Recycling should be Common Social Responsibility; ECORECO Drives eWaste Disposal for Sustainability

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EcoReco
EcoReco
  • Established during 2017 by B K Soni, Ecoreco offers dynamic modules to control the increasing amount of Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment (WEEE) coming out from industrial disposals and polluting the natural resources
  • Ecoroco has a fleet of trucks and containers as well as has tie-ups with several leading logistics companies to support the objective of re-treating electronic properties disposed of by the companies

With the advent of the information age, society is relying more and more on electronics, which is causing growing concern about electronic waste or E-Waste. Today E-waste is one of the major contributors of industrial and social waste is a crucial environmental threat because of its dumping issue. India’s one of the most eminent professional E-waste Management companies, Eco Recycling Ltd (Ecoreco) is working towards visionary and environment-friendly disposal methods. 

An expert in e-waste management, B K Soni, the Chairman and Managing Director of Eco Recycling Ltd is a qualified Cost Accountant from the Institute of Cost Accountants of India Speaking of the company’s inception, he said, “The idea was commercial at first when I saw that the consumption of electrical equipment is increasing rapidly by every year with a higher growth rate of CAGR than the previous year, it gave an idea of what EcoReco is presently doing.”  A member of the Expert Group on E-waste Management constituted by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, B K Soni said, “We saw a major scope of consolidation and formalization of E-waste management and we started approaching the corporates from around 2004-2005.”

Recycling and beyond 

B K Soni

Founded in 2007, as an E-waste Management Company, Ecoreco provides WEEE Recycling, Reverse Logistics, Data Destruction, Asset Management, Lamp Recycling, and EPR Implementation. The chairman said, “Each one of the services is an independent business in itself and capable of turning into a billion-dollar industry.”

The company provides dynamic modules to control the increasing amount of Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment (WEEE) coming out from industrial disposals and polluting the natural resources. Registered by the Central Pollution Control Board and authorized by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, the WEEE recycling process with absolute healing guarantees the full safety of the environment.

A strong network of reverse logistics indeed promotes the formal recycling of e-waste. For this initiative, Ecoroco has a fleet of trucks and containers as well as has tie-ups with several leading logistics companies to support the objective of re-treating the electronic properties of the respective industries. B K Soni explained, “When it comes to C2B it is called reverse logistics. Simply put, in reverse logistics, the waste is coming from the end-user, corporate or personal, for recycling.”

Data Devices such as Media Tapes, Flash Drive, Hard disk and others are usually full of confidential data related to the companies and its clients, or personal information about staff, etc. and hence all the data must be destroyed before passing through recycling apparatus. EcoReco has developed a mobile shredding facility that facilitates the destruction of up to a hundred per cent of confidential client data. 

“There are smart players out there who understand technology better and they know how to extract data from dead assets. Therefore it becomes more important to destroy the data, and destroy means to physically destroy completely so that data cannot be retrieved ever.”

The perspective of Asset Management is to cultivate refurbishment and remarketing discarded electronic equipment as much as possible. In India, this will enable people from the lower and middle-income groups to afford electronic equipment and also to expand the knowledge of computers and electronics in the entire population at an affordable price.

EcoReco has developed a team of specialists to take care of the salvaging and refurbishment of such assets. An awareness campaign called E-waste Week is organized every year in December to implore the corporates to donate used electronic assets for refurbishment. 

Removed or fused lamps hazardous materials, and when they reach water bodies it proves to be detrimental for nature and human consumption. With its foresight, Ecoreco started Lamp Recycling way back in 2008. B K Soni clarified, “Mercury and Phosphorus are extremely dangerous, they get merged into the water and spoils the water, especially Mercury reportedly dries out the water bodies.”

One of Ecoreco’s initiatives that started in 2008 is Lamp Recycling on Wheels to provide on-site service of lamps recycling. The company collaborates with manufacturers and bulk consumers to recycle waste lamps. EcoReco has one added value to waste lamp management, which is to capture the mercury for the refining process and making it ready to reuse. Further, the entire process is being documented and accessed for audit purposes. 

Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) or implied as Environment Protection Responsibility (EPR) holds the corporate manufacturers responsible to take back their products from the consumer either at the end of usability or when the consumer wants to dispose of the product.

eWaste Awareness for the Manufacturers 

On awareness regarding E-Waste B K Soni said that it is not necessary for every person to be aware of the issue. “General people are not usually keen for awareness but entities like us who work on this should get their job done right and be committed to the cause.” He said, “In India 1.3 billion people do not have to bother for every cause or awareness.

The money, effort, and time spent creating awareness can be saved and used to spend in the informal sector of waste disposal and recycling so that they become formal.” EcoReco takes and recovers commodities made of plastic, metals, glass, and others after they reach their end of life or lose their technical values. The company believes in doing its job and informing corporates and industries about E-Waste and its harmful effects. 

Bookmyjunk, an app for disposal 

Bookmyjunk

EcoReco introduced the concept of bookmyjunk two years ago. The concept was to collect E-waste free of cost from anyone who is willing to give it away. So the company developed a mobile application out of the concept. Any environment-friendly person, interested to give their nonfunctional electronics can register at www.bookmyjunk.com or find the application on Google Playstore and log in to report.

EcoReco will pick it up from the doorstep free of cost. It is a CSR initiative by EcoReco. The chairman said, “We promote it through social media but there are limitations in terms of investment. So if venture capitalists come forward to this venture it can go nationally and can turn into a billion dollars industry.”

Recycling as Responsibility 

EcoReco believes that the government and industry should be a focus on enforcing the regulations. Once the regulation gets effectively enforced to fifty per cent, approximately 1.5 million metric tons of waste coming from the industries will divert from recycling to the recyclers. The urgent need of the hour is to get the authorities and the system working towards it.

EcoReco intends to work for recycling as a Common Social Responsibility. B K Soni notes that the Government support will make it more effective but there is no need to wait for that. Recycling can go ahead by itself if someone is willing to do it. 

Today, one cannot think of life without technology, and India is one of the major countries that are producing a huge amount of E-Waste. There is a definite need for a formalized and regulated E-waste recycling system. What the society needs more, are companies like EcoReco and committed spirits like B K Soni, to fight the threat of E-waste in a more responsible and concerted manner that leads to a sustainable future. 

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