Current practices
· Three points as potential source of e-waste
1) Foreign imports
2) Indian SME’s (big firms who work on contractual basis as well)
3) Consumer (direct sourcing or through junk-traders)
· Usage of unorganized junk-trade channel
o Consumers give the e-junk to the lorry/manual cart junk carrier
o The junk carrier sells it to the local junk trader
o Local junk trader dismantles the e-junk to separate it into following components
1. Metal parts – to be traded with a scrap metal dealer
2. Plastic frame – to be sold to a junk plastic dealer
3. Electronic circuit boards/capacitors/transformers, etc
Reused to the fullest extent by the junk-trader
· Components if working, are sold to the repair shop
· If not working, thrown/sold to higher level junk-trader
· Higher level junk traders burn the board away and extracts the metal and sell it further
o Everything is sold in kgs.
Through this project, we intend to create a portal for recycling e-waste where people can come and sell the collected waste. This will then create a new business of recycling which will be more formidable and profitable to everyone in the system.
Our Proposed plan – focus on recycling electronic components preferably
(We shall put the waste metal and plastic components on their appropriate recycle/reuse channel)
o Target the foreign imports market and the consumer market, if need be, even Indian SME’s and big contractual firms
o Source the e-waste from junk-traders (those who have the completely non-reusable parts, sourced/filtered from the consumers)
o Alternatively, the retail sellers of such electronic goods can be provided with a drop box (specifically in case of a mobile phone or such smaller gadgets), and each consumer can be compensated as per a manual, by the retailer, on our behalf
o Aggregate such components at city level, ship it through rail freight to a centralized location (preferably located in Silvasa) and process them to separate all components
o Utilize the existing, unorganized junk-trade channel to the maximum extent, at all such points where-after junk does not have any reuse value (need to identify all such points)
Siddharth Somani
Anil K
You can also look at segregating e-waste first on the basis of type of product and then dismantling them. I dont know if that is already done, but in such a way the training part of the local junk traders could be organized effectively
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