BANGALORE: Wipro has set up an environment management team to lead initiatives in managing e-waste and offer e-waste disposal service to the customers starting September 1, 2006.

In a statement, Wipro said that being highly environmentally conscious, and also ISO 14000 compliant, their manufacturing processes, waste disposal and product specifications meet the norms laid down by the government of India's pollution control board.

The statement comes close on the heels of environmental organization Greenpeace urging the IT major to come up with a clear roadmap on phasing out toxic chemicals from its products.

"This is a larger issue and involves all the users and owners of computers, the entire installed base of computers and all the vendors/manufacturers in India," the statement said.

On various measures taken within Wipro, Ashutosh Vaidya, vice-president, personal computing division, said, "Wipro has been actively working on the issue since August, 2005. We had set up an environment management team to lead Wipro's initiatives on this front. Over the last one year, we have defined the process, identified suitable disposal mechanisms, created service points across the country, identified technically competent disposal agencies and setup a process for disposal of e-waste."

On offering e-waste disposal service to customers Vaidya, said, "We are happy to announce that we will be offering the service of e-waste disposal to our customers starting September 1, 2006. These services can be availed by our customers free of cost by paying nominal freight charges. We are pioneers in launching this service in India, and this displays our commitment to the environment."

The IT industry is a progressive industry, and players globally are campaigning to generate end user awareness and influence legislation to ensure appropriate disposal of waste by end users.

Likewise, the Indian industry, under the aegis of Manufacturers Association of Information technology (MAIT) has been actively promoting end user awareness and has submitted draft legislation on the matter.

Additionally, Wipro is voluntarily driving efforts to maximize the usage of RoHS compliant components.

RoHS is an emerging global standard, which is being adopted gradually by the industry globally. As the global legislations are mandating use of RoHS compliant components, the manufacturing ecosystem, which is concentrated in Taiwan and S.E. Asia, is also gearing up to meet this demand.

"The current outlook of supply side dynamics makes us believe that we can offer RoHS compliant electronic components in our PCs by the middle of next year. We hope that Government legislation, industry bodies and the good work of NGO bodies will be able to create sufficient awareness to accelerate the adoption of these offerings," added Vaidya.

© CyberMedia News

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