E-waste management rules 2011 came into force on Tuesday. The consumers are now armed with the right to demand the electronic gadget manufactures to recycle e-waste. Defective gadgets and outdated electronic items should be taken back by the firms for scientific disposal.
As the Union environment ministry has announced that guidelines would be enforced across the country from May 1, 2012, Deccan Chronicle encourages the public to demand the implementation of the guidelines.
Since there are not many e-waste collection and recycling facilities where users can drop their wastes, DC organised e-waste collection melas and collected nearly 300kg of e-waste from various parts of the city in the last two weeks.
According to the guidelines “the producer is responsible for “setting up collection centres or take-back (electronic) systems either individually or collectively”.
Setting up of collection centre can be decided by individual producers in accordance with their company policy, said the guidelines. The firms should register with the state pollution control board to open up a facility.
There is a huge need to encourage recycling of all useful and valuable material from e-waste in order to conserve the environment. “The central and state pollution control boards should immediately ask firms to open a common facility and inform the users about it.
Apart from collection of e-waste from the users, the firms should also take the responsibility to inform them about hazards of illegal recycling of e-waste,” said Mannar Mannan of Global E-waste Management firm.
Readers can send mail to the Central Pollution Control Board and TNPCB to demand for recycling facility through –‘greenchronicle2012@gmail.com’.
DC will meet the environment officials and represent people’s demands.