The Hindu Business Line : The inside story

"The... Central Pollution Control Board ... through the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has asked all the major companies generating e-waste (in) Bangalore to store the waste within their premises and as such not dispose it off to the `Kabariwallah' (scrap-dealer)." - eWorld dated July 4, 2005.

SURE, you are a responsible corporate citizen. So you obey the directive above. Then how do you get rid of the electronic waste your company generates? How long do you keep storing old computers before finding the appropriate agency that disposes off them in the best way possible?

eWorld was intrigued about this. We do know that the components in a computer need attention - have to be recycled or disposed off in the right manner. So how do you find someone who knows what to do with computer parts, how to extract value out of them in ways that don't harm society and who knows how to handle harmful material that is extracted during the recycling process?

As we searched for such recycling agencies, Trishyiraya Recycling floated into our horizon. It is the only agency authorised by the Tamil Nadu Government to recycle e-waste and is awaiting a licence from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. .

Akshay Mehta, founder of the company, says every part in a computer can be recycled. "Glass, iron and plastic are the major materials used in computer parts. They can all be segregated and recycled."

A worker cleaning the inside of a monitor screen of all mercury.

Mehta walked us through his unit. About 22 workers segregate the different components from electronic gadgets. Says Mehta, "We work on PCs and printers. Workers are trained to know which components are made of which material. They separate them accordingly."

The ones most profitable to a recycler are printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are the brains behind most gadgets such as PCs or printers. According to Mehta, "We differentiate PCBs among four categories. These are on the basis of the kinds of precious metals used in PCBs." Once segregated, PCBs are sent through a conveyor belt into a crushing machine. Once crushed, they are collected and sent in bulk - once in a while - to be recycled.

But wait a minute: On what basis does he segregate them? That, of course, is a trade secret that Mehta is not keen to reveal. "Competitive information," he says with a grin. All he says is that PCBs use metals from gold to silver to even palladium.

Segregating plastic is not as tedious a job. So, that `ingredient' is easily taken care of. But what requires even more attention than PCB crushing is the removal of mercury from the PC monitor or screen. Says Mehta, "Mercury is the most harmful material in a PC. The PC's monitor has a mercury coating just behind the screen we see. The screen itself is made of glass and is easily recyclable. But we need to pay special attention to the mercury coating."

So, Trishyiraya, using a Finnish technology, is able to dismantle the monitor carefully. Then, a fully-protected labourer uses a vacuum cleaner to wipe the screen free of mercury. That sample of mercury is carefully collected and sent for re-use, says Mehta.

Interesting processes. And what keeps his machines well-oiled are large chunks of electronic waste that come from the MNCs selling motherboards, chips and computers in India. Explains Mehta, "Most of what we get from them are components that they replace within the warranty period. Most MNCs want to be meticulous and are particular about those replaced pieces not going back into their production line. That is why they find use in recyclers like us." Asked if the likes of Intel, IBM, HP and Acer are his clients, he refuses comment.

But, if the 30-40 tonnes of scrap that is processed in his unit every month comes mostly from PC or chip makers, then there surely must be a market several times bigger for recycling when it comes to users of PCs. After all, compare the number of motherboards Intel would replace in India to the number of PCs a 45,000-strong Indian IT software company would buy every year!

Mehta agrees that there is potential for growth there but admits that not too many PC users tend to give away their PCs for recycling. "It is tempting for user organisations to just re-sell PCs. It fetches them more than sending them for recycling would." For instance, he says, "I can only give Rs 15 or so for a dot-matrix printer. For, at a higher price, my margins are wiped out. However, someone buys these dot-matrix printers second-hand for Rs 90 or so. He could repair faulty components and re-sell the printer at Rs 1,000."

It makes economic sense but not environmental sense. Why? Because, the product keeps changing hands till it is in no condition to work and is probably then dumped - either in a waste yard or in the soil. Mehta says, "Especially in the case of PCBs, most people know about precious metals in them. They use crude practices to extract these metals. They do that successfully but allow the rest of the melted matter to run into the soil. If things like mercury or lithium from mobile batteries get into the soil, they flow into our wells and turn into slow killers."

In some cases, such as monitors, he says, "The company getting rid of the product has to pay me for taking the effort to recycle components." Obviously, there aren't too many takers for that option!

And, if you are a responsible corporate citizen but still can't find a proper waste management agency, what do you do?

Fear not, for, even the arms of the law are not long enough to penalise you.

Says Mehta, "Even if you dump electronic waste, there is no law yet to set things right. Only guidelines exist to help us around."

Don't allow electronic waste to get dumped.

In other words, if stuff like plastic from computers get separated from the main product, get to a dumping ground and are burnt, even unintentionally, they can cause unmentionable hard, being carcinogenic. So, the first step is, don't sell your computer. Send it to a recycler.

Pictures by Bijoy Ghosh

bharatk@thehindu.co.in

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