Attero Recycling, India’s sole integrated recycling company for e-waste, has hit upon a novel method of teaching the local kabariwallahs how to handle hazardous waste.
Attero Recycling, founded by brothers Rohan and Nitin Gupta, has developed its own proprietary technology to extract precious metals, including copper, lead and gold, and also recycling hazardous materials emanating from electrical appliances.
“Mobile phones and computers contain 40 metals each. Unfortunately, people working in the informal sector, including the kabariwallahs, don’t know how to process it. Many of them recycle metals by using sulphuric acid which can be quite dangerous and then dump the entire device in a scrap yard,” said Mr Rohan Gupta.
“We have set up a treatment storage disposal facility where we are providing training to people in the informal sector on how to handle hazardous waste. Currently, we are dealing with 300-400 kabaris across four cities,” explained Mr Gupta
The company has also set up an automated and integrated electrical and electronic waste recycling plant in Roorkee, which is servicing 100 cities across 22 states.
“We have built up a reverse logistics backbone which collects 5,000 tonnes of electrical waste directly from the corporates, kabaris and consumers. Our online programme allows us to collect devices directly from people’s homes. Once it is collected, they can follow what happens to it online,’ said Mr Gupta.
Attero’s business plan has been appreciated by several risk capital companies and they succeeded in raising $10 million from marquee venture capital funds. The Central Pollution Control Board and the ministry of environment are working closely with companies pushing sustainable recycling. The CPCB have issued 100 licenses to recycling companies in the last two years.
“We have applied for a patent for our e-waste metal extracting technology and hope to get it very soon,’’ he added.