Scrap dealers to get you good deals on your e-junk

Your local scrap dealer would soon offer you vouchers redeemable at electronics stores in exchange for your dead computer or old cellphone. He may have other interesting schemes. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Apr 11, 2013, 01:57:49 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Your local scrap dealer would soon offer you vouchers redeemable at electronics stores in exchange for your dead computer or old cellphone. He may have other interesting schemes.

This innovative idea too was born out of necessity: Electronic goods manufacturers’ fear of penal action under electronic waste management rules, which requires setting up of collection centres for electronic waste. The rules, based on the European model of mandatory take-back policy and adopted by India in 2011, has made manufacturers liable for collection of used electronic products.

Two years since the rules were notified, the companies have failed to set up the collection centres knowing well that they will not work because people prefer to give all their e-waste to the neighbourhood ‘kabidiwallah’ or scrap dealer.

“The kabidiwallah has to be nodal point for collection of e-waste for the system to work and a link for its proper disposal,” Ravi Aggarwal of NGO Toxiclink told HT recently.

Now, the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank-affiliated body, has created this vital link between local scrap dealers, recycling companies and the electronic goods manufacturers as groundwork for India’s first door to door e-waste collection system.

The network was launched in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Ahemdabad this week and would be expanded to other cities if it works well.

“We have 15 companies such as Voltas, Samsung, Wipro and HCL on board for the project,” said a Subrata Burman, senior operations officer at IFC. “Another 200 would be joining soon.” If the project takes-off, you would be able to get a reasonable offer to sell your used laptop, printer, television or refrigerator to your scrap dealer. An old, dead mobile may fetch anything between Rs. 200 to Rs. 1,000 depending on its condition. A laptop may get you a little more.

But your old fridge or TV may not get you much because of its high transportation cost to the recycling unit. “The companies have agreed to provide vouchers to incentivise proper disposal of all types of electronic waste,” an IFC official said.

The project is aimed to tackle the growing environmental hazard of e-waste, expected to be around 18.51 lakh tonnes by 2025 from just 1.47 lakh tonnes in 2005.

But it has a sociological aspect. A huge informal sector that segregates different components of electronic waste and then melts them to produce the metal can get eliminated. The electronic waste collected by the scrap dealers would be given directly to recycling company Attero.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.