The Hindu 03.01.2011
e-waste management facility in State soon
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) along with the State
Information Technology Department is actively pursuing a proposal to set
up an e-waste management facility in the State. The proposal, which is
in its early stages, aims at collection, segregation, recycling, and
disposal of e-waste.
“The possibility of setting up such a facility under
the public private partnership (PPP) model is being considered. Right
now we are in the process of identifying generators of e-waste in the
State and quantifying the volume of waste generated,” PCB chairman K.
Sajeevan told The Hindu. NGOs in this field are also participating in the endeavour.
In the first phase of the project, workshops on e-waste
management would be held in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, and Kozhikode
in January, he said. The proposal would be carried forward based on
ideas evolving out of these workshops, Mr. Sajeevan said.
“The most important thing is to have a critical model to
make it viable and feasible. The PCB is actually looking at the right
model for doing the project,” Ajay Kumar, who was till recently the
Principal Information Technology Secretary to the State government,
said.
He was optimistic about the project turning a reality within two years once that happened.
Mr. Sajeevan, however, declined to mention any time
schedule. He said the facility would be a centralised one as any
decentralised arrangement would not be feasible. Mr. Sajeevan said it
was too early to decide on the location of the project.
At present, the State does not have any e-waste
management facility. Mr. Sajeevan said that according to studies
conducted by NGOs functioning in the area, a large quantity of e-waste
was being generated in the State warranting a scientific management
facility.
According to a notification of the Union government’s
Department of Information Technology dated September this year, there
were only 16 recognised e-waste re-processors across the country with
environmentally-sound management facilities.