| E-waste: A Deep Dive and Potential Business Opportunities | MRS PROJECT- Group 7 | | | Abhishek Pal | B14003 | Harish VVK | B14025 | Meenhaz Ahmed | B14034 | Shoutik Chakrabarti | B14051 | Snehanshu Gupta | B14054 | Arunava Ray | B14137 | |

|

Introduction
Technology is in literal terms going to waste. In terms of electronics the world is progressing by leaps and bounds. However the recycling and handling of old, discarded and outdated electronics has not been able to keep pace.
A startling fact- It is approximated that 87.5% of the world’s e-waste is not recycled!
In India 40% of old, outdated and discarded electronic items languish in homes and warehouses. India is expected to have an 11% share in the global consumer electronic market by 2015.
One of the biggest complaints by many environmentalists is that companies price replacement parts and repair services at unattractive rates so that consumers would prefer buying no products. This has added to the e-waste conundrum. We have discussed later an example of Nintendo breaking away from this clutter

Fig. Device explosion globally

Fig. The World’s highest gross e-waste producers

Fig. The World’s highest e-waste Producers per Capita

Fig. EPA data from “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the US, 2012 ,”
India is not far behind, generating 13,00,000 tonnes of e-waste annually.

Fig. Projection of e-waste generation in India
Quite obviously, it were the larger and more developed states that produced the maximum e-waste.

Fig. State-wise e-waste culprits
There were certain cities and territories which are the major contributors. These numbers are of particular interest to budding entrepreneurs, current e-waste recycler looking to expand, Central Government to crack down on.
The large e-waste generation to follow in the future and the way metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are currently heading towards e-waste explosions, makes it a ripe environment for the implementation of the business ideas we have proposed at the end of this document.

Fig. Major contributors to e-waste in India

Literature Review
Categorization of e-waste
The E-waste can classified into broadly six categories. The following table explains that: | Waste Streams | Economic Attributes | Environmental Attributes | Social Attributes | Manual Dismantling/Sorting of Fractions | All | Cheap and hard To Sort/ Valuable Components | Efficient sorting is necessary for efficient disposal | Labour intensive | De-Gassing CFC, HCFC | C&F | Mandatory Per Governmental Regulations | High GWP potential. Fundamental control by governments across the globe | | Semi-automatic CRT cut and cleansing | CRT | Low investment and low cost | Low Energy Consumption | Labour intensive | Integrated Smelter For Non Ferrous | Non Ferrous ( Wiring Boards) | High capital. Low variable cost on achieving economies of scaleLocal growth | High recovery Rate. Above 95%. International transportation. Low Water Use | Automated process, but skilled labour needed | Aluminium Refiner | Aluminium | Net Low Cost But Significant Capital Cost | Non-toxic emissions, water use is less and transportation is allowed within the country | EHS low risk, high skilled and low skilled both required. Creates Jobs |

Globally E Waste has been classified into three groups based on country of origin.
Group A – This refers to countries with the introduction of pre-processing technologies with strong support for growth potential. (Uganda, Peru)
Group B – Significant support for pre and end support potential in building capacity in the informal sector. (India, China)
Group C – They can adapt and extend pre and end support mechanisms as per the need and using technology and knowledge transfer. (South Africa, Columbia, Brazil)
The material composition of scrap computers can be found in Appendix A. E-waste mineral composition can be found in Appendix B. These are essential to our proposed business model for budding entrepreneurs.
We have tied to cover public and company examples across the globe.
Many governments and companies have adopted regulatory models to help address the growing problem of e-waste.

Fig. 2 common models across the globe for handling e-waste
There are multiple opinions on the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility ranging from those who are almost evangelists for its implementation across domains and across geographies to those who despise the concept.
In the US (most states) and UK, there is a clear demarcation on the following- * Electronic goods that the companies and retailers take it up as their responsibility for recycling at no additional cost to the user. Examples being Nokia and Best Buy. * Where consumers need to pay for recycling and disposal of their products. Examples being office stationery, junk VCRs, old cars etc.
However in India there seems to be no clear demarcation. Also Subramanian Swamy has strongly protested to the Central Government providing subsidies on e-waste handling quoting that it is high time that private and public players both take it upon themselves to recycle and reuse e-waste. So in India once can say it is the concept of EPR in force.
The primary advantage of EPR is that companies would be forced to innovate and come up with better, less toxic and more sustainable solutions and also they wouldn’t just be making windfall profits but contributing to society as well. From a consumers point of view it also improves their buying behaviour. However those who are strong opponents of this concept feel that companies have enough burdens and the consumers must take primary responsibility of approaching companies/dealers/merchants (for a fee) to recycle their electronic junk.
Considering Europe, in Switzerland the first e-waste management program was set up in 1991 where all old electronics were disposed off. As of 2001 it was possible to return all electronics at the sales point. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive has been added in the laws of all EU nations putting the responsibility on the manufacturers at the end of its life. This focus on E-wastes has led to the development of the e-waste recycling industry worth $1.3Bn (as of 2012).
In Europe, the e-waste legislations are taken care of by the Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE) Department (as per the directive of the European Commission), which oversees the problems that member states face in handling their e-waste issues.
Between 2007 and 2008, the amount of EEE put on the market increased by 621 000 tonnes (6.3 %) from 9.8 million tonnes to 10.4 million tonnes. In 2009, the amount dropped by 1.1 million tonnes (11 %) to 9.3 million tonnes only to increase again in 2010 to 9.7 million tonnes, which was close to the 2007 level and corresponds to an average of 19.4 kg/inhabitant. The total e-waste generated in the year 2014 was 9.5 million tonnes, while the waste per individual saw a decrease to 18.7 kg/inhabitant.
Just as a comparison with India (which started acting only in 2010-11 along these lines) EU legislation restricting the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC) entered into force in February 2003. The legislation required heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium and flame retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) to be substituted by safer alternatives.
However, the US government considers EU’s environmental laws “unnecessary barriers to trade”. In the US, each state has a different viewpoint and method tackling e-waste management. Environment Protection Agency introduced the National Electronics Action Plan in 2005 to address environmental concerns of electronics. Instead of having extended producer responsibility, states like California have shifted the financial cost of recycling e-waste on consumers. Washington on the other hand the responsibility on manufacturers. The manufacturers have set up a state-wide network of collection points.
Mobile devices are by far the most prevalent wastes among the ones listed, with more than 152 million pieces being disposed in 2010, but only 17 million were given for recycling. Keyboards and Mice follow suit with 82 million, with only 7 million handed back to the manufacturer.
USA is the world leader in dumping e-wastes among the listed UN countries in 2014. A lot of this e-waste was dumped in Asian and African countries. For example in India in 2009 an IMRB survey found television and computer products consist of 68% and 27% respectively while mobiles lead to 1% of the total e-waste produced. India was one of the largest importer of e-wastes importing about 50000 tonnes. Attempts were made to stop this. However the Hazardous Wastes Rule 2008 restricted the import of hazardous material only for its disposal. Thus only e-wastes containing hazardous material can be restricted by this legislation. A lot of discarded computers enter India’s boundaries under the pretext of being donations. This number has been estimated at 50,000 tonnes.
A new bill, the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA) has been introduced to prevent companies from exporting their e-wastes to developing countries. This is expected to push companies to instead invest money in establishing infrastructure in the USA which would create 42000 new jobs across the country.
It has been difficult to get exact figures on the reduction in e-waste entering India as a direct consequence of this act, however there is visible improvements in USA. Every state in the US has tried to give its own little tweak to RERA. To further provide citizens and manufacturers with an incentive to recycle their e-wastes, each State has a designated law for the same, which mandates everyone to work towards forming a sustainable future. Some of them have been listed below and quoted to the letter: * Connecticut’s Electronics Recycling Law states that residents will have convenient and free opportunities to recycle their computers, printers, televisions and monitors; and manufacturers will finance the transportation and recycling of them. Retailers will be required to inform their customers about electronics recycling options, and will only be allowed to sell these products from manufacturers that have registered with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). * The Hawaii Electronic Waste and Television Recycling and Recovery Law requires manufacturers of covered electronic devices (CEDs) and televisions (TVs) to operate recycling programs. Covered electronics include computers, printers, monitors, and televisions. * Illinois Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act, signed forth on June 15 2015, states that companies need to step up their recycling goals from 50% to 80% for televisions and computer monitors; imposes penalties when those goals are not met (rather than when less than 70% of those goals are met); and prohibits recyclers and refurbishers from imposing a recycling fee on units of local government acting as collectors unless the recycler or the refurbisher also provides: 1) a financial incentive that is of greater value than the fee being charged; or 2) a premium service. Also recognizes the placement of CRT (cathode ray tube) glass into retrievable storage cells at a landfill; allows carry-forward credits to manufacturers.
There are several other laws which have enforced by states across the country and which have been levied to serve a similar purpose.
After several years of campaigns by environmental groups, MoEF introduced the Electronic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2010, which came into effect in 2012. According to this it became illegal to dump old consumer goods or sell them off to the scrap dealers. According to the new rules it must be routed to one of the authorized recycling centres for e-wastes. The informal sector recycles around 90-95% of the electronic goods in the country. However the processes followed in the informal sector exposes the workers to multiple health hazards due to the toxic chemicals present in the products, details of which can be found in our Appendix C. A few of our business ideas revolve around organising this informal sector and commanding a commission from the government in return.
The legislation covers discarded IT and telecoms equipment and consumer electrical goods. However, medical devices, light bulbs, fluorescent tubes and batteries are excluded. The legislation also restrict the use of toxic substances like cadmium, mercury, lead, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated biphenyl ethers in the manufacture of electronics.
This was the first time in India that laws followed and applied the concept of EPR or as they say in common parlance 'the polluter pays'. In future, manufacturers will be responsible for the safe disposal of electronic and electrical goods that they produce. They will be required to set up e-waste collection centres or introduce 'take back' schemes. Bulk users, such as large corporations, will need to keep a record of their e-waste disposal. A lot of our business ideas hinge around this area of lacking expertise in India.
Having one of the largest e-waste sites in the world, China has serious environmental issues related to electronics. It is a signatory of the Basel Convention banning the import of e-wastes. Regulations have led to wide-scale use of the Electronic Information Products logo on packaging signifying environmentally safe products as well as Environment Friendly Use Period in years.
In India, the following is how typically e recycling companies function, how the whole value chain looks like, a few business models.

Fig. Model 1

Fig. Model 2
The e-cycling business model discussed in the sections to come pretty much functions on Model 2.

Fig. Stakeholders involved in e-cycling industry

Fig. The e-waste trade flow in India
Empirical Evidence
China and its response to e-waste problems
The main region where the e-waste was typically shipped from internal and external sources was the Guangdong province, situated along China's south east coast. Other regions such as Zhejiang, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hunan, Fujian and Shandong are now also in the state of degradation due to e-waste dumping.
Examples in China and India are very different from those from the Western countries like that of GM, Ford in the automobile sector or Best Buy. In the West there is enough knowledge of e-waste, littering and causing pollution is considered a social stigma but in the East our cultures do not particularly look down upon discarding old equipment in local dumpareas, rivulets, lakes etc. A big issue can be found in the Sichuan Province, close to the Tibetan border, where people had a habit of throwing waste in rivers and nature. NGOs were engaged in 5 villages to design waste collections systems and storage points for e-waste were created. One of our business models would be dealing with this concept.
Many companies, like Nintendo, developed their own initiatives. Nintendo has tried to act responsibly. They offer a completely free programme of recycling Nintendos and competitors gaming consoles and Nintendo accessories. They also charge very attractive rates so that consumers would prefer repairing to buying new consoles.
Companies, like Dell, started to provide compensations to consumers in Beijing and Shanghai of US$0.15 for 1 kg of old computers. In order to receive the incentive consumers had to bring their used computers to local Dell stores at their own expense. The project failed because the financial gains of returning their computer to formal recyclers were lower than the gains from selling computers to informal collectors. This is just one of the examples of why companies need to take stronger steps and develop better interventions.
A few shining examples and laggards
Founded in 1995, PRO Europe is the organization behind the well-known “Green Dot,” the umbrella organization for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes. The organization is the general licensor of the "Green Dot" trademark, the means by which producers signal that they have paid for the cost of managing post-use packaging. Rather than having producers take responsibility for the physical recovery of their own packaging, they take financial responsibility through licensing with PRO Europe to utilize the Green Dot. Today, 25 nations are now using the "Green Dot" as the financing symbol for the organization of recovery, sorting and recycling of sales packaging.
From a company point of view, retailing giant Best Buy has seen its recycling take-back program grow from a costly gamble into a fast-growing business that’s making a little bit of money. The scepticism comes from the fact that the program is not only free to consumers, but they can also drop off just about any kind of electrical or electronic junk. At its launch in 2009, the chain required consumers to buy a $10 store card to drop off recycling. In November of 2012, Best Buy dropped that fee.
Nokia began its e-waste management campaign in 2008 when e-waste disposal was given little attention. In the first phase of its campaign, Nokia set up drop boxes across the country to take back used phones, chargers and accessories, irrespective of the brand at Nokia Care Centres or Priority Dealers. After the necessary infrastructure was set up, Nokia entered into the second phase of the campaign, which involved the public. Nokia’s mass campaign was implemented on January 1, 2009 in four cities of the country: Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ludhiana. The campaign was advertised on the front pages of all the major newspapers in the pilot cities and around 600 articles relating to it were published in different newspapers across the country.
While Nokia has been doing the right things there are certain top brands like Akai, BPL, Blackberry, HCL, Apple, Hitachi, Phillips, and Samsung which haven’t performed particularly well on this front.

Recently an Indian Start-up Attero, began its business in the e-cycling industry. It extracts precious metals from electronic boards, of old electronics: mobiles and computers and because metal extraction done in the right process has 0% degradation, it allows to ultimate sustainability. The company has recently raised $ 27 million and works with corporate giants like Epson & Xerox.
Jack Ma has started a green peace initiative in China that asked people to promote minimising toxic metals and materials in manufacture of electronics. Changing a phone or a new product creates a huge environmental impact. The problems has not just been disposal, but there has been transference of the toxins from the electronics to the food chain.
The following infographics shows some stellar work carried out by companies in developing technologies in e-waste handling.

Fig. Increased recovery in precious materials from e-waste

Fig. Regions and Companies applying for patents in e-waste recycling
We shall now look at some of the endless possibilities and windows of opportunities that are thrown up by the literature review and empirical evidence.
Managerial, business implications and business opportunities
High Risk areas with heavy pollution. Small scale recyclers. Research institutes
High Risk areas with heavy pollution. Small scale recyclers. Research institutes
Manufacturers, Formal collectors and recyclers
Manufacturers, Formal collectors and recyclers
International co-operation
International co-operation
Consumers, NGOs, Environmental groups, industrial associations
Consumers, NGOs, Environmental groups, industrial associations

The matrix above is a 2*2 matrix showing the kind of stakeholder management needed for e-waste management. * India’s informal sector of recyclers has been discussed in detail. Vietnam and China are sufferers on this front too. However improvement in the informal sector can never bring about powerful change standalone. The Central and State governments however must act fast since they are an extremely important chunk of the recyclers. Hence launching pilot programs to organise this sector by helping them erect facilities, creating awareness using NGOs, utilising the expertise of researchers to develop inclusive and scalable models should be the way to go ahead * Currently from an Indian scenario international cooperation limited to ratifying the Basel Convention is sufficient. There needs to be more concentration on actually implementing the Electronic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2010 * The eventual users of electronic goods are the most powerful influencers and tools in the fight against e-waste. NGOs should be engaged by governments and NGOs should themselves come forward with proposals just like the ones where Tibetan monks were instructed on how to dispose off electronic waste. Consumers need to be made aware that it is hassle free and there are enough outlets for recycling e-waste. Currently the awareness levels are extremely low. * Formal collectors are so few and far that we were inclined to label them as “Less Important” but in terms of “Influence” there is no denying that long term large scale projects taken up by players such as Eco Recycling, a technologically sophisticated recycler or Micromax or Lava and by smaller formal sector players are what will eventually change the landscape of e-waste handling in India.

Business Opportunities
Just to give an idea of how lucrative this field is, once can have a look at the following figure.

Business Opportunity 1- Full-fledged e-cycler of mainly mobiles, mobile phones, batteries, computers and computer peripherals
We have listed down the internationally accepted prices for scrap computer parts and the usual denominations that they are sold for. In India these prices are much lower (from very superficial discussions with computer suppliers in Mumbai) and quantities can be negotiated. Description | Price/Lbs | Minimum Quantity | Updated 06/16/2015: | | | AC Adapter w/cord | $0.12 | 25 lbs | AC Adapter w/o cords | $0.02 | 25 lbs | Cable Boxes | $0.05 | 25 lbs (or 5 units) | CD Rom/Floppy | $0.05 | 25 lbs | Cell Phone Batteries | $0.30 | 15 Lbs | Cell Phones (battery removed) | $3.00 | 10 lbs | CRT Monitors | $(0.10)/lb | 10 lbs | Docking Stations | $0.00 | 10 lbs | Fans (Computer/Server only) | free | free | Gold Memory (RAM) | $11.00 | none | Motherboards (P3 and older) | $2.25 | 25 lbs | Motherboards (P4 and newer) | $0.75 | 25 lbs | PCI Cards w/ gold fingers | $3.00 | 25 lbs | Hard Drive Boards | $7.00 | 05 lbs | Hard Drives | $0.45 | 25 lbs | Hard Drives – No Boards | $0.20 | 25 lbs | Hard Drives – Shredded w/Boards | $0.20 | 25 lbs | Heatsinks – Aluminum & Copper (Clean) | $0.65 | 10 lbs | Heatsinks – Copper (Clean) | $0.75 | 10 lbs | Heatsinks -Aluminum (Clean) | $0.35 | 10 lbs | House/Office Phones | free | 10 lbs | Keyboards | free | none | Laptop Batteries | $0.45 | none | Laptop Complete w/ Good Screen | $0.50 | none | Laptop Incomplete | $0.10 | 10 units | Mixed Computer Wire | $0.50 | 25 lbs | Network Switches/Routers | $0.20 | 10 lbs (or 10 units) | PC – Incomplete | $0.20 | 200 lbs (or 10 units) | Power Supplies – No Cords | $0.15 | 10 lbs | Power Supplies – With Cords | $0.10 | 10 lbs | Printers /Copiers | free | none | Servers – Incomplete (Missing Hard Drives and Power Supplies) | $0.10 | 50 lbs (or 10 units) | Silver Memory (RAM) | $2.24 | none | Toner & Ink Jet Cartridges | free | none | UPS & UPS Batteries (Uninterrupted Power Supply) | $0.10 | 25 lbs |

From the revenue point of view- S. No | Material | Material in Computer (1 KG) | Material In 183 Computers | Recoverable Material | Market Price Rs/KG | Total Value | 1 | Copper | 1.91 | 348.63 | 313.77 | 291 | 91306.01 | 2 | Tin | 0.27 | 49.8 | 34.86 | 605 | 21092.07 | 3 | Lead | 1.72 | 315.43 | 15.77 | 75 | 1182.85 | 4 | Aluminium | 3.86 | 705.56 | 564.45 | 143 | 80715.98 | 5 | Nickel | 0.23 | 42.33 | 33.87 | 1600 | 54186.95 | 6 | Iron | 5.58 | 1020.99 | 816.79 | 18 | 14702.19 | 7 | Zinc | 0.6 | 109.57 | 65.74 | 170 | 11176.06 | 8 | Plastic | 6.26 | 1145.5 | 229.1 | 60 | 13745.95 | Total | | | | | | 288108.1 |

This does not include the price of the gold recovered from RAMs from computers. (The amount of gold is very minimalistic, it is in ppm and hence there are no available standard rates. However there have been reports claiming that if huge recyclers with capacities in 1000s of MTPA deal in recovering and selling precious minerals they can reap huge profits.)
So if one were to calculate a rough figure for procuring 183 scrap computers (Assuming 1 RAM, 1 CRT, 1 keyboard, 1 motherboard, 1 hard drive board, 1 hard drive, 1 fan, 1 ups, 1 ac adapter, 1 mouse, additional peripherals) it comes out to be approximately INR 2,24,000 while the earning is INR 2,88,108.1. Profit of approximately INR 64,000/183 Computers. This model ignores the processing cost which is manageable once the plant is fully functional and large scale (many plants have capacities like 6000 MTPA)
The current model is designed more for computer and computer peripherals recycling as there no figures available for mobile manufacturing. However scaled down numbers for mobile phones can be used for preliminary checks of viabilities of potential business ideas.
Business Opportunity 2- Liaison between national firms and smaller fragmented recyclers
As mentioned earlier India generates around 13,00,000 tonnes of e-waste annually and it is growing at 26% annually. Majority of this comes government and private firms. Previously most of this waste ended up in the informal sector which pose higher health and environmental hazard. The E-waste Management and Handling Rules enacted in 2012 introduced extended producer responsibility in India whereby it was the electronic equipment producers onus that e-waste is collected, dismantled and disposed off properly. Failures to abide can lead to fines and even imprisonment.
With the proliferation of e-waste startup across the country and each of limited reach, it has become a chore for firms to tie-up with multiple e-waste management firms in different parts of the country, draw up contracts and monitor if the e-waste are being properly disposed off. This is where a firm can come in to act as consultants and manage the e-waste handling across the country for government as well as private organizations.
Value Proposition
The firm will act as a liaison between national level firms with footprint across the country and the multiple e-waste management firms. It will ensure proper disposal of the products, ensure timely collections from e-waste collection centres across the country and ensure maximum revenue from the sale of e-waste.
Customer Segments: B2B (both government and private firms)
Key Activities: Evaluation and selection of E-waste companies. Act as liaison between firm’s regional offices and the local e-waste management firms. Schedule pickup and collect payments for the e-waste provided.
Key Partners: Government and private firms; e-waste companies, logistics companies, hazardous waste carriers.
Channels: Maintain government relationships though referrals and advocacy. Private firm relationships though trade shows, blogs, emails and social media.
Cost Structure: Maintain local personnel and offices all across the countries, marketing costs.
Revenue Structure: Revenue/ Tonne or commission based on the revenue earned for client from E-waste sales.
Business Opportunity 3- E-waste marketplace
The Need
The mandatory introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in India has increased work for most manufacturers in India. Till now India depended on informal recyclers for getting the most out of discarded electronic products and EPR was more of a Western concept. With the introduction of EPR, companies now have to engage customers to return to them their products once they want to get rid of it. Select e-waste contractors, most of which are start-ups which have come up in the last few years. There is little information about the credibility and performance of each of these recycling players and companies select their recycling partners more on an ad hoc basis rather than going through a comprehensive process.
The Solution
A solution for the above conundrum could be creating a B2B market place where companies would be able to find all information and players providing e-waste disposal solutions. Along with e-waste companies it can also feature logistics and hazardous material carriers so companies situated in cities where recycling facilities are not available. It can have a feature where e-waste companies are rated by their clients based on the performance. Thus companies which are doing really well will have a place to stand out. It can also feature a B2C subportal where companies can schedule pick up from households in case they have e-waste accumulated in their households.
Features
The features of the market should be as such it provides all the information required once two parties have decided to go ahead. It will make creation of the contract a smoother process. Plus internal algorithms should be able to recommend best-fit recyclers to firm based on the type of electronics to be disposed off, the magnitude of these waste, the spread from where products will have to collected and the priority of the firm in terms of costs, process, efficiency of the disposal process and the revenue to be provided back to the firm by the recyclers. It can include forward integration as well by providing recyclers a place where they can be approached by raw material users looking to buy from them. Thus the goal is create an ecosystem which aims at maximizing value, promote responsible breakdown of e-waste and maximize revenue extracted at each stage. Plus a mechanism to promote the high rated recyclers would push them towards better performance.
Requirements and Challenges
One of the major challenges is getting firms onboard who have already made contracts with a recycler. The added benefit from terminating the existing contract and selecting from the portal would be minimum. But the presence of multiple recycling firms can ensure competitive prices and product offerings. Still these firms need to be approached in the proper departments and regularly appraised regarding benefits of using the portal. For recycling firms it can be positioned as a place where they can get easily visibility as the firms would be actively seeking them out and not the other way around. Major costs would be marketing and brand building initially, while technology investment can be seen as a onetime major investment with minimum incremental features added at a time.
Business Opportunity 4- Exploiting the Centre’s benevolence for North Eastern States
Governments are providing subsidies to those players that responsibly handle e-waste. Something similar can be done in India. Most local players, don’t have money nor willingness to invest in better tech to handle e-waste. We can act as an intermediary and make some money in the bargain.
The Chinese government in 2012, came up with a disposal scheme that collects the e waste via the tax and customs authority. The government itself collected and provided subsidies to these stakeholders in an attempt to support sustainable and legal ways of developing an industry around recycling.
The development potential is very high for such a business model as it removes the primary barrier of dissonance amongst the stakeholders, monetary benefit.
E-waste collectors generally complain about negative value proposition, due to the lack of quality material and non-availability of buyers in the secondary market, complaining of negative value notably amongst CRTs.
The government is at the helm of cracking the code, but the crux remains with the correct identification of the incentive structure that makes it a lucrative industry, for players to enter and prosper. There is a significant lack in the technology development in the e waste recycling industry as it is primarily loss making sector.
The Union Department of Information and Technology (DoIT) had proposed a scheme to provide up to 50 per cent subsidy to e-waste recycling units, however only items that were previously registered with the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) will be eligible for the subsidy.
In India however the move was sniggered upon, with Environmentalists playing the moral high ground and stating that this would be unethical, in the essence of paying people to do the right thing. They also added that E Waste recycling can be done in multiple ways, most of which are very harmful to the environment like incineration and thus unless the by-laws are present to ensure a standardised safe procedure there is no way in which a such a subsidy would work. In fact they argues that it would lead to a lot of rogues disposing waste in unsustainable ways to get the subsidy and primary objective of the entire effort would be lost.

Business Model Provided By Indian Government for Such Purposes:

1. Up to 25% of Project Cost of be borne by the Government and in case of NE States the government shall bear up to 50% of total project cost in facilities of E Waste Disposal Facilities 2. Central assistance with the ceiling of 13.75 crore for Treatment, Storage & Disposal Facilities (TSDFs) 3. For NE States Central assistance with the ceiling of 27 crores for Treatment, Storage & Disposal Facilities (TSDFs) 4. The funds will be provided only for new facilities and expansion of existing facilities. 5. Central Assistance will also be provided for the techno-economic feasibility of the project. The project shall be appraised by an independent empanelled agency.

Business Opportunity 5- Specialising only in extracting rare and precious materials from e-waste

For entrepreneurs, the e-waste recycling drive can open up many opportunities, especially in the excavation of rare earth metals, which are used in small quantities in many electronic items, but are not readily available, which increase the prices of the current crop of electronics. With the e-waste in developed countries being exported outside, the countries currently bridled with the responsibility of extracting those metals do not have the onus or the knowledge to make differentiations based on the quality of metal, for which a lot of rare metals have to be disposed of. With recycling now set to happen in house, someone can take the responsibility to unearth the rare metals and dispose the remaining e-wastes to the companies to carry on their practice. This would allow the recycling stations to save on infrastructure costs and also make use of specialized personnel who are otherwise wasted in a full blown recycling model. A few of the rare metals are as follows, which can help us sustain their presence in the long run.
Neodymium – used in various magnetic applications, which vary from microphones, speakers to hard disk drive components.
Yttrium, terbium, europium – used as a replacement for phosphors in various electronic equipment.
Lanthanum – carried as electrode material in nickel-metal hydride batteries, which have found a niche for themselves in hybrid vehicles.

Online Links References (For the papers we have referred to please refer to the ZIP folder on References)

* http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/e-waste-management-market-is-expected-to-reach-494-billion-global-by-2020--allied-market-research-289153881.html * http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/13/19_beeelion_of_electronics_waste_illegally_dumped_says_un/ * http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-01-08/the-complex-business-of-recycling-e-waste * http://emcentre.com/WasteRecycling/Presentation/EMC_Dr.Modak.pdf * http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/2013/10/huge-potential-for-e-waste-recycling-growth-in-europe.html * http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/e-waste-toxic-not-in-our-backyard210208/ * http://www.repic.co.uk/What-is-WEEE * http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/July/13071101.asp * http://www.earth911.com/work/federal-e-waste-bill-new-jobs/ * http://www.electronicstakeback.com/promote-good-laws/federal-legislation/ * http://www.earth911.com/work/federal-e-waste-bill-new-jobs/ * http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/20/us-environment-waste idUSKBN0NA00V20150420

Appendix A