Noida-based firm to recycle e-waste

A year after issuing notification for e-waste management, the pollution control authority is also in the process of vetting proposals from five more companies keen to enter the field.

E-waste processing is dominated by the informal sector even as it is expected to cross a staggering 800,000 tonne mark by 2012. The organised sector is mostly absent.

"This is mainly due to poor processing technologies, which have small capacity, as well as lack of awareness among the users," said Nitin Gupta, CEO of Attero Recycling, the first company in the country to have been authorised to collect and recycle e-waste by the CPCB.

"According to a Greenpeace Report, in 2007, India generated 380,000 tonnes of e-waste. Only 3 per cent of this made it to the authorised recyclers facilities," he said indicating the environmental threat posed by the menace.

Gupta said that the CPCB will supervise functioning of the state-of-the-art plant operational in Roorkee in Uttarakhand for the next six months. Only then will the license be further extended, he said.

A senior official from the CPCB said registration is done only if it feels the firm is able to meet environmental standards and has sufficient capacity to sustain in the long-term.

Gupta, quoting the Greenpeace report said, that "By 2015, two billion PCs are expected to invade our homes and our mobile subscriber base is expected to be about 450 million subscribers. The e-waste generated by just these two segments will be staggering."