BANGALORE, INDIA: Electronic waste, popularly known as ‘e-waste’ can be defined as electronic equipments / products. It usually connects with power plug, batteries which have become obsolete due to: advancement in technology, changes in fashion, style and status nearing the end of their useful life.

Electronic waste or e-waste is one of the rapidly growing environmental problems of the world. In India, the electronic waste management assumes greater significance not only due to the generation of our own waste but also dumping of e-waste particularly computer waste from the developed countries.

With extensively using computers and electronic equipments and people dumping old electronic goods for new ones, the amount of E-Waste generated has been steadily increasing. The problem is that the e-waste generated, in the absence of proper disposal, finds its way to scrap dealers. Many end-of-life electronics items contain valuable elements such as gold, silver, and platinum. Unfortunately, E-waste can also contain potentially harmful substances such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Regardless of whether its elements are valuable or potentially hazardous, handling and recovery of E-waste can be a costly undertaking. These considerations have led to intense debate about how E-waste can best be managed.

In US alone, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that electronics comprise somewhere between 1 percent and 4 percent of the MSW stream--the high-end estimate means approximately 10 million tons of E-waste is disposed annually. To combat this, a congressional E-waste working group was also formed, and at least three separate E-waste bills were introduced in Congress. They are also pressing for a plan to give consumers $15 tax breaks for recycling old computers.

In India, There are eco-friendly recycling units such as E-Parisaraa on the outskirts of Bangalore that make full use of E-Waste. The plant which is India’s first scientific e-waste recycling unit will reduce pollution, landfill waste and recover valuable metals, plastics & glass from waste in an eco-friendly manner.

E-waste encompasses ever growing range of obsolete electronic devices such as computers, servers, main frames, monitors, TVs & display devices, telecommunication devices such as cellular phones & pagers, calculators, audio and video devices, printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines besides refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and microwave ovens, e-waste also covers recording devices such as DVDs, CDs, floppies, batteries, tapes, printing cartridges, military electronic waste, automobile catalytic converters, electronic components such as chips, processors, mother boards, printed circuit boards, industrial electronics such as sensors, alarms, sirens, security devices, automobile electronic devices.

WeP’s initiatives in this area:

WeP formulated a Green strategy to enter into recycling of IT Hardware products and has commenced this activity through its Long Life IBU where IT consumables like print head, toner cartridges etc. are being recycled to reduce IT waste in the environment. In addition to this, they have entered into an agreement to give their waste to the only Pollution Control Board authorized e-waste recycler in India.

WeP has also an advantage of taking a lead in e-waste management and hence can distinguish itself as a responsible player in the market. Apart from internal initiatives ensuring safe e-waste management practices, WeP launched Bangalore wide citizens programme in April last year. An awareness campaign was started henceforth targeting citizens, corporation and schools.  This is a simplistic set up of special collection centers across the city to institutionalize segregation and collection of compact discs, floppy discs and dry cell batteries. Although the initiative started as a network of 10 centers placed at prominent shopping areas in the city, they have around 150 collection centers in schools, colleges, offices, apartments and commercial establishments in Bangalore. They have received an encouraging response throughout the year and are committed towards an eco-friendly, financially viable and socially acceptable E-waste management system for Bangalore.

WeP has been exporting its Printers to European market since 2001 and has been in the forefront of conformance withRoHS (Restrict the use of Hazardous Substance) – an Environmental Legislations adopted by the EU. WeP has proactively taken up this initiative – with a commitment to extent the programme to all products manufactured by WeP without any regulatory pressure, as there is no similar mandatory provision in Indian laws.

Recently, they took this one step further by organizing an event titled Green Dreamz: An annual Interschool competition and awareness campaign on January 31, 2008 on the theme of “E-waste Management”. As part of this, they organised a day’s visit to India’s first authorized E-waste Recycling facility in Karnataka arranged by the organizers, followed by a week long awareness campaign on safe e-waste disposal and contests ranging from recycle art to skits on the topic. The winners of intra-school competitions then participated in the inter-school competitions for the coveted Green Dreamz 2008 trophy. The objective was very clear - to focus on creating environmental values amongst the leaders of tomorrow.