How is Hindalco saving the environment?

While every business is maximising profits, here's one that is considerate of the environment. Read on.

For the uninitiated, Hindalco, owned by Aditya Birla Group, is the country’s largest aluminium and copper manufacturing company. It is also one of the world’s largest.

Aluminium manufacture involves the production of a lot of environment damaging waste and by-products – one of them being red-mud (a.k.a. bauxite residue).

“Globally, some 3 billion tons of red mud are now stored in massive waste ponds or dried mounds, making it one of the most abundant industrial wastes on the planet. Aluminium plants generate an additional 150 million tons each year.” – Sciencemag.org reported.

This is no joke. The red mud has killed people across various countries like Hungary, China and threatens entire villages and communities even in India.

To deal with this in a way that’s profitable for the company, Hindalco has found a use for this red mud. While this is not a novel idea and experiments are ongoing all around the world, the sheer volume that would be taken care of is what has surprised the world.

Hindalco plans to supply 2.5 million tonnes of red mud to cement manufacturers. That’s right, red mud can be used as a raw material in cement manufacturing.

Who will it sell this to? Well, another Aditya Birla Group company, UltraTech cement. 1.2 million tonnes of it. This way, the waste of one company becomes a low-cost raw material for another.

Hopefully, companies like Vedanta and Nalco will now see enough economic merit in dealing with this waste. Globally, the annual red mud generation is projected to surpass 250 million tonnes by 2030. The need is to find more innovative uses for the red mud, beyond cement and brick manufacture.

Source: Business Standard

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