The growing urbanisation has acquired a new dimension which needs to be addressed with a sense of urgency, governor ESL Narasimhan has said. The challenge posed by waste management of our city scapes by no means is a simple one.

Participating in the concluding session of the fourth International Conference on Solid Waste Management at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University here on Thursday, he said that the challenge posed to the administrators is how to keep the cities from becoming dysfunctional and continue to nurture them.

‘’We are in the midst of a consumerist world and with increasing levels of prosperity consumption is seen as a natural entitlement. At the end of the day growing consumption results in growing wastes, effluents as well as a rare degree of efficiency to clean up. Unused wastes turn toxic in no time and degrade the environment. This impacts our well being,” he said.

Urban areas and neighbourhoods should take responsiblity of their environment and communities should invest their concern as well as time to improve their neighbourhoods without which lasting and durable improvements can’t be guaranteed. Municipal administration minister M Maheedhar Reddy urged all the stakeholders to put this knowledge into action which includes our own MAUD department.

A Bangalorean from a middle-income household generates 21 kg of e-waste a year, according to a 2012 survey conducted by E-Parisaraa.

Much of this goes into the informal sector, with only about 10 per cent making it to the formal recycling centres.

According to Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP), an international initiative to develop solutions for electrical and electronic waste problems, every Indian generates 2.25 kg of e-waste a year. And keeping our population in mind, this is no small number. The initiative’s forecast states that the amount of electronic waste produced globally is set to grow by 33 per cent between 2012 and 2017.

In Bangalore, however, certain groups are now trying to turn things around, to minimise the dangers of e-waste pollution.

“I guess people are still cautious about e-waste in this city. They don’t really know what to do with it, yet. But from my experience, I’ve seen that people here are quite open to discussions about it and when given an accessible process, they are ready to take care of their e-waste in a scientific method. The whole idea is to make things easily available, because no one is going to make a trip to say, Peenya to handover a couple of old phones or an old television set,” says David SR, president, E-Cure, an NGO working in the e-waste sector, which seeks to create awareness among both households and organisations.

It has partnered with a recyclist in Peenya and facilitates disposing of e-waste generated by households across Bangalore. They collect the e-waste from various households and organisations and then hand it over to the recyclist. The money that is generated from this is then redirected into educating orphan girl children.

“Our vision is to make Bangalore a zero waste city, and it is a reasonable goal to set, if we follow certain guidelines and make waste collection and disposal an accessible and scientific process. We’ve already spoken to over 45,000 households,” says David, who is also an ardent environmentalist and works towards a greener city.

According to him, if scrap dealers are educated on how to scientifically extract metal from e-waste and recycle these products, instead of just burning them, which is both hazardous to the scrap dealers and the environment, there could be a major change in the way e-waste is handled.

Contact David SR at 9986452888 to know more about e-waste recycling and how you can be a part of the movement as well. Additionally to get your e-waste picked up right from your house/organisation, contact E-Parisaraa at their toll free number: 1800 425 35287.