Bangalore tops in generating e-waste

Bangalore pays a price for being the Silicon Valley of India. There is mounting electronic waste, and of the 11,000 tonnes of e-waste produced by the state in a year, 6,500 tonnes come from Bangalore alone.

AS Sadashivaiah, chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board , said that there was an urgent need to manage e-waste scientifically. There was need for industry to step up efforts to deal with e-waste, especially since the rate of generation of such waste is alarmingly high.

Sadashivaiah was on a panel that was discussing ‘Hazardous Waste Management’ in the city on Friday.

The event was jointly organised by Electronics City Industries Association, the Consortium of Electronic Industries of Karnataka , the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association and Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce.

The panel also saw a discussion by members of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the Peenya Industrial Estate.

The peculiar problems faced by small and medium industries were also addressed by the discussants.

Speaking of how the city lags behind other metropolitan centres in the management of even household waste and other garbage, Sadashivaiah said, “At many places in the city, dry and wet waste is segregated, so that recycling or composting can be done. But the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike just goes ahead and mixes it all up, making the whole exercise of segregating waste at source futile. We have a long way to go to tackle the problem of waste management, and we lag behind other cities in the country.”