Hyderabad: The city stares at a major disaster as most of the 32 lakh metric tonnes of e-waste that it generates annually is not being disposed of properly. The civic body too is not equipped to handle it.
While industries contribute 70 per cent of e-waste, households contribute almost 15 per cent and the rest comes from discarded or ‘end of life’ electrical and electronic equipment.
The GHMC has not even held discussions to dispose of e-waste which will be a major contributor to garbage with the rapidly increasing use of technology. Indicating the seriousness of the situation, a Delhi-based company collected a metric tonne of e-waste in seven days.
The waste was collected by Cerebra Green through its ‘India Clean-up Week’ conducted in association with Manufacturers Association of Information and Technology (MAIT), the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MOEFCC) and Digital India. It recovered 11 metric tonnes of e-waste across seven cities, including one metric tonne in Hyderabad in seven days.
While homes contribute television sets, mobiles and chargers, hospitals and diagnostic institutions dump cathode ray tubes, ECG devices etc. Corporates dispose of copying machines, scanners, fax machines, air conditioners, tubelights and a host of other items. Besides, there are discarded computer keyboards and monitors.
Among a host of other effects, e-waste has been found to be harmful, polluting ground water, resulting in acidification of soil and emission of toxic fumes.
Telangana State Pollution Control Board said awareness was the key factor to control increasing e-waste.
“There is need for more awareness about the adverse effects of e-waste as they contain lead, mercury and other chemical components. If segregated properly and recycled, they can be useful,” says a senior PCB official.
He said that though there were five dismantling centres and 20 centres to collect e-waste, not many people were turning up there.
The official said most tended to dump the e-waste on the roadsides.
The GHMC collects the e-waste but has no plans to dispose it scientifically.
“We have no plans to dispose of e-waste,” said an official who said he had conducted an extensive study about e-waste generated in the city.
