The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Facility for e-waste disposal soon

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Thursday, Mar 20, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Facility for e-waste disposal soon

Earth Sense Recycle has started collecting e-waste from various organisations

Unsafe handling of e-waste can cause health hazards
No clear picture of the volume of e-waste generated

HYDERABAD: While draft rules on e-waste management are awaited from the government, the work on the city’s first full-fledged safe disposal facility of the electronic waste is to begin in a couple of months.

Earth Sense Recycle, part of G.J. Multiclave, has already started collecting the e-waste from different organisations and soon expects to be ready with the disposal facility on a 4.42-acre site at Mankhal in Rangareddy district.

Presently, the collected material is being sent to e-Parisaraa, the facility at Bangalore, for disposal.

Piling up

Constant technological upgradations and arrival of newer models has resulted in a sharp rise in the accumulation of e-waste that is broadly categorised as obsolete electronic items such as computer peripherals, monitors, CPUs, servers, mobile handsets, refrigerators and batteries.

Environmental issues

In recent years, environmental concerns were raised in view of unsafe disposal practices and absence of laid down procedures to tackle them.

The Earth Sense Recycle project, to come up at an estimated cost of Rs.5 crore, has already set up a network to collect the e-waste from different sources and two fully covered and specially designed vehicles have already been acquired for the purpose.

The list of e-waste also includes items such as scanners, printers, household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, television sets, fluorescent tubes and electronic toys.

Presence of chemicals

The chemical presence in this waste has been categorised as lead, tin, copper, silicon, carbon alongside small amounts of cadmium and mercury and traces of germanium, nickel, arsenic, titanium and others.

If unsafely handled, these could prove to be hazardous with health risks such as allergic reactions, irritation of skin and eye apart from risks of cancer, experts point out.

No study carried out

In absence of any comprehensive study undertaken so far, it is pointed out that there is no clear picture on the amount of e-waste that is generated in the city and surroundings.

“We have already inspected some of the clients’ premises and estimated that three tonnes and above of e-waste is to be picked up from some places,” says S. John Roberts, Manager, Earth Sense Recycle. Once the full-fledged facility is operational, the company, apart from collection, will be able to dismantle, segregate, remove hazardous material and also extract precious metals such as the small fraction of gold along with silver and copper, he says.

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