Recycling industry to be bigger than mining sector by 2050: Tata Steel MD T V Narendran

The recycling industry is set to be bigger than the mining industry by 2050, presenting a host of opportunities for companies, Tata Steel MD and CEO T V Narendran has said.

Narendran, while speaking at a session organised by the Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), as part of its ongoing platinum jubilee celebrations, said that for the last 100 years, mining has been very important and it will continue to be so, but recycling is becoming important, too.

"Going ahead, managing by-products, adding value from waste and recycling will become bigger and bigger... even Tata Steel is going into recycling because, we believe that by 2050, the recycling industry will become bigger than the mining industry," the top company official said on Tuesday evening.


Narendran also referred to the Tata Steel Industrial By-products Management Division (IBMD), which he said has a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore.

He said the recycling sector presents opportunities in the form of designing steel for recycling and making good steel out of recycled materials.

"Similarly, there are a lot of opportunities in what we call 'urban mining' - because India does not have many critical minerals, but it will consume a lot of electronics - how can we take the critical minerals out of the electronics? - so these are big and emerging industries," Narendran said.

He also highlighted how the digital medium has reduced the gap between big and small industries.

"Scale is no longer important, but customisation is. Many small companies are successful because of digitalisation," Narendran said.