There are three different types of competitive advantages that companies can actually tap - cost, product/service differentiation, and niche strategies. While the cost competitive advantage can be highly successfully employed, it has its own challenges.

The initial trend in cement industries started with utilisation of easy to use alternative fuels (AF) materials like biomass, segregated non-recyclable plastic waste, etc.

Indian cement industry has been innovative and has adopted state-of-the-art technologies in areas such as resource conservation, environmental protection, energy conservation, waste utilisation, low carbon technologies, and so on.

India today collects close to 1,00,000 tonnes of waste per day (the generation is higher and so we see the waste everywhere). And as we urbanise, this problem will only dramatically increase.

Though the Indian cement industry has achieved excellence in energy efficiency, AFR (alternative fuel and raw material) usage still remains an area where much more can be done.

Generation of municipal solid waste (MSW), also called urban solid waste, includes predominantly household waste (domestic waste) with sometimes the addition of commercial waste, construction and demolition debris, sanitation residue, and waste from streets collected by a municipality within a given area.

Management and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) has caught up speed in last two years, after Prime Minister’s office underlined its need under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This initiative is considered as India’s biggest drive ever and is being encouraged and promoted by eminent people with support from all strata of society.

For many cement companies in India, AFR represents an important business opportunity because it reduces fuel costs and CO2 emissions. By dealing safely with wastes that are often difficult to dispose of in any other way, cement manufacturers are able to provide an important service to society.

Since its inception, Vicat’s focus has been on utilisation of alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) in its cement plants. Started with a thermal substitution rate (TSR) of around 5 per cent in 2012, Milind Murumkar, Advisor – AFR, Vicat India Group, says that the company has reached to a level of 20 per cent in the last five years.