THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : A month after the floods, municipal officials are facing one of its biggest challenges- proper e-waste disposal. Television sets, mobile phones, laptops and refrigerators top the list. According to officials, if these electronic gadgets are not disposed well, it will pose a threat to the environment.
The state government had directed the Clean Kerala Company, a body which comes under the Local Self Government Department, to collect and dispose the waste. However, Clean Kerala members say that segregating the e-waste from the pile of total waste is their biggest challenge. “ We have allocated one coordinator in each district who is in charge of coordinating the collection of e-waste in the district but it is taking time since people in these areas have dumped all kinds of e-waste,” said Nagesh Kumar S S, senior assistant manager of Clean Kerala Company.
Clean Kerala plan to hand over the collected e-waste to ‘Earth Sense Recycle Pvt Ltd’ in Hyderabad. “We are directly channelising the e-waste from the collection centres in different places but only three tonnes of e-waste can be loaded in a vehicle. We have set up a dumping yard for collecting e-waste which is in Palakkad,” Nagesh added.
Sreelal, Clean Kerala Company coordinator of Ernakulam district said that as of now they have collected about 110 tonnes of e-waste from the district and are running special drives in Ernakulam. He added that e-waste and non-biodegradable waste accumulated after the floods were high in Ernakulam.
Clean Kerala has not yet been able to calculate the total amount of e-waste collected from different districts. “As we don’t have enough time to segregate the e-waste because it may impact our health,, we are trying to move these e-waste to safer places immediately and then transport it to Hyderabad for disposing it in a scientific manner,” he added.
The Company has so far collected 94 per cent of e-waste from different districts and only about three panchayats are left. Nagesh says, “ Although the e-waste generated from flood-affected areas cannot be recycled, it will be taken to the respective dumping yards and then disposed off after checking its hazardous nature. Now, the segregation and pooling of these electronic waste is in progress.”