The world today generates roughly 50 million tonnes of e-waste per year, expecting to grow to 120 million tonnes by 2050. India is amongst the fastest growing e-waste generators and is expected to be generating close to 5.2 million tonnes per year by 2020. Globally only 20% is formally recycled with the remaining 80% either ending up in landfills or handled by informal sector - in India, this is closer to 95%.

The main sources of e-waste generation can be categorized as bulk consumers and non-bulk consumers. Bulk consumers include government departments, commercial establishments, educational institutions, health care facilities, that employ more than 20 employees or have an annual turnover of more than 1 crore. As the e-waste generated by the bulk generators is large in volume, the authorized recyclers directly pick up the e-waste from them.

However, the non-bulk generators of e-waste, like households and small establishments are not serviced by recyclers as the volumes do not justify the collection cost. This program aims to address this gap.

Environmental Synergies in Development (ENSYDE), in partnership with SAHAAS, is implementing a program to create awareness, stimulate responsible behaviour, and facilitate the collection of electronic wastes (E-waste) from households & institutions in Bangalore. They have reached out to communities through various means, including workshops, campaigns, emails, and social media. Backing our sensitization drive, a strong collection system is in place that includes door-to-door collection, drop-off boxes at Bangalore One Centers, Post Offices & Retail outlets, and a mobile collection van to collect e-waste and send it to an authorised recycler.

Over the last 3 years they have run their program across 40 wards of Bangalore city (20% of the city), reaching out to over 1 million residents over 280+ campigns. They have collected and processed, from individuals and communities, over 56 tonnes of e-waste, enabling 335 kgs of toxic waste to be diverted from landfills.