India: Fire and Emergency Services personnel have been battling a fire at Vasavadatta Cement Factory in Sedam, Karnataka, since 12 April 2025. The blaze started in an open alternative fuel storage facility comprising mainly post-consumer plastic. It continued late into Tuesday 16 April 2025 local time and is thought to be still be in progress.

The District Fire Officer said that six engines from the Fire and Emergency Services Department and the cement plant’s private fire-fighting equipment was being staffed around the clock to handle the situation,. He added that the fire was caused by over-stocking the store and a failure to take basic fire precautions.

Panama: Cemex and the Panamanian Authority of Aquatic Resources (ARAP), with Audubon Americas as a facilitating partner, are working together to dispose of discarded fishing nets. Cemex plans to collect fishing nets via Regenera, its waste management business, and then use them as an alternative fuel at its cement plants. The initiative is intended to reduce the damage to marine ecosystems by so-called ‘ghost’ nets that kill animals such as fish, crustaceans, sea turtles, sharks and whales in the Gulf of Panama.

Indonesia: A refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant in Rorotan, North Jakarta has been shut down temporally due to air pollution. The unit was reportedly emitting “foul-smelling smoke” during a test run in February 2025, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper. The incident led to a protest by local residents demanding that the site be closed. Asep Kuswanto, the head of the Jakarta Environment Agency, said that the closure was required to allow the contractor to install deodorisers and filters. The agency will also be installing air quality monitoring equipment in homes within a 4 – 5km radius of the site. The plant has blamed the issue on the plant’s odour control system not working properly during testing.

The US$74m Rorotan RDF plant was set to start full operation in mid-March 2025. It is designed to process about one-third of the city’s 8000t/day municipal waste. Currently, this waste is being sent to a landfill site. RDF from the plant is planned to go to cement and power plants.

India: Swachha Andhra Co. chair K Pattabhiram and Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board chair P Krishnaiah said cement manufacturers must use refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in kilns as per the Solid Waste Management rules issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2018. The regulation requires a minimum RDF usage of 15% to reduce coal consumption in cement production.

Pattabhiram said 7000t of waste is generated daily from 123 urban local bodies, and stressed the need for daily processing to eliminate dumping yards. He urged cement plants within 400km of municipalities to comply. Krishnaiah added that a joint technical committee would be formed to assist cement producers in implementing the rule.