IIT-M initiative and residents’ group combine to create data on e-waste

At the ongoing recyclable waste collection drive by Residents of Kasturbanagar Association, E-Source gets donors to declare their e-waste

E-waste tends to hurtle towards the recycling market, unnamed and undocumented and its condition undiagnosed. At the ongoing recyclable waste collection drive (February 11-13) by Residents of Kasturbanagar Association (ROKA), every piece of e-waste has to stand up and be counted. E-Source, a platform designed to track the flow of e-waste from collection to recycling, enhances the component that arrives mid-stream in this flow — namely, sorting. What the platform essentially does is:name the e-waste, diagnose its condition, and prescribe one of two remedies for it, that is, either repairing or recycling.So essentially, by creating data about the e-waste in the market, it seeks to prevent their hazardous handling, as also premature recycling.

Born out of sustainability dialogues at the Indo German Center for Sustainability at IIT-Madras, E-Source still largely remains an undefined entity. Jagannath Srivatsan, one of the three co-founders of E-Source — the other two beingRishika Reddy and Tarun Philip — notes, “We have not absolutely defined the format of how it should exist. There is potential to have it as a startup. Or, we have the larger peri-urban initiative (periurban.iitm.ac.in) at IGCS, and this can be a part of it.” Access to the E-source platform is possible through the Peri Urban site.

E-Source is engaging with the ROKA e-waste and clothes collection drive as a pilot project, as the quantity and variety of e-waste flowing in would help it flex its fledgling muscles.