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Mumbai firm aims to make India e-waste free

The programme was launched by setting up the first Eco-Bin at Mahindra's Worli Office, exactly a year after the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Ecoreco plans to set up 1,00,000 e-waste collection bins
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Next time you walk into the Siddhivinayak temple, carry your old charger along with the flowers and coconut. While you offer the rest to the God, the charger can be dropped in the e-waste collection bin that will soon be installed at the temple.

Not just Siddhivinayak, the bins will soon be placed at many other places in the city. Eco Recycling Limited or Ecoreco, an e-waste management company, launched a social drive named 'E-waste Mukt Bharat: Swachh Bharat' on October 2 this year. As a part of the initiative, Ecoreco plans to set up 100,000 e-waste collection bins or Eco-Bins in schools, colleges and religious places such as temples, churches, masjids and gurudwaras. It also proposes to establish 5,000 take-back points or collection centres across India to collect the waste from these bins.

The programme was launched by setting up the first Eco-Bin at Mahindra's Worli Office, exactly a year after the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The drive aims to support the Swachh Bharat mission and envisions making India an e-waste free country by channelising, collecting and disposing the e-waste in a timely and scientific manner.

E-waste generation in India is increasing exponentially. It is expected to grow to 20 million metric ton per annum by 2020. At present, it is 3.2 million metric ton per annum. To address the issue, the e-waste management and handling rules were notified in 2011 and came into effect in 2012. Over 90 per cent of e-waste, however, is handled by the unorganised sector, which consists of Kabadiwalas, scrap collectors and rag pickers. The dismantling and processing of the e-waste by the informal sector is not done in a scientific manner, posing a huge threat to the environment.

BK Soni, Chairman and Managing Director of Ecoreco, said, "Many companies have readily come forward to support our drive to facilitate easy and effective collection and disposal of e-waste. Any corporate entity desirous to join this social movement can sponsor a bin at a minimal sponsorship pf Rs 10,000 per bin. Even the public sector units such as ONGC, BPCL and HPCL have joined the movement to free India from e-waste."

Ecoreco aims to set up nearly 50 collection centres by the end of October in Mumbai. The city alone accounts for 5 per cent of the e-waste generated in the country. With the Eco-Bins installed, individuals, organisations and small e-waste generators can deposit their old, obsolete, broken or unused electrical and electronic equipments in the bins. These will then be collected by Ecoreco take back points or collection centres and sent for scientific recycling. "We intend to create a 360-degree solution to this gigantic problem," said Soni.

As the next step, Ecoreco has announced a programme named 'Ecoreco Enviro Education' to train about 3,00,000 Kabadiwalas within 10 years to equip them with the knowledge of systematic handling of e-waste to safeguard their health and environment. It proposes to utilise the value recovered from recycling of the e-waste collected through the bins for this purpose, and eventually integrate them with the organised sector.

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