How Namo E-Waste Is Solving A Major Environmental Issue

India is growing rapidly in terms of development.  More and more industries and companies are now willing to set up shop in India owing to the massive resources available.  A country as big as India is prone to having its own share of problems. Waste management is a problem widespread mainly due to the fact there is not a lot of awareness about recycling and waste segregation.  With the growing number of mobile phones, companies’ electronic waste is piling up. To address this issue, Akshay Jain, a young entrepreneur, founded a company called Namo e-Waste in 2014.

Beginnings

Akshay Jain was pursuing his MBA from Greenwich University in the United Kingdom when he first saw the waste recycling systems in place to manage and dispose off the waste according to the government norms.  He realised the need for the same infrastructure to be established in India. After returning back to India, he spent a year researching the problem and mobilising the logistics necessary for starting his company.  The company began operations in 2015. As of 2017, they were handling 20 tonnes of e waste on an average daily.

Waste Recycling

The startup follows all the norms laid down by the Pollution Control Board when they recycle the e waste.  E waste is collected from companies and segregated thoroughly and any usable devices are refurbished and sold back into the market via a dealers’ network.  Akshay Jain claims the entire process generates zero emissions, that is, there are no solid or liquid byproducts. Akshay says, “Our technology is based on the manual dismantling, segregation and recycling method. We use a dry shredding and separating method to extract metals from printed circuit boards. The material is granulated to less than 5mm size and in the electrostatic separator, metals and hazardous content are completely separated. We don’t have emissions from the process in the form of water or dust.”  The metal waste that is of no use is extracted and sold to foundries. The Company’s clients include companies like Flipkart, Voltas, Tata Sky and Havells.

The startup has a recycling facility and offices in Faridabad and also has a presence in 12 states through its channel partners.  This is how this startup managed to gain access to approximately 70 % of the Indian e waste. They have plans to gain a presence in all the Indian states and union territories and also plan to establish a facility where they can extract gold and silver from the e waste.

Namo e-Waste was given the Best Green Startup Award for the year 2015-16 and the Refurbisher of the Year Award by Franchise India.