MCC to launch three e-Waste collection centres

Unfazed by the past failures, the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) is all set to set up three electronic waste (e-Waste) collection centres in the city.

It will be launched on August 26, with one such centre being set up near MCC main office on M G Road.

MCC environmental engineer Madhu S Manohar told Deccan Herald that unlike previous centres that cease to exist, the proposed centres will be set up in a scientific manner with huge bins with multiple containers for various types of wastes like batteries, SIM cards, cellphones, CDs, DVDs to name a few. The containers will prove beneficial in segregation of waste at the source itself — the one system that was absent in the earlier centres, the main reason that led to its failure. Most importantly, there were no takers for such wastes earlier. Now, it has also been addressed with a newly set up factory at Baikampady Industrial Area, that is into recycling of electronic waste agreeing to collect the same.

Mookambika Metal Refinery (MMR) Recycling at Baikampady will be keeping the bins with multiple containers at MCC and two other places preferably mall and industrial area, mostly transit locations where such wastes are generated in a huge quantity, Manohar added claiming it will also help in keeping the city clean ahead of Swachh Bharat Survekshan in January-February 2017.

Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), which has partnered with the local body in the initiative, aims to prepare a database of e-waste mainly by recording the quantity of waste collected at the centres. Till now, there has been no statistics of amount of e-waste generated like in the case of dry waste and wet waste.

Environmental officer Rajashekhar Puranik said: “Before going ahead, it has been planned to hold a workshop, involving stakeholders and select industrialists, representatives of various medical and engineering colleges in the region who are considered bulk electronic waste generators, on August 26.”

A Harisudhan, one of the directors of MMR Recycling, said, “We have succeeded in Bengaluru by collecting electronic wastes from major industries. In Mangaluru, we will be beginning with three locations and plans are on the anvil to go door-to-door in future. People having bulk waste can contact the dedicated toll-free number to handout the waste.”
DH News Service