How Delhi's first eco park plans to scrap its old ways

Time of India

2 days ago

Delhi's planned e-waste facility at Holambi Kalan will incorporate a range of engineering systems aimed at achieving near-zero environmental impact, drawing on technologies used at one of Europe's largest e-waste plants in Revetal, Norway.
The Revac facility, visited earlier this month by Delhi's environment and industries minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, processes about 1.1 lakh metric tonnes of e-waste annually and is designed to operate without generating untreated emissions or residues. According to officials, Delhi's plant will replicate several of its core systems to address the air, water and soil contamination risks typically associated with
e-waste recycling
.
Officials said the minister directed that the plant be designed so that there was no discharge of pollutants into municipal drains or surrounding soil. He added that, during processing, in-house purification tanks would be used to remove contaminants, allowing water to be treated and reused on-site.
Instead of unsealed industrial flooring, the Delhi site is likely to use concretised surfaces. This barrier would prevent the leaching of heavy metals and other hazardous substances into the ground, he said. Revac employs a multi-stage scrubber system to capture airborne particulates and neutralise harmful compounds before releasing air into the atmosphere. In place of incineration, mechanical threshers and segregators are used to dismantle electronics, significantly reducing combustion-related pollutants. Delhi's design would incorporate similar air-handling systems, he said.
The Norwegian model prioritises the separation of valuable materials, such as aluminium, iron and refuse-derived fuel, using mechanical and magnetic sorting. This approach maximises recovery rates while minimising residual waste volumes. Officials said Delhi's facility would follow comparable recovery processes, aiming to reintroduce extracted materials into manufacturing cycles.
In Norway, independent non-profit agencies monitor plant operations under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations. Delhi planned to introduce third-party monitoring, with periodic compliance audits to assess performance against pollution-control benchmarks, Sirsa said.
He also said there were plans to scale up for urban e-waste volumes. Originally planned for an annual capacity of 51,000 metric tonnes, the Holambi Kalan plant is now being designed for 1.1 lakh tonnes, reflecting both projected waste generation and operational lessons from the Norwegian site. India generates the third-largest volume of e-waste globally, with Delhi accounting for close to 9.5% of the total. Officials describe the Holambi Kalan project as a controlled, formal alternative to the largely unregulated e-waste processing that currently dominates the city.
Delhi produces an estimated 2 lakh tonnes of e-waste each year, according to Central Pollution Control Board data, but has no dedicated e-waste park. As a result, the majority of e-waste ends up in landfill sites, garbage bins or the informal sector, where it is dismantled and recycled in violation of environmental safety rules. This unmonitored processing also poses occupational hazards for workers and contributes to long-term environmental contamination.