Tech Tuesday: New solutions to e-waste problems in India
Tech Tuesday is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for groundbreaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week we will showcase some of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum's website.
Attero Recycling pioneers a fully integrated, zero-land fill system for handling India’s e-waste
Attero – the name is Latin for waste – has established itself as India’s first and, at this point, only fully integrated, environmentally friendly processor of electronic waste. While Indian manufacturers have tended to ignore the health risks associated with discarded electronic components, the situation is about to change. The Indian government is preparing to drastically tighten controls and future legislation can be expected to move towards requiring electronics manufacturers to assume “cradle to grave” responsibility for their products. At the moment, Attero’s 36,000-ton reprocessing plant in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, is the only one of its kind in India. The plant handles e-waste fed into it by an extensive logistics network servicing 20 major Indian cities.
The company employs a first-of-its-kind metallurgical process developed in its own R&D centres, combined with mechanical separation techniques developed in collaboration with a leading US company. According to Attero, India’s electronic industry is growing by 20% a year and can expect to have generated 800,000 tons of e-waste by 2012. By 2015, India expects to have two billion PCs and a mobile phone subscriber base of 600 million. By then, e-waste disposal will be a critical concern. Attero, the only company to be officially registered by India’s Central Pollution Control Board for the environmentally sound recycling of hazardous waste, is uniquely positioned to lead the field.
Nitin Gupta, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Location: Noida, India
Number of Employees: 85
Year Founded: 2008
Attero Recycling Pvt Ltd
B-92 Sector-63
Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301
India
Telephone: +91 120 408 7100
www.attero.in
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