generation of hazardous waste such as gypsum. We are also providing an emission control system for waste to energy and we need to visit the facility to do that. In general, we are providing dry technology for any type of waste conversion.” 

Ashok K. Kekunnaya, Head - Environment, Health & Safety, Gujarat Insecticides 

“We are not killing the insects any longer but rather giving them protection. The fear factor is gone and there is more awareness. With every passing decade, we come up with better operations and products. Kaizen is one tool that we are adopting in R&D and at every level, and we have been receiving a lot of appreciation. Rather than getting pressurised from the regulatory compliances and fear of government action, we believe in self-improvement and adherence. Conducive environment increases the chances of better results and sustainability must be taken as a challenge. The need to build awareness initiatives to change the mindset and create a bigger value for the chemical industry.  Solutions have to come from every segment of this sector and other sectors as well. It is a collective action with regulatory bodies to play an important role but as an industry, we have to be creative, optimistic, knowledgeable and updated.”

The Chem & Petchem Conference 2025 themed 'Viksit Gujarat: Visit Bharat@2047’ witnessed massive attendance by leading industry experts and stakeholders across Gujarat and India. The 12 sessions at the two day event were attended by a total of 76 speakers and more than 600 delegates.

The conference was supported by Academia partner - Somaiya Vidyavihar University; Platinum partners -- PremierTech Systems & Automation, ABB India, and Netradyne; Gold partners - Tvarit GmbH (Germany), SNF Flopam India, Alleima India, AMETEK Land Instruments International, BEIL, UPL University of Sustainable Technology, Forbes Marshall, Utthunga Technology, Syinfotech, Servilink Systems, Graphite India, Thermax, Gem Machinery & Allied Industries and Thermax; Associate partners - Diyani Automation, Flaminia Ecarb India, LAPP India, Goodrich Gasket, and GD Waldner; Industry Association partners - Gujarat Chemical Association (GCA), Jhagadia Industries Association (JIA), Dahej Industries Association (DIA) and Alkali Manufacturers Association of India (AMAI).