With serious challenges emerging from growing e-waste in the country, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT plans to undertake an assessment of the inventory of e-waste across states apart from creating awareness campaigns around it.
“We need to create awareness of the environmental, social and economic aspects of e-waste. The channelisation of the e-waste for proper recycling and establishing a system of accountability in e-waste management will happen only through effective awareness,” a senior official from the ministry told DNA Money.
Besides, a study on the total inventory of e-waste would also be undertaken to devise a long-term strategy. The biggest challenge is the recycling of e-waste in non-formal units by unscientific, unhealthy and non-environmental friendly methods, the official said.
The objective is to create awareness campaigns around hazards of the recycling methods being used by unorganised sector vis-à-vis best practices available for environment-friendly recycling. A meeting of senior officials was recently held by the IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on this issue.
The campaign strategy would include workshops, activities in schools, colleges, RWAs with a special focus on the informal sector. Even content for social media will be created besides short films and videos to inform stakeholders about pros and cons of e-waste recycling and proper management. All channels will be used to spread out the information regarding recycling of electronic items, the official said.
The ministry plans to invite proposals from relevant parties to undertake this project. This will be part of the Digital India programme. While the first phase of similar nature was undertaken in 2015 which covered 10 states, but now the scope of the project will be expanded to all the states.
