Those Old Mobiles Lying in Your Bedside Drawer Could Make You Money. And Solve India’s E-Waste Crisis.

Most Indian households are sitting on a small pile of forgotten gadgets, each holding metals, energy and emissions that can either be wasted or recovered. What if clearing that clutter could also put some money back in your pocket?

Today, it’s happening, thanks to a growing ecosystem of refurbishers, recyclers and doorstep collection services. Your old gadget is repaired, resold or recycled in a way that cuts pollution, eases Indiaâ’s growing e-waste crisis and reduces dependence on imported critical minerals.

While platforms such as Cashify and Selsmart are making refurbishing and reuse simple, certified recyclers like Attero and Eco Recycling step in for devices that cannot be reused, salvaging their useful components while following strict protocols to protect personal data and prevent hazardous materials from leaking into soil, water and air. While it’s an economic win-win for everyone, it also does the climate work by extending the life of electronics and diverting waste away from informal and dangerous recycling practices.

Refurbishment as climate action, but with limits

Refurbished technology offers a compelling counter-narrative to the emerging throwaway culture. By keeping phones, laptops and other devices in use for longer, refurbishment reduces the need for new manufacturing. This cuts emissions and slows the extraction of metals like lithium, cobalt, copper and gold.

Selsmart positions itself as a gatekeeper in this system, ensuring that devices surrendered by consumers do not leak into backyard recycling operations. Instead, materials are funnelled directly into parent company Attero’s formal recycling ecosystem. Non-refurbishable devices are dismantled to recover batteries, printed circuit boards, plastics and metals. Batteries and PCBs are refined to achieve over 98% recovery and 99.9% purity of recovered metals, the company says, adding that it is among the few globally to earn carbon credits for e-waste and lithium-ion battery recycling.

By operating as a form of urban mining, Selsmart’s downstream processes reduce the need for fresh extraction, says Nitin Gupta, founder of both Attero and Selsmart. He says internal lifecycle studies show up to 98% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for lithium carbonate, and major cuts for copper, graphite and cobalt when compared to virgin mining.

A global life-cycle study found that producing lithium hydroxide from recycled sources results in 37-72% lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to lithium made from brine or mined ore. Independent lifecycle studies show that recycling lithium-ion batteries produces far fewer emissions than mining new materials, cutting greenhouse gases by around 81%, with even greater savings when recycling manufacturing scrap.

These studies’ findings must be seen in context emissions reduction from refurbishment depends on scale (how many products are refurbished), transparency, and whether it displaces new device sales or simply adds another layer to consumption.

The open-box economy

Alongside recycling, a booming open-box market is taking shape. Platforms like Unboxify and NeverOwned sell open-box electronics, where the original packaging is opened and returned or when display items are sold with original accessories and brand warranty.

The devices are sold at near-factory prices, 30-60% cheaper than new ones, while re-routing products that might otherwise be discarded. The result is cheaper gadgets for consumers and fewer emissions from manufacturing new ones.

These business models nudge us towards a circular tech economy, where products are designed to last longer and materials stay in use. But for now, they remain a partial solution. Refurbishment cannot absorb the full tide of discarded electronics pouring out of homes and offices every year. Without stronger policy support and consumer participation, they risk staying niche rather than becoming transformative.

Who is using these services

Selsmart says most devices it handles come from urban households in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, where replacement cycles are shorter and awareness of buyback schemes is growing. Smartphones dominate by a wide margin, followed by laptops, tablets, televisions and home appliances. Home offices and small businesses also contribute significant volumes.

India’s expanding middle class and improved access to technology have dramatically increased the number of devices being used in homes. Phones are replaced every few years, often while still functional. Televisions, refrigerators and computers follow close behind. As lifespans shrink due to rapid technological change, households have become one of the largest sources of e-waste in the country.

Some consumers are responding in small but meaningful ways. In Hyderabad, Navita Bagaria uses the platform Crapbin to recycle her household e-waste. “They take even small packages of e-waste. We keep collecting things like batteries and remotes in a box kept specifically for this purpose, she says. Her daughter ensures that discards go into the box, and the habit has spread to friends in their apartment complex. One household’s effort has quietly nudged a small community.

Bulk consumers, say corporations such as Cisco and IBM, pass on working devices to schools, nonprofits and community groups, helping more people get access to technology and devices. More and more tech firms are working with NGOs to provide used computers to under-resourced communities, extending the life of devices while bridging the digital divide.

Stories like these show the power of individual action and behaviour change, but they also highlight its limits. Individual action cannot compensate for systemic gaps.

The informal sector and a broken incentive system

The government has been trying to improve the system, and government data in fact shows that the share of processed e-waste rose from 22% in 2019-20 to 43% in 2023-24. Yet around 57%, nearly a million tonnes, remains unprocessed.

The E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022 aimed to formalise the sector and promote cleaner technology, but an estimated 95% of recycling still operates in the shadows. Improper e-waste recycling creates harm at many levels. “Beyond environmental damage, it puts informal recyclers at serious risk, says Bharati Chaturvedi of the Delhi based circular economy non-profit Chintan. Hazardous practices like cyanide use and acid leaching release toxic fumes, worsening air pollution and damaging workers’ health.

Raju N. of Saahas Zero Waste says over 90% of materials in IT devices are recyclable if routed correctly to authorised facilities. Saahas Zero Waste has recently launched Exxtend IT, an initiative to sell refurbished electronics, primarily laptops. The technology exists, Raju says, but weak compliance and enforcement of laws, and poor consumer participation, continue to undermine the system. (For Indiaâ’s broken first-mile of e-waste recycling, see the first part of this series).

The 2022 rules made producers, importers and brand owners responsible for collecting, recycling and disposing of a proportion of their electronic product sales at the end of useful life.

In effect, says Chaturvedi, recyclers profit without sufficient scrutiny of what is collected or how value is distributed – essentially, worker earnings remain low in both informal and formal recycling. Informal workers, who handle the bulk of e-waste, have little incentive to transition to formal, organised work.

Policies can reduce e-waste leakages in India by incentivising formal recycling. They can do this with:

• EPR credits (see the first part of this series).
• tax benefits, including GST relief for recyclers, lower duties on recycling equipment and accelerated depreciation (an accounting practice that helps save tax during the initial years of a business).
• deposit-refund schemes, when retailers charge a fee on selling an electronic product, which is passed on when the device is sent to an authorised recycler.

Swati Singh Sambyal, a circular economy expert at Norway-based environmental research centre GRID-Arendal, says any transition must acknowledge ground realities. “Informal workers are the backbone of India’s e-waste chain, and formalisation must improve their livelihoods, not marginalise them, she said. For years, Seelampur’s informal e-waste chain relied on home-based dismantling and local scrap buyers supplying factories. As formal recycling expands and authorities restrict such work, the system is breaking down, pushing traders to industrial zones. The human cost is visible in workers like Mohammad Saleem, whose scarred hands reflect years of stripping wires.

The stakes are high

Redseer Strategy Consultants estimates that India’s e-waste contains recoverable resources worth $6 billion. Stronger formal networks could cut metal imports by $1.7 billion annually. Yet only about 30% of e-waste is officially recycled. Every year, an estimated $1 billion worth of recoverable metals and potential tax revenue is lost because the rest slips through untracked channels.

Doorstep collection, refurbishment and formal recycling offer a glimpse of what a better system could look like. They improve efficiency, safety and circularity while supporting domestic supply chains and green jobs. But they are not a silver bullet. Without robust enforcement of EPR rules, fair incentives for informal workers and independent scrutiny of climate claims, these solutions risk becoming islands of good practice in a sea of unmanaged waste.

And, of course, we need to point the finger at ourselves and ask, how much is enough?

Kavitha Yarlagadda is an independent journalist based in Hyderabad, India. She is a Civil Engineer with a Masters in Environmental Science. She writes on the Environment, Science, Health, Social Justice, Gender and Technology.

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Tl;dr: A summary for the busy, the curious, and the done-for-today

Indian households are major sources of e-waste, but a growing ecosystem of refurbishers, recyclers and doorstep services is turning old gadgets into economic and environmental value.

Refurbishment and reuse extend device lifespans, cut emissions and reduce demand for new mining, while certified recyclers recover high-purity metals safely from non-reusable devices.

New business models – like buyback platforms and the “open-box” market – make devices more affordable and support a circular economy, though they remain limited in scale.

Despite progress (formal processing rising to 43%), most e-waste still flows through the informal sector, where unsafe practices harm workers and reduce material recovery value.

Stronger policy enforcement, better incentives for informal workers and higher consumer participation are essential to scale these solutions and unlock billions in recoverable resources.