Bagchi calls for industry action to tackle e-waste

BANGALORE: To deal with the growing menace of e-waste in the State, the IT industry in conjunction with the Pollution control board and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) are taking steps to bring out legislation and put in systems into place.

Bangalore city alone generates around 8000 tonnes of e-waste every year, which is expected to grow ten-fold by 2020. E-waste includes discarded computers, electronic and electrical items, mobile phones and consumer electronic goods.

While delivering the keynote address at a workshop organized by TERI, currently on in the city to discuss various aspects of the problem, Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree Consulting, brought attention to the fact that despite having an educated 300 million plus middle-class population, Indians show lack of concern towards their environment.

“We have to spread awareness in the industry and attack ignorance and get active to solve the problem,” he commented.

He also urged industry and also citizens to get into the activistic mode since “environmental issues are too big to be dealt by governments.”

Sanjay Handu, chairman, MAIT, Southern region, said that IT industry that had created a major opportunity in India now posed a challenge of disposal of electronic waste.

“We should recognize this as an opportunity to make things better.” He added that while getting technology to deal with e-waste was the easy part, it is more important to have a system in place to manage e-waste.

Bangalore has the first e-waste recycling facility called e-parisara, approved both by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

While the US, Japan and EU, have recycling systems in place, Indian recyclers are currently engaged in salvaging material instead of identifying how some components of the waste could be recycled.

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