NAVI MUMBAI: Supporting the campaign to scientifically recycle e-waste, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has announced its plans to set up a Swachh (Cleanliness) Park to spread awareness about electronic waste that is being increasingly generated by the society.
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| Navi Mumbai Mayor Jayant Sutar inaugurating launching IWED campaign to collect e waste in red bins. |
Participating in the
first ever International E-waste Day (IWED) developed by the WEEE (World
Electronic Electric Equipment) Forum, NMMC Commissioner Dr N Ramaswami said on
Saturday that Navi Mumbai would seek to emerge as a model city handling
electronic waste.
At an IWED event at
Sadhu Vaswani International School at Sanpada, he appreciated the initiative
taken by Navi Mumbai First Charitable Trust, Public Relations Council of India
(PRCI) and Rotary Clubs of Navi Mumbai of district 3142, in spreading awareness
about scientific disposal of e-waste.
Navi Mumbai has
achieved the distinction of being the second most livable city in the country
and ranked among top-ten in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The Swachh Park will seek to
create awareness about handling all kinds of wastes – dry, wet and electronic,
he said.
PRCI governing council
chairman B N Kumar said his organization launched a pan-India social media
campaign #CheckEwasteMonster to spread awareness about recycling e-waste. “We also floated an
online petition to the Prime Minister to aggressively include e-waste as part
of the government’s Swachh Bharat drive,” he said and requested all to support
it.
Kumar expressed the
happiness that NMMC is the only civic body in the country to participate in the
first ever International E-waste Day as part of the WEEE drive.
Navi Mumbai Mayor
Jayawant Sutar, who launched the collection of e-waste in red bins at the
school, said everyone must treat Navi Mumbai as ‘My City’. Only then
initiatives such as e-waste collection would succeed, he said.
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| PRCI Governing Council Chairman B N Kumar addressing IWED event |
Navi Mumbai First
president Rajesh Prajapati said the city and the country are producing e-waste
in alarming proportions. It is in the
interest of all to plan and dispose it of scientifically.
Rotary District
Secretary Dr. Jaideep Sensharma said the thirteen Clubs under the International
District 3142 have three initiatives - Tree Plantation, E-Waste and Solar
Energy - as part of their 'Save Nature' initiative. The Clubs have organised
ground events including collection of e-waste at designated points, he said.
The material will
later be handed over to government approved recyclers, according to Kedarnath
Rao Ghorpade, avenue chair-save nature, Rotary District 3142. The Rotary Clubs
will organise regular events till November 13, 2018 in association with NMMC
under the guidance of Tushar Pawar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, NMMC.
According to WEEE, an
estimated 50 million tonnes of e-waste will be generated globally in 2018. Half
of this is personal devices such as computers, screens, smartphones, tablets
and TVs, with the remainder being larger household appliances and heating and
cooling equipment.
Only 20% of global
e-waste is recycled each year, which means that 40 million tonnes of e-waste
per annum is either placed in landfill, burned or illegally traded and treated
in a sub-standard way and this is despite 66% of the world’s population being
covered by e-waste legislation. This results in the huge loss of valuable and
critical raw materials from the supply chain and causes serious health,
environmental and societal issues through illegal shipments of waste to
developing countries.
In India, the scene is
even worse and very alarming. Only 5% of the e-waste is recycled despite the
government’s emphasis on Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan and Smart Cities project,
India continues to be generating highest e-waste vis-à-vis China, USA, Japan
and Germany, Kumar said quoting a recent study by ASSOCHAM-NEC.
Sadhu Vaswani
International School principal Mangala Chandrashekhar said involvement school
children is very important to make the movement a success. Lots of e-waste such
as computer screens, cords, keyboards, chargers, printers, bulbs and telephone
instruments were placed in red bins placed at the school after the Mayor
inaugurated the month-long campaign. She also mentioned that the school
students had organised an E-Waste Rally to sensitive the community around the
housing societies, in association with Rotary Club of Smart City.
Jain Jagruti Mandal
volunteers will help promote the ground activity in collecting e-waste from
various housing societies.
