We recently participated in the Urban Innovation Summit held in Lucknow on July 27, 2019. The Summit saw a formidable representation of industry experts, government officials, and corporate houses who are working towards the cause of transforming Lucknow, and by replication, other cities in the country into smart and eco-friendly ones.
Topics discussed at the summit approached the issues of smart cities and urban transformation by digitization and also included a presentation of some progresses made towards the cause, such as the introduction of the CM helpline and the 311 Mobile App launched for the citizens of Lucknow Smart City Limited.
CFlo Vice-President and spokesperson Sanjay Singh, Associate Director - Engineering, CFlo, took to the stage to address an essential danger that faces urban life today and how we are relentlessly working towards sustainable solutions for waste management. His thought-provoking speech began by setting the context of the demands urban life places on the third most-used resource on earth – sand. He went on to illustrate that as we dream, promise and execute our urban expansion and progress plans with the widening of roads, building tunnels and constructing Metro Rails, we have become oblivious to the fact that we are slowing hitting the rock bottom in our use of the natural riverine sand. The increasing pressure of sand extractions is harming the ecology to such an extent that National Green Tribunal has banned sand mining in many states. He also cited illegal sand mining as one of the most heinous crimes possible in this scenario. The only probable solution to save environment and continue building livable cities is recycling Construction and Demolition Waste. Any construction work, be it building or demolishing buildings, metro rails, roads and so on create an average of 5-8% waste material that we unmindfully dump in places that in turn irreparably harm the environment – not understanding that this is a resource that can be recycled and reused as sand for further work. The need of the hour is to install an increasing number of C&D waste recycling plants with an ability to recycle C&D and landfill waste.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Government of India had issued a directive in 2016 stating that all city corporations must install at least one C&D plant. Sadly, not even a dozen plants have been installed till date.
This is where our tech comes in. We are one of the leading manufacturers of wet processing recycling equipment. It has been working for over a decade in providing pathbreaking solutions for the growing shortages in natural sand by solving the age-old problem of C&D waste disposal and offering novel techniques to recover useful construction material. Over the years, our patented technologies in the fields of construction, mining and waste management has redefined how we treat waste. CFlo is focused on transforming the urban construction landscape by recycling of Construction & Demolition Waste. As a note of hope, we have delivered over 450 plants globally, half a dozen plants in India and is treating 7500 tonnes of waste per hour. It has successful installations in UK, Germany, Australia, the United States, Israel, India, Norway, Sweden, Aruba, France and many more.
The very fact that countries like Singapore and Malaysia are actually importing C&D waste from other countries should make us aware of how significant a role C&D recycling will play in urban transformation, now and in the days to come.
CFlo expresses its deepest gratitude for being given the opportunity to share the dais with industry stalwarts invested in the cause of engineering smarter and sustainable living spaces of the future.
