Karnataka - Bangalore   

Meet on handling e-waste opens in city

By Our Staff Reporter

A woman looking at a display at an exhibition on e-waste in Bangalore on Monday. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE, AUG. 16. Don't throw away your old personal computer (PC); it contains four grams of gold.

But the problem is that your PC also contains poisonous elements such as mercury, cadmium, and lead. The presence of both precious and harmful metals is what makes handling of old PCs and other forms of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) so complicated. A thriving recycling and scrap industry exists in Bangalore just as it does in other parts of the country. But there are no safeguards against the harmful effects of these metals or "e-toxins."

For example, from cathode ray tubes, you get barium, an element that causes muscle weakness and damages the heart, liver, and spleen. From printed circuit boards (PCBs), you get mercury and lead, both of which affect the central nervous system.So how can you ensure that e-waste is recycled and disposed off safely? A three-day symposium on e-waste inaugurated on Monday at the Max Mueller Bhavan (MMB) will attempt to find the answers.

`Growing problem'

At the opening session, K. Dinesh, Director of Infosys, said his company aimed at safely disposing of 20 per cent of all its e-waste by March 31, 2005. But the problem was a growing one, he admitted, "because the life of a PC has come down from 4 to 5 years to 2 years now. Besides, technology upgrades occur every 18 months."

`Don't change system'

Rolf Widmer, project manager at the EMPA, Switzerland, stressed that burning of e-waste had to be stopped immediately. A soil sample of an open field where e-waste was being burnt in Delhi showed that it contained enough mercury and lead to poison it for the next 500 years, he said.

But India already had a "very efficient, though, unorganised" recycling and scrap industry. It only needed to be improved, he said. A huge factory in Switzerland employing some 24 people managed all of that country's e-waste while in Delhi alone, 4,000 people worked in the informal e-waste recycling trade, he said. He also gave the example of China where thousands of people worked in the cell phone recycling business.

Bhoomanand Maney, Chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, agreed with Mr. Widmer. "We need China's labour-intensive model here," he said. He also vowed to hold more awareness programmes on e-waste.

An exhibition on e-waste was also inaugurated. On Tuesday, there will be a panel discussion from 2 p.m. at the bhavan. For details, call ph: 22219772/4964.

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