E-waste throws up a challenge to city
Mahesh Buddi | TNN
Hyderabad: As a city grows, its problems too see a parallel growth. Hyderabad which is growing at a furious pace is now grappling with a new problem—e-waste. The city generates 6,000 kg of electronic and electric equipment waste everyday. Due to lack of specific rules on e-waste management by the government, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) authorities have been dumping e-waste with the regular municipal solid which is likely to cause serious environmental problems if left unchecked.
At present 3,450 tonnes of municipal solid waste is being generated every day in the city and six tonnes of e-waste is part of it. Used computers and television sets constitute more than half of the waste generated.
Apart from computers and telecommunication devices, refrigerators, ovens, fluorescent lamps, television sets and electronic toys also come under e-waste category.
LCD monitors, fluorescent lamps contain mercury; Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) of a television and computer monitor contains, mercury, lead and Antimony; printed circuit board contains lead, Beryllium and Antimony. “All these heavy metals are highly dangerous to people’s health,” said T Rajender Reddy, senior Environmental Scientist, APPCB.
Inhalation of Antimony, Beryllium, Chromium and Cadmium could cause cancer and Mercury affects the Central Nervous System. At present, GHMC dumps municipal solid waste at the Jawahar Nagar dump yard which is spread over an area of 49 acres. “It is the only permanent dump yard in the city. When we started dumping garbage here in 2003 there were no houses nearby but now many houses have come up here and the state government is now planning to have the Rajiv Griha Kalpa here,” said R Ram Mohan Rao, Additional Commissioner (Health and Sanitation), GHMC.
He said there was no mechanism to ensure the segregation of waste at the source in the city and that is the reason why GHMC ends up dumping all kinds of municipal solid waste including electronic waste at the same yard. “We have tried to get some donors who will provide financial support to implement the segregation of waste at the domestic level but no one has came forward so far as it could cost crores of rupees to provide coloured baskets to 6.5 lakh households in the city,” he added.
Meanwhile, the state government and APPCB have given permissions to G J Multiclave company to establish an ewaste collection centre in the city. “Right now we are planning to collect the waste from software companies, colleges and government offices. The collected waste will be transferred to the Bangalore based e-waste treatment plant, E-Parisara,” said the general manager of G J Multiclave, S John Robert.
Once we collect 100 tonnes of e-waste we plan to start the recycling of the e-Waste here, he said.
During the recycling process e-waste will be dismantled and segregated based on the material. After that the components will be pulverised (made into a powder) and then through various processes like magnetic separation metals will be separated. “We have a collaboration with E-Parisara and they have been exporting some of the metals to some European countries too. We will also follow the methods which will be commercially viable and environmentally friendly,” said John Robert. But the project will take at least eight months to start and till then thousands of tonnes of hazardous e-waste will go into the environment, unprocessed.
TECH HAZARD
6,000 kg of electronic waste is generated in the city everyday
Used computers, television sets comprise a majority of the waste generated
Telecommunication devices, refrigerators, ovens, fluorescent lamps, television sets and electronic toys also come under e-waste category
Most of these contain heavy metals which pose a serious threat to the health of people in the city
Lack of mechanism to segregate the waste at source leads to dumping of all kinds of solid waste at the same yard
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