Delhi govt authorises 37 e-waste collection centres

Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Wednesday announced that the Delhi government has authorised 37 centres for collecting e-waste.

The minister stressed upon the importance of creating public awareness about the hazards of improper disposal of e-waste while addressing a workshop organised by the Environment Department on e-waste management.

“E-waste is generated when old mobile phones, computers, laptops, TV sets and other electronic and electrical material becomes unusable or obsolete. Common practice has been noticed where the user tends to dispose of such waste by selling such items to local scrap dealers/kabadiwala,” noted a communiqué from the Environment Department.

“Such dealers are generally ignorant about handling e-waste and as a result e-waste often ends up being burnt for extracting valuable metals, which also releases harmful gases to the atmosphere thus causing air pollution,” it added.

The workshop was attended by the several officers of various departments and organisations of the Delhi government which are also bulk consumers of electrical and electronic equipment. Detailed presentations were made by the experts.

The minister raised his concern over the unauthorised dismantling and recycling of e-waste, which is posing a great danger to the human health and environment. He also asked to dispose e-waste to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee authorised collection centres in strict adherence to the e-waste management rules.

The Minister observed that besides authorising collection centres, the concerned agencies need to make available disposal facilities for handling e-waste.

Hussain appealed to the public to lend support and corporation for effective management of e-waste.