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Wealth from all that waste
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E-Parisaraa, an initiative by an ex-IITian, is setting new standards in recycling e-waste
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E-waste is not hazardous but processing it is Parthasarathy
PHOTO: V. GANESAN
NOTHING IS OBSOLETE Before you throw it away as scrap, think again
Visiting E-Parisaraa's recycling facility reminds one of alchemists from before the modern scientific era. Old men with white beards, wearing conical hats, sifting through piles of slag hoping to one day find gold in it. E-Parisaraa is different. But the men behind it do find gold in waste.
Bangalore is known as the silicon valley of India. But what does the city do with its silicon (electronic hardware) once it is done with it? Have you thought of what you will do with the computer or T.V. you just bought when it becomes obsolete? Selling your old hardware in the second-hand market is an option. But considering the speed at which technology is advancing today, there will hardly be any buyers for your dated equipment. Thus, you produce electronic waste (e-waste).
Enormous quantity
Our city alone is estimated to produce up to 8,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. Most of it ends up stored in warehouses awaiting disposal and some make it to scrap dealers who extract whatever is of value from it and then dump it. But unscientific processing of e-waste can be hazardous to health and dumping it in landfills can cause quite a lot of damage to the environment as it contains plastics, chemicals and an assortment of metals.
This is where E-Parisaraa steps in. "E-waste is not hazardous but processing it is," says P. Parthasarathy who founded the company. A chemical engineer from IIT-Chennai and a former employee of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), he started E-Parisaraa in 2005 after he published a paper, E-waste Management for Indian Conditions, in 2004. "After HMT, I worked as a consultant with various companies and set up a factory in Peenya to manufacture watch cases. I specialise in gold plating and gold recovery. I have published papers on recovering metals. My intention has always been to start a unit in India. I wanted a joint-venture, but it did not materialise."
When Parthasarathy presented his initial estimate for processing one tonne of e-waste per day, sceptics scoffed at him saying his facility is very small. But today E-Parisaraa is running at only half tonne per day not because of the lack of facility but because the supply of e-waste is a problem.
"We have totally processed only about 120 tonnes till now. I will gradually scale up to three tonnes and then 10 tonnes per day. Mine is not a multi-million dollar solution. I use manual dismantling and that means labour. Also it allows me to be choosy in segregation and ensures better recycling efficiency," says Parthasarathy.
Presently E-Parisaraa has agreements with companies such as IBM, HP, ABB, Lucent and Mphasis to collect their e-waste. The waste is picked up by the tonne, paid for, and brought to the processing facility at Dobbespet, 47 km. from Bangalore. Here it enters a disassembly-line process. The waste is first dismantled and sorted for plastics, rubber and sheet metal. The leftover printed circuit boards (PCBs) and glass items such as tube lights and picture tubes go to the next stage. The PCBs are first stripped of components like diodes, chips, ICs and capacitors. They are then cut into strips and powdered. At no point is anything melted or heated.
The picture tubes, meanwhile, are sent into an air-evacuation chamber where they are broken and the phosphorous coating removed.
The glass is then sent for conventional recycling. The PCB powder, meanwhile, goes for gravity separation where copper is extracted and then the remaining solution that contains gold and silver is sent to the company's other facility in Peenya for extraction. After electrolysis, a fine powder of pure gold emerges.
"A typical computer processor contains 50 to 56 mg of gold and a motherboard 150 to 200 mg. We are aiming for 99 per cent recycling and one per cent waste. We are presently at 91 per cent. But even in Europe, they only achieve 80 per cent," says Parthasarathy.
E-Parisaraa processes not just waste computers but also electrical goods such as motors and transformers. The processing is done while following rigid safety precautions. The workers always wear protective eyewear and don masks. The company has been audited for ISO certification and individual companies like IBM approve E-Parisaraa only after conducting an independent audit.
The company is also part of the national task force on e-waste that is drafting guidelines for the final law on E-waste.
Says Parthasarathy: "The government began to think about hazardous waste only after Bhopal. We are participating in drafting the guidelines along with experts from Europe. The first thing is backyard recycling has to stop and child labour must not be allowed. We are conducting workshops for recyclers to educate them on using safety precautions."
Visit E-Parisaraa at www.ewasteindia.in.
ANAND SANKAR
Start at home
It is said one should first become eco-conscious at home and then preach it to others, and E-Parisaraa follows the same policy.
Their plant is only on a 1.5 acre plot. The building construction is cost effective and eco-friendly. It uses soil-stabilised bricks made at site without the use of burnt bricks and granite dust was used as a substitute for river sand.
Granite polishing dust was used for refilling the plinth, waste carbide lime was used for white washing, light weight thermocol-concrete blocks for roofing, scrap metal sheets from CPU cabinets for gates and unused obsolete PCBs are used as laminates for doors.
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