Recycling
The report titled ‘A New Circular Vision for Electronics’ says it is hard to forecast the volume of e-waste that will be generated, but by 2021, the annual total volume is expected to surpass 52 MT globally, considering the fact that the number of devices connected to the Internet was between 25-50 billion by 2020, which is nearly multiple times the number of people on the planet today. By 2050 the volume of e-waste, in the worst-case scenario, could top 120 MT annually.
So where is the crisis? It lies in the fact that globally only up to 20 per cent of e-waste is recycled. The rest is undocumented and experts predict that it gets buried under the ground in landfills for centuries as it is not biodegradable. And how does it impact us? “From lead-lined, cathode ray tubes to old TVs, to lead and chromium in circuit boards (of various devices), e-waste contains substances that are hazardous to human health, including, mercury, cadmium and lead. E-waste can pollute water sources and food-supply chains.”
We at Cerebra really understand our growing responsibilities with the growing volumes. We are committed to provide dynamic modules to handle increasing volume of urban mines of natural resources out of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
Why Us?
World class Infrastructure: Cerebra is India’s largest recycler and has the capability to handle 97000MT of e-waste annually and has got KSPCB (Karnataka State Pollution Control Board) licensing for processing e-waste, recycling, refurbishing and management activities. The first phase of the same has been completed on a 12-acre property, acquired through KIADB at Narasapura, Kolar District. The completely automated plant ensures 100% recycling of all the e-waste with zero landfill commit, supported by a team of over 150 dedicated professionals. Our state-of-the-art de-manufacturing line combines high-tech automation and manual processing methods to sort, dismantle and shred e-waste. Cerebra deploys WEEE recycling processes that are ISO 9001, 14001, OHSAS 45001 & ISMS 27001 certified. Cerebra is also R2 certified, adhering to the highest norm of recycling.
100% Transparency: we discuss and determine options for partnering with formal organizations and informal collectors. Working out the right agreements and protocols (including payment systems) is a key to the success of formal–informal partnerships. Our on ground team takes the role of mediators which communicate the requirement to the informal collectors, who in turn become our collection partners and align them with the expectations of producers or PROs. Ensuring transparency is paramount for entering into successful partnerships with producers and PROs.
Power of Technology: The current regulatory and monitoring mechanisms draw immensely on the strength of human resource and an opaque system of paper trails almost impossible to manage. An online portal is a substitute for bringing in transparency and accountability into the system. We drew lessons from the GST system that tracks movement of goods and free riders and built our in-house online tracking system SPOCK which tracks the entire journey of every piece of e-waste from the generation to its movement until its final disposal, and technology plays an important role in identifying and tracking all goods until its final disposal. This covers all goods that are handled by the informal sector being transported inwards and outwards by paying GST. This system serves two immediate and long-term objectives of generation of credible data and effective monitoring, thus reducing environmental load and fostering circular economy.
Awareness Program: For all our direct and indirect customers we act as partners in their recycling journey. The customer engagements programs enable us to build a strong customer connect. In 2018, Cerebra Green launched award winning ‘India Clean Up Week’ in association with Manufacturers Association of Information and Technology (MAIT), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) and Digital India, during 13th – 19th October of 2018. This awareness program was conducted in 7 cities - New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune & Ahmedabad, targeting 3 key stakeholders – Residential Welfare Associations, bulk consumers & general public and aimed to create awareness among them on environmental and health hazards of e-waste, environmentally sound disposal practices, enhance formalized collection processes for proper recycling and ensuring proper implementation of e-waste management rules. Through this program we were able to collect over 10 metric tonnes of e-waste across seven cities. We also conduct lot of awareness programs at school level reaching out to 200+ schools pan India, working closely with organizations like Rotary club to enable e- waste collections from all their centres, working with smart cities to enable a e-waste collection and processing capabilities and finally working closely with private and public organizations to enable them to dispose e- waste in an organized manner.
Invest into Research: The Cerebra Group has set out to develop one of the best green recycling methods in the world by working with academia, industry collaborators and independent researchers. On-going talks could see the implementation of some of our projects at leading educational institutes, research organizations and the industry. We believe there is lot more to explore in this space and it’s important to reach out to the right set of audience in order to bring the desired change.
Leveraging patented technology for precious metal recovery, we extract valuable materials such as copper, aluminium, silver, and gold from complicated electronic scrap.