Indian City to set up more collection centres to fight rising e-waste threat

By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)

April 18, 2016 07:15:53 AM

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster):  The City of Mumbai, India plans to set up at least 24 new electronic waste collection centres to collect and manage waste in the most environment-friendly manner. The centres will be set up under a public-private4 partnership (PPP) model. The collection centres would be opened across 24 civic wards in the city.

According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities, the opening of new e-waste collection centres will facilitate collection of more hazardous waste. The BMC authorities plan to place thousands of ‘eco-bins’ in spiritual and educational places where people are expected to gather in big numbers on regular basis. The placement of bins at the above locations will ensure that the collected waste remain safe until they are removed. Also, these bins will help to develop awareness about proper disposal of e-waste. Most importantly, it will help people to drop their unwanted electronics regularly, without having to take extra pain.

Estimates indicate that Mumbai is one among the highest e-waste generating cities in the country. High consumption levels of electronic and electrical items and industrialization has made Mumbai the home of rising electronic waste. The City has been in efforts to implement systematic collection and disposal mechanisms to fight the rising e-waste stream. BMC had recently launched a project at Vile Parle in partnership with 'Ecoreco'- India's first professional E-waste Management Company. The authorities plan to extend the model to other major cities across the state.

Incidentally, a recently released research report titled “E-Waste market in India 2015-2019” predicts the electronics waste market in the country to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.22% by 2019. According to the report, rising consumption of electronics good in the country has led to substantial increase in volumes of e-waste. Advancements in technology and globalization of economy have made new electronics easily available and affordable. This has led to consumers discarding old devices in place of the latest devices in market. The country is expected to see huge growth in consumption of newer electronics, which in turn will contribute to waste stream.