To liberate the environment from e-waste, new rules will be implemented soon in the country.
The initiative has been already taken to make the environment free from e-waste, said Dr VK Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog.
He was speaking at Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), Dhanbad on Wednesday.
“Under this rule, one can be returned the old, used and waste electronic goods to their respective showrooms and he will get some refund against that. A trail (of return such goods) has been started at Bengaluru,” added Saraswat. All electronic goods manufacturers must have to erect an e-waste disposal plant and they have to destroy that after removing the valuable parts, he said.
He urged the manufacturers and users, not to spared e-waste and makes others aware of this.
Though manufacturers have been mandated to create awareness in the country, he said.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, MeitY, has initiated an E-waste Awareness programme under
Digital India initiatives, along with industry associations, to create awareness among the public about the hazards of e-waste recycling by the unorganised sector, and to educate them about alternate methods of disposing of their e-waste.
The programme stresses the need for adopting environmentally friendly e-waste recycling practices.
The general public is also encouraged to participate in ‘Swachh Digital Bharat’, by giving their e-waste to authorised recyclers only.
E-waste is one among the most dangerous kinds of waste — for it contains heavy metals and other toxic chemicals — remains insidious, said an expert.
It (e-waste) is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 30 percent in the country.
According to the Assocham estimated report, e-waste generation was 1.8 million metric tonnes (MT) per annum in 2016 and would reach 5.2 million metric tonnes per annum by 2020.
Unless we have effective implementation of the rule, the country would end up creating many such informal processing hubs such as those in Moradabad and Seelampur, where soil, water and air are polluted to a beyond-repairable level, said the expert.
Strict implementation of the rule, creating adequate awareness, training for requisite skill sets and providing affordable technology to the informal sector could be a game-changer, he said.
