Need to encourage e-waste recycling,says MPCB

P K Mirashe,western regional officer of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB),told Newsline that according to the new rules,there is a need to encourage recycling of all useful and valuable material from e-waste to conserve the ever depleting natural resources.

The rules had been notified in advance last year to give stakeholders enough time to reduce the usage of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.

Manufacturers of information and telecommunications equipment,electrical and electronics gadgets should ensure that the products do not contain lead,mercury,cadmium,hexavalent chromium,poly-brominated bi-phenyls or poly-brominated di-phenyl ethers above a specific threshold. According to the rules,the reductions have to be achieved by May 1,2014.

While the MPCB has already authorised 14 such centres for collection and disposal of e-waste in Mumbai and Pune,Mirashe said they will now involve more agencies in the process of handling e-waste. There has been an increasing use of electrical and consumer electronic items like mobile phones,personal computers,laptops,pen-drives,external hard disks,TV sets,refrigerators,washing machines and air conditioners. “This gives rise to a huge amount of electronic waste every year,” he said,adding,“With the new rules now major generators will have to submit annual returns to the board and hence we will be able to guage the quantity of e-waste generated.”

While there is no inventory at the government or industry level,according to the Central Pollution Control Board it is likely that the country may have 800,000 tonnes of e-waste by 2012.

When contacted,Amit Ambedkar,channel partner for Attero company that has an end-to-end e-waste recycling disposal plant at Roorkee,Uttarakhand,said they are authorised by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Ministry of Environment and Forests to collect,dismantle and dispose e-waste across the country. “We have a branch in Pune,” said Ambedkar.

Sanjay Fegade,business development manager of another authorised agency in Pune,said,“At present,we are collecting e-waste generated from 60 companies here. The electronic scrap is dismantled and disposed of by exporting to countries like Japan.”