BENGALURU: Bengaluru ranks third among the highest electronic waste producing cities in the country.
With the situation alarming, consumers and experts have stressed the need for efforts to reduce e-waste in the state, starting with standardisation of chargers.
As per data by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), the state produced around 1.2 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2021-2022. The new rules notified in 2022 increased the items under the e-waste category from 21 to 106.
The Centre is all set to adopt the recommendations of the consumer affairs committee on common charging ports like the EU, and this will be the first step in resolving the e-waste problem in the country.
A recent study by LocalCircles, which enables citizens and small businesses for policy changes, revealed that 9 in 10 consumers in the country want USB Type-C as standard charging port for all electronic products.
Need circular economy, say KSPCB officials
Many Bengalureans are of the same view. Siddhant Chaturvedi, who works for an ed-tech company, said, “I have dealt with countless chargers and cables over the years. It would simplify the whole process if we could use only one charger for all gadgets.” With Apple products, it is even more difficult to carry and manage chargers.
“They can be quite expensive, and buying separate chargers for each device is an additional expense,” said Liza Goyal, a techie in Bengaluru. Many are not aware of what to do with electronic waste. If it is a big item, they give it to scrap dealers, while smaller ones are dumped in dry waste bins, she added.
“We have to promote a circular economy and take a hard look at how linear our buying pattern has been,” said a senior official at KSPCB. Companies should take the responsibility of their ewaste and there should be data of those producing it.
The best way to avoid generating e-waste is “reuse and recycle gadgets as much as possible. Because, it takes a long time to dispose of these devices”, he said. Many drives have been launched in the city to collect unused electronic devices.
Currently, the city has 200 e-waste centres. The official claimed that almost all e-waste collected is disposed of properly. Data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change revealed that only 32.9% of e-waste generated in 2021-2022 was recycled.
EPR Framework
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Framework proposed in 2016, where the manufacturer, producer, and recycler of e-products have to compulsorily register in different categories which will be tracked through a portal is still in the process. According to KSPCB officials, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is still working on the policy.