NEWS

KOLKATA: The first three collection points ever for e-waste were set up in the city today by the environmental group Toxic Link.   

The group plans to put 20 of the collection bins outside important landmarks across the city, said Mr Rajeev Betne a Kolkata-based programme coordinator with Toxics Link. The bins are for “small stuff,� he said. “People can drop off their mobile phones, pen drives, anything not too big.�  

The three collections bins already in place are in front of the Pollution Control Board's central office, the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, and the Indian Museum, he said. They'll trying to convince other well known buildings to let them put one there, also.  
 
The e-waste in the bins is collected by a Chennai-based recycler, Mr Betne said, as there is no authorised recycler to deal with the electronics leftovers in Kolkata.  
 
At the moment, the bins are there as much to raise awareness about the needs to recycle electronic waste, as to collect it, he said.  

Under the new e-waste rules which came into effect on 1 May this year, electronics producers are responsible for the collection of the piles of e-waste generated when products they have sold come to the end of their life. The producers are supposed to set up collection centres and make available the address and contact details to get the old products back. So far, though, concerns about costs and a lack of awareness has meant the rules are widely ignored.