It is estimated that India’s transition to a circular economy path will generate an annual value of Rs14 lakh crores by 2030 and Rs40 lakh crores by 2050
The urban population currently produces approximately 55 million metric tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) per year, which includes organic waste and recyclables like paper, plastic, and more. It is estimated that these numbers will skyrocket to 125 million metric tonnes per year by 2031. Furthermore, only 75–80 percent of the generated MSW gets collected, and only 22–28 percent of this waste is processed, while the rest is dumped at dump yards and landfills.
The waste that is dumped in landfills and open dump yards leaches into the ground and contaminates nearby water bodies, causing land and water pollution and ultimately reaching the food chain, posing a threat to the health and well-being of people.
Urban waste management is one of the most challenging and urgent issues that world is facing today. The prevalent ‘produce-use-waste’ linear economic system of production is no longer feasible and highly unsustainable. A way out of this is the circular economy, that aims to minimise waste while maximising product utilisation through reuse, recycling, repair, and remanufacturing.
Though in India we have always had a culture of recycling, the growing population, economic growth, climate change, and rising environmental pollution have made the adoption of a circular economy more imperative now than ever before.
According to reports, it is estimated that India’s transition to a circular economy path will generate an annual value of Rs 14 lakh crores by 2030 and Rs 40 lakh crores by 2050. Successful implementation of a circular economy in India would require a supporting ecosystem that promotes the identification and adoption of new business models.
Today, digital transformations increasingly focus on introducing new technologies to accelerate key processes. However, the ability to discover, develop, and deploy a product virtually before moving on to the physical one holds far-reaching promise. The use of virtual twins in manufacturing is emerging as one of the greatest and most promising innovations of the digital age.
Not only can virtual twins leverage the advancements made in machine learning (ML), analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), virtual twins can play a significant role in saving the planet by reducing carbon footprint, empowering a circular economy, and contributing in the major advancements in sustainability.
Designing the waste
Achieving the UN Global Goals by 2030 will require radical transformation as to how products and services are managed over their entire lifecycle, from design to use and end-of-life. Product design has a crucial role to play in reducing the impact of the products on the environment. It is easy to fix something that has been designed to be fixable.
However, in some scenarios, such as in the case of fast-moving consumer goods, lower production cost prioritisation is shifting the focus of the organisation, and overlooking agile manufacturing practises is leading to poor disassembly options. While industrial transformations have facilitated speed-to-market, they have also contributed to the growing manufacturing waste worldwide.
Manufacturers must focus more on making their products more circular while reimagining product design and making parts easier to recycle, dismantle, or upgrade.
Prioritising disassembly will help in the significant reduction of waste, repurpose materials, and ultimately decarbonise the value chain. Circular economy requires organisations to rethink the business to not only build value into manufacturing products but also in recycling the products. Today, ‘designing the waste’ or designing for disassembly is a far bigger challenge than designing for assembly.
Simulation, virtual twins, and other digital technologies are helping manufacturers design disassembly processes right from the early stages of product development.
Virtual twins: Reimagining future
Virtual twins can help a range of industries revolutionise operations and eventually reinvent core business. As per a study, the construction industry could witness a $288 billion reduction in building operating costs by using proven and commercially available virtual twin technologies. Similarly, by simulating production processes, pharmaceutical companies can see a $106 billion reduction in cost of goods sold through lower operating expenses and a 61 Mt CO2 reduction in production GHG emissions.
Also, the consumer packaged goods industry can see a $131 billion reduction in raw material usage costs and a $6 billion reduction in product development costs. Virtual twin technology has the potential to unlock $1.3 trillion in economic value and eliminate around 7.5 gigatons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.
Virtual twins are 3D representations of physical objects that help users visualise, model, and simulate the entire environment in real-time. The technology focuses on a new way of approaching sustainability through design. It enables the seamless integration of sustainability objectives at the beginning of the product lifecycle, as this is where overall environmental impact and product costs are ascertained.
Virtual prototyping allows for faster design iterations and minimises the need for physical tests, driving significant environmental and cost benefits in the long run.
Enhancing the sustainability of a process begins by quantifying and measuring key indicators, for instance the amount of CO2 emitted. Virtual twin technology can help automate the process of monitoring and measuring the carbon footprint of a manufactured product by taking into account the end-to-end supply chain. It can help improve manufacturing quality and control, thereby driving more efficient use and recovery of resources across a product life cycle.
From innovating a product to planning production and manufacturing it—all the way to repairing and disassembly—virtual twins offer greater scope to do more with fewer resources.
Role of additive manufacturing
Additive manufacturing is the process of building products one layer at a time. One of the most widely known forms of additive manufacturing is 3D printing. Additive manufacturing leverages computer-controlled machinery and CAD software.
It follows the programme to develop the intended product design by adding material. 3D printing eliminates the use of excess materials and therefore prevents unnecessary waste from the beginning of the production process. The ability to work with generative design also plays an incremental role in part optimisation and is one of the main advantages of 3D printing as compared to traditional manufacturing methods.
Furthermore, 3D printing facilitates on-demand manufacturing, which not only saves time but also does away with the need to have long transport routes and storage space, consequently minimising the CO2 footprint. Additive manufacturing is more superior in terms of customization. Since 3D printing doesn't have cost and time demands pertaining to tooling requirements of CNC machines, engineers can easily tailor 3D-printed components for highly specialised applications in industries such as aerospace, healthcare, automotive, and more.
Plastic circularity
The demand for plastics has quadrupled over the last three decades. With the rising global population, improving economic conditions, and technological advancement, the volume of plastic waste is expected to continue to expand at a phenomenal rate. As per reports, only 9 percent of plastic waste is recycled, 19 percent is incinerated, 50 percent ends up in landfills, and as much as 22 percent eludes waste management systems and lands into unmanaged dumpsites, burns in the open, or ends up in water bodies.
Around two-thirds of plastic waste generated today has a lifespan of under five years, with 40 percent attributed to packaging, 12 percent to consumer goods, and another 11 percent to the clothing and textile industry. The majority of the plastics used today are non-biodegradable in nature; therefore, creating a circular economy for plastics is a crucial step towards eliminating pollution as it can significantly minimise both litter and single-use plastic production.
The smart use of virtual twin technology is also crucial to new material research that can help reduce as well eliminate plastic from value chain with more sustainable alternatives.
The bottom line
Rapid digitalization and access to better data present manufacturers with an opportunity to develop manufacturing processes that are less resource intensive, have low environmental impact, and are more flexible to adapt to changing designs and resource streams.
With a burgeoning population when the amount of waste per capita is on the rise and resources are becoming scarcer, design for disassembly is a sustainable practise that offers several benefits, such as prolonged product life, reduced costs, enhanced brand reputation, and customer loyalty.
Achieving resource and cost efficiency through this approach can seem challenging in the beginning for most manufacturers; however, with the right technology, it is possible to get sufficient visibility into operations and make informed decisions to reap the maximum benefits of a circular economy.
(Deepak NG, MD, Dassault Systemes India.)