Drivers for sustainable mining waste management – A mixed-method study on the Indian Mining Industry

Abstract

India's commitments at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCOP26) in Glasgow, UK, reflect that India is cautiously aggressive and dedicated to its role in climate change management and carbon emission reduction goals. Several policy refinements and realignments have been done to make the sustainable goals a reality. India highly depends on coal as a fossil fuel to satiate its immediate energy requirements. This dependency makes it imperative to look at the mining waste generation and management of the mining waste in the Indian Coal Mining Industry. This study, thus, adopts an empirico-analytical approach and analyses the critical factors for sustainable mining waste management in India. The inputs are obtained from mining practitioners and experts across the industry. Fuzzy DEMATEL identifies the critical drivers for sustainable mining waste management. Results reveal factors like pressure from affected communities and the political parties influencing the sustainable practices. The organizational factors are also the critical drivers, whereas the technical and regulatory factors are less significant. The study thus concludes that the prime focus should be on the socio-political, organizational, and financial factors while designing a sustainable mining waste management practice or policy in the Indian milieu.