It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. Similar work is being done regarding critical minerals. In a plant in the North, work is going on to extract lithium by crushing hundreds of waste batteries. So that the country does not have to face shortage of critical minerals. India is cashing in on a growing “e-waste” sector – extracting critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt, which are needed to make everyday electronics, from smartphones to fighter jets and electric cars, AFP reports.
With demand expected to rise rapidly and domestic mining unlikely to produce meaningful production for at least a decade, India turned to its growing mountain of electronic waste. These growing mountains contain hard disks. In which rare earths are present in large quantities. E-waste has long been called a “gold mine” for essential minerals.
According to official data, India generated about 1.5 million tonnes of e-waste last year — enough to fill 200,000 garbage trucks — although experts believe the real figure is likely to be double that. At Exigo Recycling’s massive plant in Haryana state, a machine turns e-scooter batteries into black powder. The material is then turned into a wine-red liquid, filtered, evaporated and finally turned into a fine white powder — lithium. The lead scientist at the facility, watching the final product accumulate in trays, even called it white gold.
How are minerals recovered from e-waste?
Industry estimates suggest that “urban mining” — the recovery of minerals from e-waste — could cost as much as $6 billion per year. Although this is not enough to meet India’s projected demand, analysts say it can help absorb import shocks and strengthen the supply chain. However, most e-waste is still broken down in informal backyard workshops to extract easily marketable metals such as copper and aluminium, thereby bypassing the use of essential minerals.
India’s formal recycling capacity is limited compared to China and the European Union, both of which have invested heavily in advanced recovery technology and traceability systems. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, India has “100 percent import dependency” for essential minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.
To address this shortfall, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last year approved a $170 million program to promote formal recycling of critical minerals. This program is based on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules, under which manufacturers are required to collect e-waste and give it to recyclers registered with the government.
Earlier the informal sector was recycling
Raman Singh, Managing Director of Exigo Recycling, said that EPR has acted as a major catalyst in bringing the recycling industry to scale. It is one of the few Indian facilities to extract lithium. Other analysts also believe that these rules have sent more waste to the formal sector.
Nitin Gupta of Atero Recycling said in an AFP report that before the EPR was fully implemented, 99 percent of e-waste was being recycled in the informal sector. Atero Recycling says it can recover at least 22 essential minerals. About 60 percent has now become formal.
Government data suggest even greater changes, although critics say these figures are inflated due to poor tracking of total e-waste generation. More than 80 percent of India’s e-waste is still processed informally, according to a United Nations Development Program note in October.
Informal recycling is full of dangers
Indian government think-tank NITI Aayog has warned that organized recycling is lagging behind both policy targets and rapidly increasing amounts of waste. Informal recycling is fraught with dangers — open burning, acid baths and demolition without protection expose workers to toxic fumes and contaminate soil and water.
Sandeep Chatterjee, senior advisor at Sustainable Electronics Recycling International, said in a media report that most of India’s e-waste still flows through informal channels, leading to “loss of essential minerals”. He was quoted by AFP as saying that India’s informal sector remains the backbone of garbage collection and sorting.
Seelampuri, a low-income neighborhood in Delhi, is one of India’s largest informal e-waste hubs, its narrow streets littered with tangled cables and broken devices. Shabbir Khan, a local trader, said in a media report that new companies keep a lot of goods only for certification, but the rest comes to us. Business has increased…not decreased.
Chatterjee said that the scrap that finally reaches the formal recycler often first passes through informal hands. He said that involving informal people in the traceable supply chain can significantly reduce the loss of precious essential minerals at the sorting and dismantling stage.