BHUBANESWAR: In the face of growing concerns over e-waste disposal across the country, the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) is ready to undertake intensive mapping of the waste management and handling scenario in the State. The exercise aims at preparing the pollution control authority to put in place an effective monitoring and regulatory system in Orissa as a national policy and rules on hazardous e-waste management are expected to be framed and made operational soon.

The authority would be looking at the present practices in e-waste management from collection to dismantling and recovery, working conditions, recycling and final state of the waste. The entire supply chain, dumping hubs, methods adopted for dismantling the waste and recovery along with the end fate of the waste would be examined.

At present, Orissa accounts for two per cent of the estimated e-waste generation in the country. e-waste include computers, IT accessories, musical systems, data storage devices, electronic and electrical appliances from TV, fridge, microwave, washing machine and AC to telecommunication products as phones, mobile phones and accessories along with IT-driven medical and industrial equipment. With e-waste generation in the country this year estimated to be at over 4.5 lakh tonne, Orissa’s share would not be less than 9,000 tonne. “e-waste generation in the State is poised for a huge jump with fast rise in penetration of PCs and mobile phones. The growing affluence in society is also driving acquisition of electronic and electrical items,” OSPCB senior scientist  NR Sahoo said on the sidelines of the multi-stakeholder workshop on ‘e-waste perspective and challenges’, organised by Toxic Link and Jeevan Rekha Parishad (JRP) here today.

The problem is that there is absolutely no awareness on the hazardous nature of e-waste among the people. The handling and dismantling process are unorganised and pose serious risks to not only the handlers but also society. e-waste contains 1,000  substances and chemicals, most of which are extremely toxic, and likely to create serious problems for environment and health if not handled properly. PCs, mobiles, electronics items contain highly toxic heavy metals as lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, plastics, barium and brominated flame retardants that can cause diseases from cancer to nervous damage and organ failure to respiratory problems. That almost the whole of the waste is non-biodegradable is another matter.

In the absence of a specific regulation, e-waste is handled in the unorganised sector as backyard operations using rudimentary techniques - hammers for breaking apart and burning and acid bath for recovery of wanted components. The remnants are then dumped in land or water bodies which cause pollution and contamination. The e-waste recycling industry is mainly in slums and only around five per cent of it is through organised industry. There are about six industries authorised for recycling e-waste, associate director, Toxics Link, Satish Sinha said.

Former chief secretary and Citizen’s Apex Association chief NK Panda, former Utkal University V-C Dr B Mohanty and Director, JRP, Dr MR Mishra were present.