Bengaluru, the IT capital of India, is also the third in terms of e-waste generation in the country. While India produces 18.5 lakh metric tonnes of electronic waste annually, a whopping 92,000 metric tonnes comes from Bengaluru, according to 2016 figures. And as per the study, computers form 70% of the total e-waste and telecommunication equipment constitutes 12%.
The Centre, noting that Bengaluru is one of the topmost e-waste producers nationally, has decided to sanction India’s first government run e-waste recycling unit here.
The Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry has taken up the project. Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar announced the plan on Monday and said that the plant is likely to be up and running within four months.
Karnataka BJP spokesperson Malavika Avinash confirmed the same to TNM and said that the e-waste plant would separate plastic from metal and recycle it. “The unit will most likely be located in Electronic City,” she said.
She added that the e-waste recycling unit will be set up by the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET). CIPET, which is a research institute, falls under the ambit of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers. After the pilot, the initiative will also be implemented in other places.
Minister Ananth Kumar, who represents Bengaluru south in the Lok Sabha, also added that this project will open up opportunities for entrepreneurship in the field of high performance plastics and metal waste.
The minister also noted, “According to a recent report, every day, we are to get rid of over 4,16,000 mobile devices and 1,42,000 computers either by recycling or disposing them off in landfills and incinerators.”
While the capacity of the e-waste recycling unit is not yet known, Ananth Kumar said that the setup of the plant would focus on “eco-friendly techniques” to manage and process electronic waste.