E-waste recycling may enable free Uber rides

Indians will soon be able to avail free Uber rides in exchange for recycling their electronic waste that will allow them to reduce their carbon footprint individually. Reaping the benefits of the recent public policy changes, recycling e-waste is gradually starting to get streamlined in India. An online platform now allows consumers to sell their used electronic goods for cash benefits.

The sold goods are then recycled and used for different purposes. Recycling electronic waste thus allows individuals to reduce their carbon footprint.

Namo eWaste Management Ltd has started a B2C online platform called “Planet Namo”, that will allow people to reduce their carbon footprint by selling e-waste to the company for recycling. Planet Namo’s innovative retail format allows its users to browse through an assortment of refurbished electronic appliances and gadgets, as well avail discounts on Uber rides in exchange for recycling e-waste. The online platform also buys the user’s disused hardware in any condition, in exchange for cash or any product listed in their online category. The Planet Namo website is currently running trials and is expected to be launched by this month-end.

The company aims to collect good volumes of discarded electronics directly from the consumer doorstep. This will be processed where the customer is paid instantly and handed over a safe disposal certificate, assuring the safe disposal of e-waste. This will reduce the role of informal recyclers involved in the trade.

The policy changes introduced last year by the government holding the producer accountable for the whole cycle of the product and thus mandating it to be recycled post its expiry, has resulted in steady organisation of the recycling industry in India that has been ignored for long.  The government amended the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 under which Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) was mandated to prepare guidelines on extended producer responsibility, environmentally sound dismantling and e-cycling, collection centres, storage, refurbishment, channelisation, transportation and random sampling for RoHS testing.

Nimit Gupta, co-founder, Planet Namo, told The Sunday Guardian, “Start-ups like ours will go a long way in replacing the informal recyclers who have a higher recovery value because the chemicals and techniques they use to recycle a product are not environmentally friendly.

Informal recyclers have been popular until now because there was no licencing system that certified a person or a company to recycle e-waste and also because their techniques allowed larger recovery of a component compared to the percentage of product recovered through environmentally friendly ways.”

In the last few years, Delhi has witnessed a rise in e-waste recyclers who are adopting the environmentally friendly techniques and also trying to absorb the informal recyclers in its fold by educating and training them. GIZ, a German environmental protection organisation, has been providing dismantlers and recylers in Seelampur, North India’s largest e-waste dumping ground, with training on storage, segregation, and dispatch of e-waste.

Government-sponsored e-waste platform E-Parisaara, based in Bengaluru, too, has been working on awareness surrounding e-waste, while Attero Recycling, a NASA approved recycling technology company, has also been making its mark.