e-waste disposal project yet to take off

Though the International Finance Corporation announced a joint venture for setting up e-waste collection centres in Hyderabad for responsible recycling of the solid wastes, there has been no progress so far

Technicians dismantle electronic waste. File Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

An ambitious plan to set up collection centres for depositing the electronic wastes appears to have hit a road block.

Five months after the World Bank arm International Finance Corporation has announced a joint venture for setting up e-waste collection centres in the city for responsible recycling of the solid wastes that are turning out to be a major environmental concern, there has been no progress in the project so far. Hyderabad along with Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, where generation of e-wastes is perceived to be more, have been selected under the Clean India initiative jointly launched by the IFC and Attero Recycling, one of the first entrants into the e-waste disposal segment.

Project details

The project follows a World Bank funded initiative of the AP Pollution Control Board envisaging inventorisation of e-waste generation. It involves setting up of collection centres at strategic locations as the e-wastes in the city have been on the rise with conservative estimates putting the figure at close to 20,000 tonne.

Attero has already set up a “mother collection centre” at Mehdipatnam and was expected to commence operations from June. But it is yet to finalise a partner to handle the operations and collection of e-waste from multiple centres for processing them safely. Attero chief operating officer Rohan Gupta was not available for his comment, but a company spokesman said the company has zeroed in on a partner, a not for profit organisation, and the details of operations are likely to be announced within a week. “The major challenge for the recycling companies is supply chain issues as you have to apply reverse logistics in this case. Unlike the traditional markets where products reach end consumers, obsolete products should come to the recyclers,” Dashradh Ram Nutakki, founder of YNew, engaged in business of second hand lifestyle gadgets, told The Hindu .

Another major impediment in the plans of the recyclers was absence of organised market to deal with the obsolete devices and gadgets. While companies engaged in recycling of e-wastes continue to depend on imports of necessary machinery, the recycling process per se is focused on lower end. “What we see here is recycling of glass and plastic. Recyclers export the e-waste to countries like Belgium for extraction of precious metals including gold, silver and cadmium,” he said.

YNew, according to him, has been envisaged to serve as a collection point for the obsolete gadgets and necessary testing and certification mandates had been incorporated in the firm’s business plans.