The Mumbai-Pune corridor produces one third of India's electronic waste. A stakeholders' consultation on e-waste management was conducted in Pune to address the issue.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MCCIA), Janvani, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ)-Advisory Services in Environmental Management (ASEM) shared ideas on the issue.
Director of GTZ-ASEM Juergen Bischoff expressed the need for a legislation for electronic waste management in India. He said the GTZ has been working towards finding solutions to the problem of e-waste through city-level interventions and policy dialogues. “We live in a ‘trilemma', and not dilemma, between achieving inclusive growth, depleting resources and deteriorating environmental situation. Recyclying waste forms a big aspect of the solution to this,” he said.
Executive Director-General of MCCIA Anant Sardeshmukh stated the challenges faced by the industry while designing and implementing e-waste management systems.
Greenpeace India campaigner Abhishek Pratap stated the need for the placing of Extended Producer Responsibility on the shoulders of manufacturers of Electronic and Electrical Equipment (EEE).
Lakshmi Narayan of KKPKP spoke on the role of the informal sector in the recycling e-waste.
H.M. Modak, a consultant working for the Pune Municipal Corporation said that the Rochem Concord Blue has been assigned the task of recycling 700 metric tonnes of waste every day.
The GTZ launched a new project on e-waste management on the occasion.
Technical Manager of GTZ-ASEM Ashish Chaturvedi spoke on the objectives that the project proposes to realise. One of the main objectives is to bridge the gap in e-waste management between the formal and informal sector, he added. The project is aimed at improving the situation of e-waste management in Pune, Pimpri and Chinchwad.
