Bengaluru, May 5: Being the IT capital of the country, Bengaluru contributes hugely to e-waste. The IT hub, which sees a big demand for electronics goods, reportedly accounts for nearly 10,000 tonnes of the 1.5 lakh tonnes of e-waste generated across India. But worryingly, not enough attention is being given to how this e-waste is disposed of as nearly 95 per cent of it is generated by the informal sector in the country, says Steven Art of Umicore, Belgium, which is working with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for e-waste management.

“The informal sectors, which produce a large amount of e-waste, create health and environmental hazards while disposing it. The recovery rate of precious metals from these devices is not more than 50 per cent,” Mr Art says. While Union minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh recently came up with draft disposal rules for e-waste in an attempt to streamline the process in the country, it may take a while to implement them.

The draft rules that have been sent to all state pollution boards for suggestions are expected to regulate the process of discarding and recycling e-waste. Drafted under the Environment Act, the rules are directed at reducing environmental degradation and occupational hazards and place a lot of responsibility on producers to dispose e-waste the proper way, besides quantifying the emissions which can be allowed into the atmosphere during recycling. But the rules will have to wait until a clearer picture emerges about the amount of e-waste generated in the country, says KSPCB chairman, A. S. Sadashivaiah.

“Although we think Bengaluru generates nearly 10,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, we need to do a systematic survey to establish this. We now intend to carry out an inventory of not just the waste generated but its production centres as well. This will take time as we need experts to carry out the survey. But we intend to set up a team to do the job,” Mr Sadashivaiah explains.