The two-year-long attempt of the Suchitwa Mission to form a cluster of junk dealers in the city and thus co-opt them into an e-waste management scheme has failed with the junk dealers’ collective turning its back on the idea. The project has been dropped midway with not even 10% of the 2000-odd scrap material dealers showing interest in it.
The Suchitwa Mission’s plan was to make use of scrap dealers and pickers to collect electronic waste at regular intervals through door-to-door collection. However, the dealers did not respond positively.
Suchitwa Mission sources said junk dealers were sceptical of the scheme and feared it would cut their returns. They also thought that it would restrict their independence though meetings were held to allay their fears. The formation of junk dealers’ cluster was initiated by the Mission as the collection and treatment of e-waste was emerging as a challenge for many urban residents. The illegal dumping of e-waste in public places and along waterbodies had posed huge contamination threat. In some areas, the unscientific dismantling and stocking of e-waste had emerged as a health challenge.
Since the Suchitwa Mission failed in materialising the project, some of the residents’ associations in the city recently came together and formed a pact with the district unit of the Kerala Scrap Merchants to find a solution to the issue. The coordinators of the project said scrap dealers were made part of their initiative by offering a special charge for the service. An agreement was also made for the collection of e-waste and plastic waste on regular intervals, they said.
The temporary agreement was mainly found helping residents in the coastal areas of Kozhikode, where illegal dumping of dismantled electronic items was rampant. As many as seven residents’ associations near the Kozhikode South Beach were made part of the agreement with scrap dealers for the scientific disposal of the collected items. Association leaders said the model could be adopted by all residents’ units without the intervention of a third party or government agency.
