MSTI: Where a scrapped vehicle is laid to rest and recycled

If your old personal petrol vehicles have lived their complete lives of 15 years or your diesel vehicles have done ten years in Delhi NCR, then you have no choice but to scrap it.  But if you have managed to sell your vehicles before their end of lives to places outside Delhi NCR where one can extend the registration after an automated fitness test, then it’s a different story. But in this video we are not getting into the nitty gritties of the scrapping policy per se, rather we are going to tell you about the scrapping and recycling processes. 

A few years back, scrapping a vehicle was undertaken primarily in the unorganised sector all over the country. For example, Delhi’s Mayapuri area was one such place where vehicles of all kinds were stripped, cut and recycled. The business employed hundreds and thousands of workers who were greatly talented no doubt but paid little or no heed to disposing of vehicle parts in an eco friendly, safe and hygienic manner. Oil, gas, metal, plastic etc that were part of any scrapped vehicle were dangerously handled and disposed of, causing great harm to the environment and to the people handling it. The entire scrappage business was considered shady and unethical to a great extent.

But all that changed when the government clamped down on the unorganised sector. But even today people trust their local mechanics when it comes to scrapping their end of life vehicles.

Let’s assume your vehicle has reached its end of life. Rather than dumping it in front of your house and thereby contributing to the environmental mess, or giving it off to a local mechanic, it’s best you approach some of the established government of India approved End of Life Vehicle (ELV) scrapping and recycling units.

Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India Private Limited (MSTI) was established on 22nd October 2019. MSTI is setting up one more facility in Gujarat and will set up more such facilities across the country later.

The 10,993 sq m facility has a capacity to scrap and recycle over 24,000 End of Life vehicles or ELVs annually. Built with an investment of over Rs 44 crore, the facility uses modern and technologically advanced machines to dismantle and scrap ELVs in a scientific manner.

Let’s begin by the procedure one needs to recycle an ELV. Dealerships and individuals keen to dispose of their ELVs can check into the company’s website www.msti.co.in or call a dedicated call centre number 1800 419 3530.

The vehicle is transferred to the MSTI campus where the initial documentation and inspection of vehicle is done. It’s checked for radioactive material, post which the process of pre-treatment and de-pollution begins wherein any toxic gas is removed, oil is drained out, the innards including the seats, tyres, batteries etc are taken out. The dismantling of the vehicle is done as per international best practices. The scrap gathered is segregated and stored outside.

The entire process ends with the ELV shell being compressed into a bale for easy storage and transportation. MSTI officials claimed the company recycles as much as 98pc of the ELV. While the compressed steel shell is sent to steel mills and smelters by the company directly, the rest of the parts are sold to those government approved outlets dealing with the scrapped parts.

MSTI hopes that ELVs are routed through the company where everything is handled professionally, from purchase to dismantling and recycling of the vehicle. The company has disposed of around 120 vehicles to date where vehicle owners have been paid anywhere between Rs 25000 to Rs 80,000 for their scrapped vehicle. It’s time for every responsible Indian to approach institutions like MSTI when it comes to scraping their ELVs.