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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

E-waste warrior aims at Bengaluru clean-up

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Biswajit Choudhury -


In a mushrooming urban landscape where waste disposal is becoming big business, meet one of India’s new breed of waste warriors. Saahas Zero Waste (SZW) is an enterprise with the motto of making maximum social impact in the area of sustainable urban development.


Started in 2013, Saahas describes itself as a socio-environmental company that believes in conversion of all waste to resources. Its clients in this IT hub, which disgorges large amounts of e-waste, are an array of major names such as Bosch, Shell, GE, JP Morgan, JLL, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Tetra Pak, Aadhar and HCL.


Recognised as a start-up by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), SZW operates on-site solutions for bulk waste generators including tech parks and residential complexes, Client Manager Sabira Lakhani said.


“For smaller waste generators, we offer holistic waste management which includes collection and processing at our units. Our focus is to help our clients become zero waste entities with emphasis on segregation at source,” she said.


What facilitated Saahas’s pioneering work in this area is the fact that the Indian state of Karnataka has been ahead of many other states in enacting a law on e-waste management and action on mandatory segregation, says Lakhani, an American of Indian origin and now a Bengaluru resident.


Indian waste management is governed by various legislation rolled out by the Union Environment Ministry in association with state pollution control boards, state governments and municipalities.


Lakhani explained that SZW partners with packaging companies and e-waste producers to implement a “reverse logistics mechanism” that facilitates bringing back large volumes of post-consumer waste into the recycling chain.


“Our USP is that we help minimise the amount of waste that goes into city landfills,” she said.


As part of its “closing the loop” initiative, SZW offers products made from waste at its units, including compost and a range of other recycled products like roofing sheets, chipboards and other items.


The potential of waste management in India can be gauged from official figures that around 62 million tonnes of solid waste is produced in the country every year, of which only 43 million tonnes is collected, only 12 million tonnes treated and the rest dumped. This figure is expected to rise to 436 million tonnes by 2050.


Around 4.5 million tonnes is hazardous waste that includes biomedical waste. Three million tonnes of plastic and 3.2 million tonnes of e-waste is generated annually in India.


SZW, which also has operations in Chennai, Hyderabad and Surat, handles 25 tonnes of waste a day in Bengaluru.


A survey by business research organisation Novonous says the Indian waste management market is expected to be worth $13.62 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 7.17 per cent. The Union Labour Ministry expects the e-waste market to grow at 30.6 per cent during 2014-19.


Saahas estimates that India will be generating nearly 300 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste per annum by 2020.


While the government has linked waste management to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-inspired Clean India initiative, the current fragmented nature of the industry, at its beginnings, is hampering fuller tapping of this potential. — IANS


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