Delhi generates two lakh tonnes of electronic waste each year, and the e-waste eco-park will assist in handling it safely and scientifically. Recycling, refurbishment, and dismantling will all be available here.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai recently announced that an 11-member committee had been established. A consultant will soon be chosen, and an e-waste eco park could be operational within 23 months.
End-to-end processing of e-waste
The E-Waste Eco Park provides scientific, environmentally friendly dismantling, refurbishing, and recycling of electronic waste. The park also features facilities for precious metal extraction from PCBs using state-of-the-art technologies. Located in the Narela industrial area covering 20 acres, it will become India’s inaugural E-Waste Management Park to handle Delhi’s annual production of 2 lakh tonnes.
The main goal of an e-waste eco-park is to centralize collection and processing to minimize transportation costs while increasing collection rates, all made possible with significant contributions from the government and full participation from consumers in the system. Defra’s [73] research study noted that an effective strategy for encouraging participation includes offering both economic and social incentives, specifically incentives that reduce collection/transporting costs and raise consumer awareness about recycling importance.
Though e-waste eco parks provide many advantages, there are several challenges they must surmount to be effective. One such challenge lies in drawing enough participants; to do this effectively, a sound collection system must be created and implemented to accommodate various consumer products while being accessible to the general public and being built upon decoupling collection costs from total recycling expenses.
The sustainability of e-waste recycling processes is another crucial aspect. E-waste collected from households must be processed and recycled eco-friendly before being sold as eco-friendly products to consumers and governments alike. Finally, cost-effectiveness must also be an aspect to take into consideration.
The E-Waste Eco Park aims to address these problems by encouraging consumers to recycle electronics and facilitate remanufacture of them, thus helping reduce pollution in both the capital and the rest of the country and providing revenue streams for local communities and businesses.
Precious metals extraction
The E-Waste Eco Park will contain processing and extraction units for precious metals like gold, silver, copper, and other rare earth metals; it will also offer safe and environment-friendly ways of disposing of electronic waste by recycling it into reusable materials. It also serves as a marketplace for secondary product sales; this will increase sustainability within the project overall.
Delhi produces approximately 2,000,000 tonnes of electronic waste every year, most of which is recycled through informal recyclers in an unsafe manner that imposes risks both to the environment and those handling the waste – leading to fire outbreaks, health risks for residents of Delhi, and increased air pollution levels. An e-waste eco-park will aid in disposing of this waste safely while improving worker health and safety.
Studies indicate that microorganisms can recover precious metals from waste streams. However, they must adapt to the differing textures and composition of waste material – an incredibly challenging feat in urban and rural environments where waste material composition may differ drastically – as well as low levels of precious metals, which make conventional extraction methods uneconomical.
Microbial biotechnological recovery could provide an economical solution. A split anion extraction method is employed to isolate individual metals from impurities; it has proven itself highly successful when working with relatively small amounts of precious metals and uses green extractants that can be reused multiple times during extraction-stripping cycles.
Anil Baijal has instructed officials to quickly create a sustainable system for disposing of electronic waste, evaluate different technologies, and study global best practices. He further instructed officials to work with not-for-profit organizations that work directly with ragpickers for more organized handling of electronic waste.
Re-manufacturing of e-waste
The E-Waste Eco Park will allow for the recycling and reuse of valuable materials like rare earth metals and plastic recyclate from e-waste, diverting it from landfill sites while producing new products. Furthermore, any leftover e-waste will be safely disposed of with environmental considerations in mind – an innovative solution in a city plagued by pollution.
Every year, Chennai produces approximately two lakh tonnes of electronic waste – representing 9.5 percent of India’s total. Most of this waste is recycled through informal recyclers that lack central processing units; therefore, the E-Waste Eco Park provides infrastructure, training, and tools to become formal recyclers, which will also help them reduce pollution while growing their businesses.
Consultants have been hired to speed up the construction of India’s first e-waste eco-park. It will be built in Holambi Kalan, northwest Delhi, on a 21-acre plot. It will feature an authorized refurbishing market and secondary product sale facilities for electronics such as batteries, chargers, laptops, and mobile phones. Furthermore, collection centers across 12 zones will help channel e-waste.
This eco-park will feature recycling, remanufacturing, and dismantling facilities equipped with technology to treat electronic waste safely. The government will hire a consultant to prepare a detailed project report before appointing a concessionaire to construct this eco-park to take care of 2 lakh tonnes of e-waste generated annually in its city.
The E-Waste Eco Park will offer an all-in-one solution for treating electronic waste in Delhi. It will provide end-to-end processing with zero landfills. In addition, this park will house various handlers such as refurbishers and recyclers of e-waste refurbishers/recyclers/dismantlers/dismantlers/processors/plastic waste processors, etc. Additionally, training programs will be held for local populations so they may operate and manage the Eco Park themselves later; plus, mentorship programs will help foster innovation/creativity within this sector.
Zero landfill
The Delhi government plans to hire a consultant to expedite the construction of India’s first e-waste eco-park at Holambi Kalan in northwest Delhi. The consultant will prepare a detailed project report and assist the government in selecting an operating concessionaire for setting up and running it; its facilities will include dismantling, segregation, and refurbishing electronic products with zero landfill produced. Additionally, they can help prepare revenue models and suggest viable PPP models for the operation of this eco-park.
According to Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi, the e-waste eco-park will offer various activities, including collection centers across 12 zones for collection, segregation, dismantling, testing, repairing, and refurbishing as well as secondary product sale markets for battery chargers, laptops, desktops mobiles, etc. In addition, infrastructure training tools will also be provided to formalize informal operators within this sector into formal recyclers.
As a result, an e-waste eco-park will decrease pollution in the city while offering employment opportunities to its employees. Furthermore, it will be an example for other cities to follow and increase efficiency and technical innovation.
An adequate e-waste eco park requires multiple disciplines and talents, including economic and land use planners, engineers, lawyers, community leaders, and financial institutions. Early consultation with local representatives is vital as their input may help avoid costly errors while making your project more viable.
E-waste contains hazardous and toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), damaging human health – particularly children’s – and disrupting the environment. To protect people and nature from these risks, an eco-park for electronic waste must be built with high environmental management standards in mind and located away from homes and workplaces to reduce emissions of toxic substances into the environment. Ideally, it would also feature advanced processing and recycling technologies enabling it to recover rare earth metals or precious metals from electronic waste waste materials.
