All future Maruti cars to be 95% recoverable & 85% recyclable

India’s leading auto manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., has announced on Monday that it has started controlling its use of substances of concern (SoC) like lead and mercury in its mass production vehicles. The company expects to meet international norms and quantify recoverable and recyclable materials in its vehicles with the implementation of International Material Data System. IMDS will enable the company to quantify recoverable and recyclable materials in its mass produced vehicles. According to the company, the new WagonR would be 95% recoverable and 85% recyclable. Also, soon all the cars by the company will be 95% recoverable and 85% recyclable.

Commenting on the initiative, Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kenichi Ayukawa said.

Maruti Suzuki is always concerned about the environment. We are taking a pro-active step and voluntarily putting in place a global mechanism for controlling hazardous substances in our vehicles. With the implementation of globally accepted IMDS system, Maruti Suzuki will be ready to comply with ELV regulations when it is launched in India.

The usage and implementation of the International Material Data System (IMDS) means that data related to materials used in vehicle manufacturing process can be collected, maintained, analysed and archived for further reference. It enables in meeting the End of Life Vehicles (ELV) obligations placed on automobile manufacturers by national and international standards, laws and regulations. This new system has already been implemented on the manufacturing process of the brand new Wagon R, and as said earlier, the future models from Maruti will also be made using the same process.

The End of Life Vehicles (ELV) obligations set by national and international regulations limit the use of lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury and cadmium, among other and promote recycling and recovery of materials used in manufacturing. Maruti Suzuki also said that it is working closely with its vendor partners to establish an efficient substances of concern (SoC) management system as well. This marks a new initiative by any company in India for manufacturing process. With this, the end material pollution would be curbed leading to a better ecosystem.

It is a common misconception that vehicular pollution only relates to the harmful emission given out by cars. In fact, when a car completes its life cycle and is dumped, it becomes a part of the wasteland and becomes an addition on the already high pollution level. The residual material management is one of the biggest issue for all the manufactured products and Maruti has put a step forward to help control this. We expect other manufacturers to follow the suit and adopt any similar policy in the manufacturing of its vehicles. After all, a piece of junk which is unused and is dumped is also treated as waste and adds to the pollution on our planet.