Refurbishment of e-scrap

In a typical reuse strategy for any e-waste, traditionally it is expected to take the entire product for reuse. However, an interesting approach towards reusing e-waste is based on refurbishing the working and valuable components of otherwise damaged/obsolete devices. Refurbishing refers to utilization of components in working conditions in new products, which is an effective technique to cater huge amounts of e-waste. By refurbishing, the primary extraction from ores, processing of the component, assembly stages are bypassed. Moreover, unlike recycling of e-waste, refurbishing prevents secondary waste generation. Refurbishing will aid in meeting the huge demands set by the changing technologies. In the current era, refurbishing e-waste plays a critical role especially in terms of changing prices, and economic considerations, wherein the demand for low cost electronics is always high even in poor nations.

CoE works within the guidelines laid by E-waste Management Rules, 2016 released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt of India. It work with state governments and facilitate roll out of various initiatives under the state E-waste policies. These may include setting up of collection, dismantling and recycling units or driving shift towards refurbishing. The E-waste managed by unregulated informal sector results in significance risks of toxic exposures to the recyclers. This could, in a few cases, be life threatening. The CoE, through proper training and awareness programs, envisions creating an army of Green Warriors who would be a part of the recycling/refurbishing chain and will contribute towards successful implementation of measures to control e-pollution in a safe and standardized way.