Ghaziabad municipal corporation to hire agency for collection of e-waste from households - Hindustan Times
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Ghaziabad municipal corporation to hire agency for collection of e-waste from households

By, Ghaziabad
Aug 05, 2021 12:30 AM IST

Residents in the city will soon be able to dispose of their electronic waste in an environment friendly way and even get some value back as the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has decided to hire an agency for collection and transportation of e-waste for disposal in a scientific manner

Residents in the city will soon be able to dispose of their electronic waste in an environment friendly way and even get some value back as the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has decided to hire an agency for collection and transportation of e-waste for disposal in a scientific manner.

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The corporation officials said that a framework will be put in place in one and half months and they will soon be floating an expression of interest (EOI) to hire a firm for the purpose. E-waste includes old discarded electronic items such as television sets, refrigerators, cellphones, laptops, and chargers, among others.

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According to the officials, the city at present has no mechanism to collect e-waste that generally finds way to local scrap retailers and causes environment pollution as it is often burnt to extract metals such as lead, zinc, and nickel.

“We will authorise a vendor for collection of e-waste from households. An EOI (to select a vendor) will be floated soon. The vendor will be paying up to the consumers and some amount will also be received by the corporation. For the purpose, we will be tapping the extended producers’ responsibility (EPR) mechanism,” said MS Tanwar, municipal commissioner.

EPR refers to responsibility for management of the disposal of products by producers once those products are no longer in use by the consumers.

“We will also come up with a control room and an app for the purpose. Residents can call the collection agency for collection and transportation of e-waste from households,” Tanwar added.

The corporation officials, however, declined to give an estimate of the quantum of annual e-waste generation in the city.

Another official familiar with the development said that disposal of e-waste by scrap dealers is generally prevalent in places like Loni bordering Delhi. “The unscientific disposal of e-waste takes place in Loni. Such an activity is prevalent in areas where the border is difficult to ascertain and operated in households and even in illegally setup factories,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.

However, officials of the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) said that the activities of unscientific disposal of e-waste have been curbed to a large extent in Loni. “During the past one and half years, there has been a crackdown on about 600 such units in Loni and they have been shut down. We have 21 authorised recyclers of e-waste in Ghaziabad and Hapur. At present, we do not have estimates about generation of e-waste in the city,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of UPPCB.

Environmentalists said that the city has no mechanism at present for collection of e-waste items.

“Mostly, the households give away the old electronic items to local scrap vendors. Later, the waste finds its way to locations where they are generally burnt to extract metals and the leftover chemicals are also drained to ground. This severely impacts environment,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Peeyush Khandelwal writes on a range of issues in western Uttar Pradesh – from crime, to development authorities and from infrastructure to transport. Based in Ghaziabad, he has been a journalist for almost a decade.

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