The Hindu 16.08.2010
Recycling e-waste is the need of the hour
Staff Correspondent
Pune: The Mumbai-Pune corridor produces one third of India's electronic waste. A stakeholders' consultation on e-waste management was conducted in Pune to address the issue.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MCCIA), Janvani, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ)-Advisory Services in Environmental Management (ASEM) shared ideas on the issue.
Director of GTZ-ASEM Juergen Bischoff expressed the need for a legislation for electronic waste management in India. He said the GTZ had been working towards finding solutions to the problem of e-waste through city-level interventions and policy dialogues. “We live in a ‘trilemma', and not dilemma, between achieving inclusive growth, depleting resources and deteriorating environmental situation. Recyclying waste forms a big aspect of the solution to this,” he said.
Greenpeace India campaigner Abhishek Pratap stated the need for the placing of Extended Producer Responsibility on the shoulders of manufacturers of electronic and electrical equipment (EEE).
H.M. Modak, a consultant working for the Pune Municipal Corporation said that a project has been launched under which 700 metric tonnes of waste in Pune would be recycled every day.
The GTZ launched a new project on e-waste management on the occasion.
Technical Manager of GTZ-ASEM Ashish Chaturvedi spoke on the objectives that the project proposes to realise. One of the main objectives is to bridge the gap in e-waste management between the formal and informal sector. The project is aimed at improving e-waste management in Pune, Pimpri and Chinchwad.
