E-waste collection to be streamlined

Coimbatore: The civic body is all set to streamline the collection and disposal of electronic waste (e-waste) from residential and non-residential establishments in the city by roping in a private player. E-waste include tubelights, mobile phones, modem, wall clocks, batteries, routers, monitors and keyboards.

To start with, Green Era Recyclers, which owns a Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) authorized e-waste recycling facility, received e-waste from city corporation commissioner J Sravan Kumar at the corporation main office in Town Hall on Tuesday.

The corporation commissioner said first e-waste would be collected from all its offices, corporation-run schools and hospitals within a week. “Then, the collection process would start at private hospitals, companies and educational institutions.”

Explaining that the civic body has fixed a six-month schedule for the collection vehicle, he said they would intimate offices and institutions a few days ahead of the collection date so that the managements could be ready to handover e-waste whenever the vehicle reaches their buildings.

The civic body has also set up collection centres, especially for residents, at each zonal office. “Residents could either deposit e-waste at the nearby zonal office or hand over them separately to the sanitary workers, who do door-to-door waste collection in their locality,” the city corporation commissioner said.

Prasanth Omanakuttan, a managing partner at Green Era Recyclers, said after the collection, e-waste would be segregated into seven categories, tested, dismantled and recycled. “The data storage devices would undergo the data destruction process before being tested for the quality of the product. If the quality is better, it would be refurbished or else it would be dismantled.”

According to a city corporation source, the city has provisions only for secondary recycling like recovering base metals. Total recycling centers are established only in metropolitan cities.

More than a year ago, the city corporation had installed an e-waste collection bin at Bharathi Park from where it has collected 120kg waste so far. As the e-waste does not accumulate like other waste, the city corporation is planning to move the collection bin at the park to another location for a few months.