There is a need to streamline the classification for steel recycling set by the Bureau of Indian Standards and align them with the international norms.
“There is a need to review and revise the BIS scrap code and encourage the domestic scrap trade to comply with the same,” Tata Steel said in a presentation to Niti Aayog made during the international conference On ‘Sustainable Growth Through Recycling: Policy Prescriptions’.
The presentation said that international scrap trade is based on the ISRI (Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries). “Accordingly, India too uses ISRI code for international trade. This code is revised annually and the last update was in 2018,” Tata Steel said.
But domestic trade is based on the local classification or codes of different countries.
“In India, BIS classification and code are available but not prevalent in use. The code was formulated in 1994 and there have been minor amendments thereafter. The domestic market is mostly un-organised and uses informal nomenclature adapted to regional/local availability of scrap,” the presentation noted.
The presentation was made by Yogesh Bedi, Chief – Steel Recycling Business, Tata Steel. In the presentation, Bedi noted that under the current BIS classification, “Many scrap classifications are missing during the current code. The existing code is not comprehensive with respect to dimensions, chemical compositions, etc. Examples of scrap material in a particular category are not provided and the ISRI code is not provided for co-relations and cross reference.”
“The sampling and testing procedure is not specified,” Bedi added.