The use of electronic equipment has become ubiquitous even in the remotest areas. The e-waste generated carries many latent hazards and the issue needs to be addressed both at the policy and technology levels, said former vice chancellor of Garhwal Central University AN Purohit.
He was delivering the inaugural address at the fifth Environment Summit organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) on the theme of mitigating e-waste and metallic hazards.
Delivering the keynote address Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Institute of Petroleum director Dr MO Garg spoke on the challenges of balancing the demand of energy security on the one hand and the challenge of addressing global warming on the other.
He said that India needs to follow a carbon path different from that followed by the developed world for it to be able to manage its own carbon footprint.
Highlighting the linkage between trade and environment, UCOST director general Dr Rajendra Dobhal said that today about 70 per cent of India's trade originates from natural resources.
Hence, the regulatory framework which governs environmental issues and a clear understanding of the same are essential for managing the environment well and for minimising litigation. He also pointed out to the need for focusing on bio safety protocols, as issues like e-waste have many latent hazards.
CII Uttarakhand State Council chairman Sandeep Jain said that it is important to devise environmentally friendly ways to dispose garbage as the spectre of e-waste is already destroying the balance of the nation's ecological health.
He also emphasised on the need for strengthening the regulatory framework to dispose or recycle e-waste and also focus on increasing the awareness levels on this important issue.
Delivering the concluding remarks at the inaugural session, CII state council vice chairman Manu Kochhar said that the impact of improper handling of e-waste was felt even more in ecologically sensitive states like Uttarakhand and the issue needs to be addressed collectively and on priority.
The first plenary session which focused on issues and challenges in e-waste and metallic hazards was chaired by Department of Environment, Science & Technology, Himachal Pradesh director Dr SS Negi while the second session which focused on recycling, disposal, refurbishment and precious metal recovery and was chaired by Dr Jagdish Kishwan, Chief Advisor, Policy and Programme Implementation, Wildlife Trust of India.
The third session focused upon the policies & practices of industry in mitigating e-waste and metallic hazards and was chaired by Dr S Sankar, DGM-Works, Infinite Water Solutions. Environment experts from Hewlett Packard, Wipro, TATA Motors & TVS Electronics shared their initiatives. The summit was attended by over 100 delegates from industry, institutions, academia, NGO's and environment experts.