E-Collect

In brief, we are determined to spread awareness, as well as do our bit in dealing with the problem of e-waste management. Considering that only 12.5% of the total e-waste produced is recycled, we thought that we should step up and work for this cause. We had observed that even though the Noida (where we function) Authority did make provisions to collect garbage, no amount of importance was given to the collection of e-waste. Therefore, what we are doing is that we’re associating ourselves with various societies and RWAs (Resident’s welfare associations) in order to set up e-waste bins. Once the e-waste bins are filled up, we are contacted by the authorities, and subsequently, we ensure that those e-waste bins are collected and sent to recycling centers. This problem is not centered at one place, it is global, and everyone must work towards eliminating this. 

The problem address is the disposal of e-waste. Though the current generation of e-waste is not as high as other waste streams but its current state of management is causing environmental pollution while recovery and recycling of value from it in the informal sector remains a cause of concern. E-waste represents 2% of trash in landfills, but it equals 70% of overall toxic waste. Seeing this, we can say that it is a major problem that needs to be addressed. According to a recent report by the BBC, e-waste pollution is causing severe health concerns for millions of people around the world, mostly in the developing nations of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Approximately 23 percent of deaths in these nations are linked to pollution and other environmental impacts. The report also concluded that more than 200 million people worldwide are at risk of exposure to toxic waste. E-Waste can cause damage to our brain, heart, liver, kidney, and skeletal system. It can also lead to DNA being damaged, weak nervous and reproductive systems, an incremental increase in the no of cancer cases and much more. This is the reason why we are tackling this problem.

Our solution is relatively simple yet highly effective. 

Our solution mainly focuses on raising awareness about the degradation caused by it. We have tied up with a company( NAMO E-Waste ) that makes sure that e-waste is disposed safely. We set up bins in the societies in our city, which makes it easy for people to dispose of e-waste. We even persuade people to give up e-waste through marketing, advertisements, and notices with the help of the management sector of the apartment complexes. In this way, people will come to senses about how big of a problem this is and we will help improve our environment while profiting the e-waste disposal companies. We hence identified the 'problem creators' and the people with the solution in their hands. Instead of being one of the people with the solution we decided to be the bridge between them, hence helping them address every person who has e-waste to dispose of. We decided to do this because even though solutions to this global menace is there, the problem is existing, people just do not know about it. 

Our solution is that we connect the people with e-waste with the companies that recycle the same. Improper disposal of e-waste mainly affects the lives of the urban population as most of the e-waste is created in urban areas. E-waste contains chemical substances like mercury, lead, cadmium, poly-brominated flame, etc which when discarded directly into the soil without proper disposal, contaminate the soil with harmful toxins. These substances do not decompose into the soil and further contaminate soil close by. They enter our food chain and cause brain, heart, liver, kidney, and skeletal damage. They can also cause birth defects and have high cancer rates. If this problem is left untackled, it would affect the human body’s nervous and reproductive system. Even though e-waste sums up to only 2 percent of the total waste, it equals to about 70 percent of the toxic waste. Since prevention is better than cure, our model helps in eliminating this threat that deteriorates human health in the long term. Proper disposal of e-waste will also prove to be beneficial for the upcoming generations. Our solution will help solve this problem and will thus impact everyone's lives positively in the long run.

The challenge is of health security & pandemics and the problem we are tackling is the improper disposal of e-waste. Our solution is ensuring proper disposal of e-waste and our solution’s target is the urban population. E-waste has many health hazards such as damage to the brain, heart, liver, kidney, and skeletal system which poses a direct risk to the health security of individuals. Our problem might not be to an immediate menace: e-waste but it’s a silent killer in the long run. By our initiative, this problem can be prevented from being a global menace.

Usually, e-waste produced in homes is disposed of with normal garbage. There are no separate bins for the disposal of e-waste, which causes problems at recycling centers (if they end up there). Thus, we decided to put up special red colored e-waste bins in every locality we associated ourselves with. Due to this, people did not have to get their waste collected separately, but instead, it was collected in one single bin. It also became easier for the recycling companies to take the waste with them, without much hassle. One of our competitors, SAAHAS, a non-profit organization also conducted the same business as us; however, unlike them (who did not accept less than 10 kg in a single go), our work was flexible, and we accepted all amounts of e-waste—from a mere 500 grams to as huge as 15 kg. Inspired by how technology has changed the world, we also used short films and social media as an innovative way to spread our message. 

Being a group of normal teenagers, we are extremely fascinated by the way technology influences—nay, drives this world. Our business model, which involves connecting with various managers and factory-persons, functions primarily on the basis of technology. We rely immensely on technology for communication purposes. Using social media as a resourceful platform has become one of our most important priorities. We also use cameras and film making soft wares to provide the citizens with a virtual and more interesting experience. Moreover, the actual recycling that takes place inside the factories is enormously dependent on machinery and digital systems. Recycling and incineration machines are just a few examples. In addition, water separation technologies, metal sensors, color recognition technologies are used for separating plastic, metals and circuits. Such improvements in science have dramatically changed the e-waste game. And of course, e-waste is basically technology—we wouldn’t be able to function without it, now, would we?

Our solution is not a new technology that we have ourselves come up with. The technological part of our solution that is not carried out by us is rather carried out with the E-Waste Management company we have tied with. That technology is in implementation for quite a long time now. Even though the solution was designed quite a long time ago, it is not being implemented everywhere. People in developing and undeveloped nations, at times do not even know what e-waste is. That is why our team has taken up the responsibility of making people aware of what e-waste is and what threats does it has on our future. Also, our team will be the nexus between many apartment complexes and housing societies and e-waste management companies. That is the work done on our behalf. As far as technology is concerned, methods have been devised and are incomplete implementation for quite a long time now. E-Waste Recycling includes various procedures and methods like separation both by machines and manually, dismantling, shredding, briquetting, pelletizing, and many more. Some pictorial evidence of our solution can be found on the gallery page of our website. ( https://5ee8fed5e87e8.site123.... )

One of the main problems regarding e-waste management is people’s negligence towards it. They often think that e-waste is no different from normal waste and dispose it of without any special treatment. According to studies, electronic waste has been identified as very toxic and harmful for the environment. Moreover, it also contains precious metals such as gold and silver—the loss of which can prove to be very harmful for the economy. Our solution—that aims to encourage people to throw their e-waste in separate, large bins—can help increase the amount of e-waste recycled. The first stage of our long-term goals is probably to inculcate the habit of disposing e-waste separately among people, and spread awareness about its hazards, if not thrown properly. Being a group of only 5 adolescents, we would also like to expand in terms of the number of people helping us operate—by involving volunteers. Moving to the next stage, we shall focus on extending our relations and connecting with more e-waste recyclers so that we can extend our radius of operations. At a macro level, recycling will definitely have a positive impact on the environment, with a reduction in pollution levels (incineration causes air pollution). Filling up of landfills will also see a significant drop, leading to reduced soil pollution. All in all, our solution can have a positive impact on the lifestyle of the people, as well as the environment. It can help change the world for better.

As we have just started with our project this year, we have kept things on a rather small scale. Currently we serve five societies, each with roughly 100 residents bringing the total number to 500 people (The amount of E-Waste collected from all of them amounts upto 100kg per month). We have decided that we will be approaching at least 2 societies or residential apartments every month, convincing them to be a part of our mission and help us ensure the proper disposal of E-Waste. This will result in our family increasing to 11 societies by the end of this year. Within a year if everything goes as planned, we will be easily serving and collecting E-Waste from approximately 1500 people. Within 5 years we are planning to cover a complete city, installing special E-Waste bins not only in apartments, but also on roads in order to achieve maximum collection. For the same we will be highly increasing our resources and might also expand our team. This will be done by partnering with more E-Waste management companies such as BRP Infotech Private Limited E- Waste Management company and Hindustan E-waste Management Private limited.

Being a recently found organization, we are currently only serving in a handful of communities. Given the fact that our organization is recently founded and the fact that COVID-19 Pandemic is having major impacts on our services, our goal until the next year is to expand in our region and reach out to more communities, in our region itself. We look forward to providing separate e-waste disposal bins to more and more communities and spread awareness about this 'menace in the development' so that it can be tackled appropriately before its too late. We want to bring this issue into the notice of several authorities. Within the next five years, we aim towards getting global recognition and spread our vision on a global stage and our main target is our own country, India itself. We want to mentor the upcoming like-minded generation to bring up serious threats into noticed whilst working on a suitable solution. We aim towards getting more partnerships with companies and with other organizations that can help propagate our idea. Moreover, we also want to educate people about the word ‘e-waste’ itself and the related health hazards associated if it is continued being disposed of along with the regular household waste.

The barriers we face vary. One of them is the fact that we can only reach a small amount of area, lessening the radius of effect. Moreover, due to the current situation of COVID-19, we aren’t able to be in contact with a lot of people as we cant go out. This fact puts a hindrance on our objective. But yet we are still trying our best by getting in contact with the heads of some societies. Another major barrier we are facing is that not a lot of people are aware of the threat e-waste imposes. So it is proving to be a bit difficult for us to persuade them to dispose e-waste in the bins we managed to set up. Also, we aren’t a big organization, we are just a group of 15-16-year-old kids trying to make a small change in this world. We aren’t receiving any funding, so what we are doing is paid by us only. 

Right now e-waste may only seem like a small problem but in the future, it will only escalate and therefore a timely action is highly necessary.

There are always problems to be faced, may that be by organizations, individuals, or communities. One always tries to find solutions to those problems. Similarly, we are also poised with several challenges to which we are trying to find solutions. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, our services have been disrupted and we are not being able to carry out our processes. Once the lockdown is relaxed, we plan on going house to house to raise awareness and urge people to dispose of e-waste in the bins set up by us. But without any funds it would be very difficult for us to persuade them to give us e-waste, we need to provide them with some kind of benefits. That, again, would have been easier for us to achieve if more people were aware of this problem. So after some time, after we have reached a substantial amount of communities, we plan on raising funds for our solution in the form of grants. This would also help us to increase the quality of our solution and also to reach out to a large number of people. Right now, our marketing part is almost restricted because of the COVID-19 Pandemic and also because of a lack of funds. Once we obtain funds, we aim to spend them in the right place by using those funds to spread our service and by spending those funds on marketing.

We are a team of 5 adolescents who believe in working for humanity so that a positive change can be created in the lives of several people. We all have a passion for impact, driven with a spirit of innovation. We all work part-time in this project but are creating a positive change around us and aim to spread our vision all over the globe. We also aim to reach the lives of as many people as we can by effectively spreading our solution. We always all work cohesively to bring out the best we can.

Our team can be said to be in a pretty good position to deliver this solution. This is mainly because of the versatility of our team, team spirit, and mutual respect for all members of the team.  Also, we have divided our work in such a way, that it is extremely easy for each of us to handle our departments and also to help each other out in their respective tasks and work cohesively in the team. Divyansh Agrawal who is the Founder and CEO of our organization takes care of the overall functioning of the organization. He makes this task easy with his entrepreneurial bent of mind. Mira Sehgal who is the Head of Management also takes care of the overall functioning of the company with her impeccable management skills. Archit Goyal, who is the Executive Director of the organization, takes care of our business plan and strategy with his business mindset which he has developed over the years. Suhani Jain (Head of Marketing) takes care of our marketing with her extraordinary marketing skills and creativity. Krish Talwar (Head of Operations) takes care of all the operations of the organization. He ensures that all the respective operations are carried out in a proper way with his organization skills. This structure helps us all to ensure that all the processes and tasks of our organization are carried out properly and this sets up in the prime position to deliver a new application of existing technology.

We are currently in partnership with ‘NAMO E-Waste’ company. The goal of this company is to ensure that the E-Waste produced in the country is sustainably disposed, preventing the release of harmful toxins and chemicals in the air and the soil. Our work is to serve as a bridge between the public and the E-Waste Management company. This is being done by raising more and more awareness amongst the public. For the same we talk to the authorities of a particular society and explain to them the negative consequences of e-waste if not managed properly. Once we are able to convince them and have their permission, our task is to then explain the same to the residents and make sure that they become a part of our mission. Afterwards, we contact the company and get separate e-waste bins installed. Till now we have approached several societies with our idea and were successfully able to implement it. Our work is also to ensure that the garbage is being picked up regularly and that the people are disposing e-waste distinctly . In the future we are willing to partner with more E-Waste management companies and to take this project to a nation-wide level. We are also planing to start an E-Waste management company of our owns, which will help us to directly connect with the public rather than just being a mediator.

Our business model can be described as a model that is simple yet is very effective and efficient when applied. We have partnered with a company which undertakes the process of recycling of e-waste (NAMO E-Waste). With the help of the e-waste recycling company that we have partnered with, we set up special e-waste bins in housing societies and apartment buildings. We have tied up with the management of the apartment buildings which inform us whenever an adequate amount of e-waste has been collected. Our team then organizes the collection of the e-waste given to us with the help of our partner company. We ensure our presence at the time of the collection of the e-waste and we also make sure that all the processes are carried out in the designated manner. That waste is then delivered to the e-waste recycling centers where the e-waste is the non-biodegradable and toxic substances are separated and the remaining bio-degradable substances are decomposed in the soil. We obtain a decent amount of money by selling the e-waste and that money is donated to the needy people. By this simple method, we address environmental problems as well as reach out to the needy. By this work model, we are currently reaching out to only a handful of communities, but we plan to reach out to more communities by expanding our operations as soon as possible.

We believe that to have a successful company, one must try to avoid all kinds of liabilities be it financially or any other resources. Keeping that in mind we established a company that presently is financially independent. The mission of our company is to collect E-Waste and make sure that its disposal is done properly. A lesser-known fact is that E-Waste has a monetary value. In India E-Waste can be easily sold for a price of 150 rupees per kilogram which is approximately equivalent to 2 dollars. The components and metals found in E-Waste, if extracted in the right manner can be utilized again. As of now all the money that is being earned, is utilized by us to expand our project and to provide some benefits to the people helping us do so (Residents of colonies and societies who are a part of our initiative). Fortunately, we can save a little amount after our expenses to donate to charities too. As we have just started with our project this year, our expenses are very limited and hence do not require any kind of external help. In the future, though we are planning to set-up our own E-Waste management company which might require a huge one-time investment but will later become financially self-reliant again. For this, we might take aid from other people, in the form of a grant. The specific amount required for this is a decision which will be taken by us in the future.

We were exhilarated when we found out about MIT Solve. We felt that it would act as the perfect medium to spread our ideas and convey what we felt was a growing concern in contemporary times. If our solution were to get selected, we would want to spread our vision on a global stage and encourage people—regardless of their age, gender, race or ethnicity—to work, not only for this particular cause, but for whatever they feel is the need of the hour. With the large cash funding provided, we could also get more partnerships with companies and partner with other organisations which can help us spread our idea. Moreover, it can also help us in social advertising, holding events and expanding our work region. Through this, we can overcome one of our key barriers—reluctance of the people to understand the problem. By spreading awareness through posters and social media, people can be rightly convinced that e-waste management is a serious concern. Last, but not the least, we would like to emphasize that the youth is the future of the world. Only through active engagement with teenagers and young adults, can there be a positive revolution on the planet. And we would like to be an epitome of the same.

Our work is to spread awareness regarding the ill effects of E-Waste, amongst the people and tackle this grave problem. For the former, we believe that social media is one of the best methods, but at the same time it is not adequate to reach out to all the people. Thus we require help in form of marketing, so as to make more and more people part of our mission. This help can be provided to us by advertisement agencies and other digital marketing companies making them suitable partners. On the other hand, for the latter part of our work we would love to work with companies who can help us in the installation of special E-Waste bins in all the places and can ensure that it reaches to an established E-Waste management company rather than just a dump yard. This will help us achieve our goals faster.

A problem well stated is a problem half solved. Many of us know what e-waste is but only a handful of us know what impacts it can have on the future of humanity. Our team took the initiative to take a step towards the escalating problem. We connect the e-waste recycling company that we have partnered with, to several housing societies where plenty of people reside. We are working towards getting approvals of more and more societies and communities to set up separate bins for e-waste disposal and partnering with different companies and organizations to arrange pick-up trucks and proper and separate disposal. If we receive funds from MIT Solve, we plan on using the funds judiciously and use them to achieve our five-year goals in the short term and also to solve many of our problems. Funds can help us to expand our project into more regions of our country as well as help us tackle a more scientific side of this issue. Posters, advertisements, and social media advertising would then be on our list. This would help us to reach out to a larger public and approach people unwilling to donate e-waste directly. Funds would further increase the rate of our progress as they would enable us to provide larger bins, more frequent e-waste pick-ups, more partnerships, better overall quality of our operation, and paid assistance. Also, we would like to donate some money to the poor and the needy.

It is widely said that “Prevention is better than cure”. We firmly believe in that saying and to take a step towards the prevention of a problem being a menace, we have crafted this initiative. By this initiative, we aim to reduce the amount of e-waste disposed without any proper treatment. Even though we have not designed any new technology, we have created a new application of an existing problem, of which the solution has already been made. The problem creators are not able to meet the people who have the solution in their hands. We have taken the responsibility of being the nexus between them which makes us able to address this menace. By this initiative, we are trying to cancel out all the harmful impacts of E-Waste in the near future. E-Waste can have effects like birth defects and higher cancer rates. If nothing is done about this, the human body’s nervous and reproductive systems would also be severely affected.  It can also lead to DNA being highly damaged, an increase in the number of conditions like asthmatic bronchitis and all types of cancers and frequent appetite loss, muscular pain, fatigue, sleeplessness, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea. By our model, we address this problem and even contribute to five of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, we expect to reach out to a large number of people, not only in our region.  For that, we would require funds and those funds can be incorporated through The People’s Prize. If we are given the funds of that prize, we would incrementally increase our area of service, we will partner with more and more organizations so that our idea can be spread and we will mentor like-minded people especially of our age, who can craft innovative solutions that can help to fight one of this world’s problems. We will use the fund to eliminate the problems that we are facing now like not being able to reach out to a large no of people etc. and will try and solve all other future problems that may arrive in our path. We will also make sure that a substantial amount of money is donated to the poor and the needy.