Bengaluru headquartered Cerebra Integrated Technologies has launched Cerebra Green, said to be India’s largest end-to-end e-waste recycling facility. The facility is also among the first to achieve a completely eco-friendly e-waste disposal such that there is a zero landfill and zero water level pollution achieved during the process.
With the rising digitisation of services and the drive to push digital literacy, India has become one of the largest consumers of technology, while also becoming the fifth largest producer of e-waste in the world. According to NASCOM survey, India would be generating three million MT of e-waste by the end of 2018.
Mumbai is the largest producer of e-waste, contributing up to 120,000 MT annually while Bengaluru produces about 92,000 MT of e-waste annually. Further, hazardous waste dumped by informal e-waste recyclers without proper processing has also led to pollution of water bodies, leading to health and environmental problems, impacting quality of life.
V Ranganathan, CEO and Founder, Cerebra Integrated Technologies, said, “E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. As per the official figures, India currently generates up to 2.5 million tonnes of e-waste per annum. Informally, this figure is much higher than 2.5 million tonnes. Despite this, we are yet to come to terms with the severity and the need of an organised and scientific disposal of e-waste. We at Cerebra are committed to this cause and abide by the philosophy of 3 R’s – Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. We currently operate out of a 12 acre facility capable of handling up to 96,000 tons of e-waste.”
Cerebra Green, as part of its environment friendly processes, assures a 100 per cent compliance with the EPR guidelines, E-Waste Management Handling Rules 2011 and 2016 notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and is an ISO 9001:2015 certified set up. The collected e-waste is effectively segregated into re-usable and non-reusable waste. This is then followed by the essential stages of repair/ recondition/ refurbishing and data recovery/ data destruction.
Once these are completed, the e-waste recycling process begins with the separation and recovery of metals, plastics, glass and a separate recovery process for precious metals like gold. The methodical, step wise process ensures a Zero landfill output, where precious natural resources are recovered and made available to re-use through re-introduction into the supply chain.
According to the EPA, recycling one million laptops can save as much energy used by 3,500 homes in a year. In addition, recycling one million cell phones results in the recovery of 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium.