Green Pathways for Mini Cement Plants: Towards Sustainable Manufacturing Practices

Abstract

Cement Industry is one of the largest industries of the world. It occupies a predominant position as a basic industry geared towards accelerating development and enhancing employment generation capacity of a region. Cement, as a basic construction commodity is extensively shaping the modern concrete environment, but it is dreadfully a massive source of carbon di-oxide to the atmosphere. The cement industry today accounts for 7 to 8 percent of global carbon emissions (IEA) and ranks next only to iron and steel industry to be the second largest industrial emitter in the world. It is therefore listed among the Red category of industries. However, the environmental impact of Mini Cement Plants (MCP) is not as gravely apprehensive as that of the large cement plants. The technology used by MCPs is appropriate to deal with the environmental exigencies of today and perfectly goes with the eco development approach of modern industrialization.

The paper aims to study the environmental responsiveness and sustainable development practices of mini cement plants of the Undivided Nagaon district (comprising of Nagaon and Hojai districts) of Assam with reference to the established norms of the government related to cement manufacturing. It adopts a structured approach to study the sustainable practices of the Mini Cement plants using available primary and secondary data sources.