As India is aiming to reach its climate targets, there is one sector that has been causing environmental and health issues. Attero Recycling, the pioneer and leader of the e-waste management system, told News18 about how the country’s future may be.
India roughly produces around 2 million tonnes of e-waste annually and it is growing 15% year on year. Many people are also concerned about the waste produced by electric vehicles, which includes lithium and battery waste. It is understood that EV-related waste is increasing in the country, with almost 40% year-on-year growth.
However, Nitin Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Attero Recycling, which is the only company in the world to get carbon credits for e-waste recycling from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that the majority of recycling happens using informal, unscientific, and hazardous methodologies which lead to environmental impact, social cost and metal losses as well.
While explaining the hazardous methods, he said that, for example, in the case of a mobile phone’s printed circuit board (which has two kinds of gold bearing), the informal sector dips the gold plating into the cyanide and sulfuric acid, which reacts with gold and attracts the metal selectively. But the remaining solution is being dumped in the nearby water bodies, leading to dangerous water pollution with cyanide.
According to him, the process also includes burning valuable metals using lead which causes toxic lead and coal fume release. Gupta also highlighted that since this informal sector mainly employs children and women, considering the health issues related to the recycling process the government decided to bring legislation around e-waste.
Govt policy
Gupta talked about the e-waste policy which was first introduced in 2013 but it was changed because there were no targets set for the OEMs for collecting back end-of-life equipment which is primarily their responsibility and the majority of the e-waste was getting recycled in the informal sector till 2018-19.
He said, “Govt changed this situation by bringing the strict Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation in 2016 that was dedicated toward ensuring that e-wastes are collected properly and recycled scientifically. But even then it was not implemented with the OEMs.”
So, in 2019, the government stopped the imports of Apple and Samsung because they were not complying with the EPR regulations, Gupta said. “When the imports stopped, all the OEMs started complying and since 2019 the amount of e-waste handled by the formal sector has increased significantly,” he added.
As per Attero’s CEO, the government and the regulators are doing a pretty good job on the policy front. He also believes that if needed, further changes to the regulations will be introduced by the Centre.
Recently a report suggested that India may need Electronic Upgradation Policy. Regarding this Gupta said that from a purely environmental perspective, such a policy would be helpful but from a commercial perspective, it is difficult to say how successful it will be.
However, he said that the government has introduced a new strategy that is similar to the upgradation policy, called Right to Repair.
Home collection
Some people have suggested whether a hassle-free home collection process could be used for e-waste management. Gupta said that it is not only possible but also happening at this moment in India.
He said: “Attero has started the direct form of consumer collection channel. We reach out to consumers online and actual fulfilment happens offline. Though it involves a lot of reverse logistics and thought processes, as well as cost, that is the way the industry will move as we have already done a large part of that investment.”
He explained the process by saying that in terms of large appliances, a consumer can opt for an exchange option, and then the old appliance goes to the formal sector for recycling. But if a consumer, doesn’t exchange the old appliance, then they give the product to the informal sector (kabadiwala) for recycling.
Now, in such cases, companies like Attero are replacing this informal sector, collecting the waste from the customer directly, by formalising the informal sector in the most environmentally friendly way.
“In terms of small appliances, such as phones, laptops, or chargers, the home collection may be successful if the consumer gets paid for it while making sure that these products are recycled properly,” he suggested.
Tech knowledge
It is claimed that India does not currently have the technology to sustainably extract precious metals from e-waste. While agreeing with this comment, Gupta said that in India the technology for recycling e-waste is limited.
He said, “Attero is the only company in the country which has the technology with certifications and ability to process all kinds of e-waste, as well as extract other metals. Every other recycler just claims to do so but they don’t. It shows the technological gap in the country.”
He also said that “theoretically, one solution to reduce the tech gap would be that we start licensing our technology to other recyclers or other recyclers can invest and develop their technology since this is a competitive market”.
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