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.