Don’t trash that computer just yet

Some time in 2008, Amit Sharma, an engineer at Sun Microsystems, Bangalore was looking for a way to get rid off his old computer after upgrading to a newer version. His search led him to Donate Your PC (DYPC), a charity structure that enables donations of old computers to verified beneficiaries, thereby facilitating reuse of computers and taking a small load off the huge e-waste generated today.

Sharma, who then was also seeking out an avenue for community service decided to lend support to this green exercise. “I did some background check, contacted the founders and got on board,” says the young engineer and coordinator of DYPC’s Bangalore arm.

The starting point for DYPC was a project report that one of the founders wrote while he was at B-school. “DYPC was conceptualised by Ankur Mehrotra for a college project. His friend Abhishek Asthana was keen on implementing the plan after he heard about it, and started DYPC in 2007.”

Now, Mehrotra sits in Kolkata, Asthana in Hyderabad and Sharma in Bangalore — the three coordinate donations and requests in their respective regions. Word-of-mouth, blog posts and articles, in addition to talks the three of them give at relevant forums, has helped popularise DYPC. But Sharma laments that while individuals have been forthcoming, corporate donations are minimal.

The DYPC website (www.donateyourpc.in) acts as an interface for those looking at getting rid of their old computers and peripherals (in working condition) and non-profit organisations that require them. “Donors post what they have on offer (detailing the configuration) if it matches the requirements of the requestors, then DYPC connects the two.”

As expected, requests exceed donations. “We always verify the credentials of requests made. We even try and squeeze in a visit to survey the organisation whenever possible,” says Sharma. As a policy decision, DYPC makes it a point to support non-profits that don’t have funding.

While this initiative offers scope to limiting e-waste, today’s ‘age of consumerism’ demands a lot more. The lack of an efficient waste management system in general irked Wilma Rodrigues, founder of Saahas, so much that she decided to take up the task sometime in early 2000.

“I realised that rather than getting upset with the system, it would be better to cater to this need,” says Rodrigues. Though, Saahas’s core work in waste management is centred on recovery of recyclable, municipal solid waste, it has been actively engaging in an e-waste collection drive for six-odd years now. “We are working towards recovering frequently generated e-waste such as dry cell batteries, discarded switches, CDs as part of this,” explains Rodrigues.

Saahas in association with authorised e-waste disposers and recyclers like E-Parisaraa and Ewardd has set up e-waste collection units at apartment complexes, schools, companies and public locations like malls.  “After people dump waste at these centres, our partners take over,” she says.

“Yet, all such initiatives aside, the huge quantum of e-waste generated is still not reaching recyclers or safe-disposal units and that’s a huge concern,” expresses P Parthasarathy, managing director of E-Parisaraa, India’s first government authorised electronic waste recycler.

“Advancement in technology is happening at a quick pace; as a result the lifespan of electrical and electronic gadgets is very short. PCs, mobile phones, medical equipment  such as scanners — the list is endless,” says Parthasarathy.

“Going by the rate of e-waste created here, E-Parisaraa should be recycling 10 tonnes of waste everyday, but as of now we recycle a miniscule three tonnes daily.” Nevertheless, he feels that once the government issues mandatory guidelines for recycling e-waste, which is in the offing, things will change. “If this is enforced, there is no escape for companies, they’ll have to adhere to it and ensure that the electronic-waste they produce reaches its logical end,” he says.

When E-Parisaraa kicked off its e-waste project in 2004, there were absolutely no regulations or rules in place. “We started when nobody else cared about e-waste with support from both the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and Central Pollution Control Board. Subsequently in 2007, the government issued some guidelines regarding e-waste management,” he says.

Parthasarathy elaborates that the objective of E-Parisaraa is to facilitate an opportunity to transfer e-waste into socially and industrially beneficial raw-materials. “E-waste recycling is an absolute necessity, as it is the prime means of conserving our limited resources. And one can’t stress more about the need to safely dispose highly dangerous elements like mercury,” he says. 

Currently, this e-waste recycling company recycles computer waste such as desktops, laptops (only those that have reached end-of-life); telecom waste, essentially backend materials like routers, servers; medical waste like obsolete scanners (only after decontamination) and a small quantity of lamp waste like tube-lights, CFLs.    g_shruti@dnaindia.net