IT EXAMINER ON INDIA

India to become centre for e-waste

Huge potential, say rubbish experts

By Nick Farrell @ Monday, October 20, 2008 10:48 AM




India has huge potential to become the e-waste centre of the world, according to electronic trash people.

Nitin Gupta, CEO of Attero Recycling, recently attracted $6.3 million in funding from venture capital firms with the idea of India becoming the outsourcing hub for e-waste management. Gupta said India had huge potential, as the electronics industry is growing very fast across the globe and people have started addressing the issue of properly recycling e-waste.

He said that the industry is protected from heat of the economic slowdown, because people will always want to recycle computers. There are 58 million television units in India currently that will reach 234 million by 2015. By the end of 2010 there will be around 75 million computers in India from 15 million now since the life cycle of a PC has come down to 3-4 years from seven years ago.
- waste management firms claim that now it is possible to recycle around 98% of a mobile.

Gupta said that Attero have a lot to look forward to, since it takes only $2 to recycle a single PC in India compared to $20 in US.

M K Soni who runs Syscom, a Mumbai-based e-waste management and recycling company, said there is a huge margin for Indian companies to take the lead in e-recycling. He pointed out that more than 30,000 computers become obsolete every year from the IT industry in Bangalore alone. He also said that the only thing holding India back was the difficulties with procuring a license to import e-waste.

So far no license has been issued to any firm because you have to get clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forests, a no-objection certificate from the state pollution board and then get a certificate from the Central Pollution Control Board.