One man’s e-waste is this man’s treasure
Twenty-four-year-old Sivaneswaran Muthusamy collects a variety of electronic waste
By : purnima sah
Update: 2015-06-13 07:38 GMT
COIMBATORE: He has turned e-junk into an enterprise. Twenty-four-year-old Sivaneswaran Muthusamy collects a variety of electronic waste like wires, mobile phones, telephones, home appliances, television sets, DVD players, printers, computers, laptops, electronic waste from hospitals, schools and colleges and recycles at Vel Tech University, Chennai. After recycling, he sells the copper, aluminum, plastic, iron to the local traders and they in turn, send them to the manufacturers who make electronic boards.
His company, Electronic Recycling Solutions located in Athipalayam road in Coimbatore has tied up with PSG college of arts and science and K.S.G. college of arts and science; three local companies, seven project centers and five computer service centers.
E-Recycling Solutions is available on Just Dial and India Mart and Facebook as well. After completing his Master of Science in Applied Electronics from PSG college of arts and science in 2014, Sivaneswaran had no clue about what to do next. Then he attended the entrepreneur development programme at the PSG college where he picked up his entrepreneurial ideas.
“As this is just a beginning and not everyone knows about this kind of business, it will take time to evolve and grow. I expect to earn more and invest back into the business in coming days.” He spent three months to learn the nuances of recycling e-waste. Initially he visited many companies in Chennai but they offered little help. “I came back and started surfing on the Internet on various ways to recycle. I watched videos, contacted many recycling companies and they gave a idea about recycling. So, you can say, it is largely self-learning.” Every evening, he spends time to research and understand the market of recycling e-waste.
If the e-wastes are in the state of re-use, he sends it to the second buyers in the local computer centres, mostly in Pollachi and Karamadai. “I did a project during the college course on 'fingerprint authentication for train locomotive' in which I used electronics like transformers, picture controller board, fingerprints scanner, driver board and few wires.
After the project got over, I wanted to sell it or do something out of it, because it wasn't useful anymore, but didn't know how. Then Mr Krishna Kumar, the head of the department of PSG college of arts and science, gave me ideas on recycling,” he recalls. From then on, he started collecting e-wastes from electronic dealers, service centres and motorbike shops. “When I was struggling to understand the process and marketing of e-waste, through PSG college of technology’s science and technology entrepreneurial park (STEP) and entrepreneurship development cell (EDC), this year I got a small office room and free machinery to work with at national science and technology incubation centre in Vel Tech University, Chennai. It was good to see many young entrepreneurs working there; it was a big break for me and gave me a new way to do what I really wanted to do.”
So far, he has collected one-and-a-half tonne of electronic waste and he sends it to Vel Tech where he recycles them. Sivaneswaran’s elder brothers have invested Rs 20,000 to set up a warehouse. His future plan is to spread awareness about e-waste programme all over the country. His mantra is to make India clean and green. "My focus will be on major cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, etc. As technology scales up, e-waste too piles up. If we all understand and know the process and importance of recycling, we can easily have clean and green India." Next time, you want to junk a cable or an old computer, just think of e-recycling solutions.