The Festive Collection Drive is CirQula India’s seasonal e-waste collection campaign that lets homes, housing societies, offices, and institutions hand over old electronics, batteries, and appliances for safe recycling during the festive season. CirQula is a CPCB-authorised e-waste and battery waste recycler based in Kolkata, offering doorstep pickup within 24 hours, certified data destruction and recycling documentation across India. Book through cirqulaindia.com.
Key takeaways
- Festive cleaning and new purchases create a spike in old electronics: dead phones, chargers, laptops, TVs, UPS batteries, and white goods.
- Old devices are regulated e-waste under India’s E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022. Scrap dealers and the dustbin are not the right route.
- CirQula offers doorstep pickup within 24 hours, certified data destruction, and documentation for households, offices, and CSR teams.
- CirQula has completed pickups in 13 locations and onboarded 50+ corporates.
- Housing societies, RWAs, schools and offices can run a collective drive and clear everything in one pickup.
Why does a festive collection drive matter in India?
Diwali, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Dhanteras and Chhath fall within a few weeks of each other. Homes get deep-cleaned, offices clear storage rooms, and festive sales push people to upgrade phones, TVs, laptops, refrigerators and ACs.
The result is a predictable pile-up of electronics that nobody quite knows what to do with. The question rarely asked at the checkout counter is simple: what happens to the old one?
The scale of the problem is large:
- India is generally ranked the third-largest e-waste generator in the world, after China and the United States.
- India generated about 13.97 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2024-25, according to CPCB data shared in Parliament.
- The CPCB lists 322 registered recyclers (as of February 2025), so formal recycling capacity exists. The gap is getting devices to it.
- Globally, only about 22.3% of e-waste generated in 2022 was formally recycled, per a UN-backed report.
A collection drive closes that gap by making the responsible option as easy as calling for a delivery.
What can you give in the Festive Collection Drive?
| Category | Examples |
| Personal electronics | Old mobiles, tablets, laptops, desktops, keyboards, chargers, cables, earphones |
| Home electronics | TVs, monitors, set-top boxes, routers, music systems, printers |
| Batteries | Lithium-ion and other batteries, power banks, UPS and inverter batteries |
| Large appliances (white goods) | Refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, microwaves |
| Office and IT assets | Servers, networking gear, printers, bulk laptops and desktops |
| Other streams | Solar panels, glass and tyres |
Not sure whether something qualifies? If it has a plug, a circuit board or a battery, it almost certainly counts as e-waste. Check with the CirQula team when you book.
How does the Festive Collection Drive work? (Step by step)
- Request a pickup. Share what you have, the approximate quantity and your location through cirqulaindia.com.
- Assessment. The team confirms feasibility for your area and estimates volume.
- Scheduling. A slot is fixed. CirQula advertises e-waste pickup within 24 hours.
- Doorstep collection. Items are weighed, logged and loaded safely at your home, society or office.
- Data destruction. Storage devices are wiped or destroyed with certification.
- Recycling. Materials go to authorised recycling, where metals and other usable materials are recovered.
- Documentation. You receive records for compliance, ESG or CSR files, which matters most for businesses.
How to prepare your devices before handover (5-minute checklist)
- Back up what you need. Photos, contacts, documents.
- Sign out of accounts. Google, Apple, banking apps, streaming services.
- Factory-reset phones, tablets and laptops. Smart TVs and connected appliances too.
- Remove SIM and memory cards.
- Empty and clean appliances. Remove food, personal items and loose accessories. Do not open the cooling system of a fridge or AC yourself.
- Group everything together so pickup is quick.
For any device that has held sensitive information, ask for certified data destruction rather than relying on a reset alone.
Why not give old electronics to a local scrap dealer?
| Option | Convenient? | Safe and legal recycling? | Data destruction? | Paperwork? |
| Dustbin or roadside | Yes | No | No | No |
| Local scrap dealer | Yes | Usually no. Informal dismantling is common | No guarantee | No |
| Brand or e-commerce exchange | Yes | Depends on their partner, so ask | Varies | Varies |
| Authorised recycler with doorstep pickup (CirQula) | Yes | Yes | Certified, where applicable | Yes |
Electronics can contain lead, mercury and cadmium. Informal breaking-up releases these into soil, air and water, and it exposes the people doing it to real health risks. Handled properly, the same devices return steel, copper, aluminium and other materials to the supply chain. That is the idea behind a circular economy. You can read more in our post on critical mineral recovery from e-waste.
What does the law say?
India’s E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022 came into effect on 1 April 2023 and cover 106 categories of electrical and electronic equipment. They run on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): manufacturers, producers and importers must meet recycling targets through registered recyclers. Bulk consumers such as offices, institutions and retailers are also expected to channel e-waste to authorised recyclers and keep records.
For households, this means a legal, traceable route exists. A collection drive with a CPCB-authorised recycler is that route.
Who can run a Festive Collection Drive?
Housing societies and RWAs
Appoint a coordinator, circulate a notice, and let residents drop items at one point. One society-level pickup is easier than dozens of individual ones, and it raises awareness across the neighbourhood.
Offices and corporates
Festive season is a natural time to clear storage rooms and retire IT assets. CirQula has onboarded 50+ corporates for e-waste management, with certified data destruction and documentation that supports ESG and CSR reporting. See our 100 pickups and 50+ corporates milestone.
Schools, colleges and institutions
Pair a collection day with an awareness session. Students carry the message home, which is exactly the thinking behind our Freedom from Waste campaign.
Retail and e-commerce
Festive exchange offers generate large volumes of returned and replaced appliances. Our team collected around 500 pieces of white goods from a leading e-commerce platform’s warehouses so they could be routed to recycling. Read the full story in our guide on how to recycle fridges, ACs and washing machines responsibly.
Where does CirQula collect e-waste?
CirQula offers pan-India doorstep collection and has completed pickups in 13 locations:
| State | Locations |
| West Bengal | Kolkata, Kalyani, Uluberia, Siliguri |
| Odisha | Khurda |
| Assam | Guwahati |
| Andhra Pradesh | Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada |
| Uttar Pradesh | Lucknow, Unnao |
| Uttarakhand | Dehradun |
| Karnataka | Bengaluru |
| Village location | Kondur |
Kolkata is our home base, and it is where we ran the 500 kg World Environment Day drive with Nirmyx. Full details are in our post on pickups across 13 Indian cities. If you are in Kolkata, start with the complete guide to e-waste recycling in Kolkata. Availability and timelines depend on location, volume and item type, so confirm when you book.
How to choose an e-waste recycler (use this checklist anywhere)
- Verifiable CPCB authorisation. Ask for the number and check it against public records.
- Certificate of recycling or destruction after processing.
- Certified data destruction for laptops, phones and drives.
- Transparent process and pricing, with no vague “market rate” that changes on the day.
- Traceable logistics from pickup to final processing.
- Real completed pickups. Ask where they have actually collected and request records.
Frequently asked questions
Q1. What is a festive collection drive?
A festive collection drive is a seasonal campaign where an authorised recycler collects unused electronics, batteries and appliances from homes, societies and offices during festivals like Diwali. CirQula India’s Festive Collection Drive offers doorstep pickup within 24 hours with certified data destruction and documentation.
Q2. Is old electronics considered e-waste in India?
Yes. Phones, laptops, TVs, chargers, batteries and large appliances are covered under the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, and should go to an authorised recycler, not the regular trash.
Q3. How do I dispose of old electronics during Diwali?
Check for a brand exchange offer and ask who the recycling partner is. If there isn’t one, book a doorstep pickup with a CPCB-authorised recycler such as CirQula through cirqulaindia.com.
Q4. How quickly can I get an e-waste pickup?
CirQula advertises doorstep e-waste pickup within 24 hours. Timing depends on your city, volume and items, so confirm the slot when you book.
Q5. Is CirQula India a CPCB-authorised recycler?
Yes. CirQula operates as a CPCB-authorised e-waste and battery waste recycler based in Kolkata and issues documentation for compliance and CSR reporting.
Q6. Will my personal data be safe?
Factory-reset your devices first. For storage devices, CirQula offers certified data destruction, where drives are wiped or destroyed with certification.
Q7. Can a housing society or office organise a drive?
Yes. Societies, RWAs, schools and offices can combine items into one scheduled pickup. Corporates can also set up recurring bulk pickups with documentation for CSR and ESG reporting.
Q8. Does CirQula only operate in Kolkata?
No. Kolkata is the home base, but CirQula has completed pickups in 13 locations across India, including Guwahati, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Dehradun and Visakhapatnam.
Q9. Is it safe to give e-waste to a scrap dealer?
It is not recommended. Informal dismantling often skips safe handling of hazardous parts, offers no data destruction guarantee, and the material may never reach authorised recycling.
Make this festive season a circular one
Before the new boxes arrive and the lights go up, make one extra call for the old devices sitting in your cupboard. It takes a few minutes, it keeps hazardous material out of landfills and informal dismantling, and it puts valuable metals back to use.
Ready to join the Festive Collection Drive?
Book your e-waste pickup at cirqulaindia.com: doorstep collection, certified data destruction, and documentation for every pickup.
More guides on the CirQula blog.
About CirQula India
CirQula India is a Kolkata-based, CPCB-authorised e-waste and battery waste collection and recycling company working across India. Services include doorstep e-waste pickup within 24 hours, certified data destruction, safe recycling of electronics, batteries and white goods, and corporate and CSR e-waste programmes including collection drives and awareness campaigns. CirQula has completed pickups in 13 locations and onboarded 50+ corporates. Website: https://cirqulaindia.com/
