NEWS

The city which produces 8,000 metric tons of e-waste each year, ranks third in the country when it comes to e-waste generation, thanks to the lack of re-cycling and treatment units.Mr Biswajit Mukherjee, senior law officer of West bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB), said: “There are no laws to check e-waste in the city. A draft E-Waste Management and Handling Rules, 2010 has been proposed by the Union ministry of environment and forest and it will have to formulate a way to collect, store and dispose e-waste. The Union government is planning to set up collection centres in various parts of the state.”  A study, E-Waste: Flooding the City of Joy, conducted in 2007 by Prof. Ghosh in association with Toxics Link, New Delhi, states that some of the unorganised units in the city recycle this waste by burning them openly, thereby exposing themselves to dangerous toxic and carcinogenic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium.