This Coworking Space In Ghaziabad Offers A Safe Working Environment For People Recycling E-Waste

Coworking spaces have gained immense popularity worldwide in recent years as it makes it easier for smaller companies to have an office with all the necessary facilities without investing a huge amount in setting them up.

Ecowork (stylised as E[co]work) is a coworking space in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, but with a difference.

It is not your posh office space with unlimited internet and coffee, where you work on your laptops from the comfort of a chair or beanbag, but to dismantle e-waste.

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Recycling of e-waste

The informal sector has predominantly carried out the recycling of e-waste, like used electronic devices, including TVs, laptops, and mobile phones, often with little to no regard for the safety of those dismantling them.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, India generated 16.01 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2021-22. Of this, only 33 per cent or about 5.27 lakh tonnes were collected and processed.

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And over 90 per cent of this recycling was done by the informal sector.

Why informal e-waste recycling is dangerous

In most cases, the e-waste is collected by ragpickers or scrap dealers who then disassemble them in their backyards with minimal tools like hammers and screwdrivers, without any protective gear, often exposing them to injuries and toxic chemicals like lead, cadmium, mercury, and nickel.

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"E-waste recycling involves both hazardous and non-hazardous parts. The minute you start applying heat or acid to recover things or to change their form, it becomes hazardous. Some examples of this are melting plastic, putting PCBs into acids to recover copper, and burning wires and cables. These hazardous activities should be done at an industrial facility," Deepali Sinha Khetriwal, the co-founder of Ecowork, told Indiatimes.

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Coworking space for e-waste recycling

Khetriwal, who has nearly two decades of experience in e-waste management in India and Europe and has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, co-founded Ecowork to make the sector more formal and safe for everyone involved.

"Informal sector plays a major role in e-waste recycling, and it is important to fromalise them. Most of them don't have the infrastructure or resources to go to a formal facility. The informal e-waste recycling sector is a closely-knit community. They have established this network over many decades, and they don't want to disrupt that," she said.

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Why recyclers don't want to go formal

In Delhi, Seelampur and Mustafabad are the hubs of e-waste recycling, where the dismantling and segregating are done in basements of houses, scrapyards, etc, without any registration or legal oversight.

Other than the supply chain concerns, most informal e-waste recyclers are hesitant to formalise their business because they don't have the resources or knowledge to meet the compliances, regulations and tax requirements.

"The advantage of a coworking space is that you have all the infrastructure without having to invest in it yourself. With a coworking space, the informal sector could access these facilities while being fully compliant with the legal formalities. That is how the idea of Ecowork came up," Khetriwal said.

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What Ecowork offers

The first-of-its-kind effort, Ecowork, offers a safe working place and tools that the e-waste recyclers can rent on a ¡®pay-per-use for space¡¯ or ¡®pay-per-use for services¡¯.

"Not everything in e-waste recycling needs to be mechanised, and there are things that can be done manually and make the best value out of it. But if tools make some processes better and more efficient, we will provide them. We are offering them a working space and tools that can help them do their current job better, safely and with all legal formalities. We are also hoping to replicate the whole ecosystem from supplier to buyers at the facility," she said.

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In addition to this, Ecowork also offers additional services such as training, healthcare, insurance, banking services and more.

How recyclers see the idea of Ecowork

Despite everything they offer, Khetriwal admits that it was a challenge to get the e-waste recyclers onboard, even to try out their service.

"We have been working with recyclers for many years, and what we have experienced so far is that most of them are comfortable with how they have been operating for all these years and don't want to change that. But we have also seen many young, aspirational recyclers who have seen the value in what we are offering as they see the potential in the industry and know how they can grow if they are doing it formally," she said.

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Safer workplace = less pollution

According to her, by adopting safer workplaces and practices, e-waste recyclers can also reduce the environment of hazardous chemicals that are released into the atmosphere.

"By stopping the cables from being burned in the open, we can reduce the pollutant in the air, by not letting the PCBs go into the informal sector for leaching, you can prevent the acids from being thrown away into drains which will eventually end up in the soil or water bodies.

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