The government has decided to fund establishment of e-waste treatment facility as part of its waste management programme for 140 highly contaminated sites in the country, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said today at two sites in Andhra Pradesh and eight in West Bengal on pilot basis for a period of four years.
This is part of the larger objective to develop a national programme for rehabilitation of polluted 140 sites identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The need for such a programme has been felt to treat the 6.2 million tonnes of hazardous waste generated in the country, of which roughly 3.5 million tonnes is recyclable. For the balance 2.7 MTA, only 1.5 MTA is treated, stored and disposed of in 33 facilities set up in various states. As per our environment minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh, to meet the capacity gap, we need Rs 85 crore of which Rs 22 crore has been allocated for the first three years of the XIth plan. By 2012, India is estimated to generate over 800,000 million tonnes (mt) of e-waste every year in view of increasing demand for laptops, refrigerators and mobile phones.