by SK Gupta, Director, ESRAG South Asia Chapter
Erase E-Waste
The IT industry alone is responsible for around 2% of greenhouse gas emissions, as much as the entire airline industry. Indian Rotary clubs in Rotary District 3131 are taking action to reduce the exponential growth of e-waste and teach our communities how to replace crude and unsustainable methods for its disposal.
When e-waste is discarded without being recycled, all the natural resources that went into its production are lost. In addition to resource loss, e-waste contains toxic additives or hazardous substances, such as mercury, brominated flame retardants (BFR), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and more. Low collection rates, inefficient disposal, and poor treatment put at risk both the environment and human health.
E-waste: Awareness and Collection Project
We’re working to educate our communities to extend the useful life of their electronics and to connect them to the best available ways to dispose of these devices responsibly at the end of their useful life.
Here are the elements of our campaign:
- Create awareness among masses of the impacts of e-waste on the environment.
- Reduce the volume of e-waste by teaching people to apply the 5R principle: Rethink the idea of buying a new device, Repair the one you have, Reuse it (such as projects delivering used PCs to people in need), Recycle the components, and connect consumers to an authorized Recycler.
- Bridge the gap of connection between residents and authorized recyclers.
- Route the e-waste disposal through authorized recyclers for proper disposal.
Project implementation:
In the Pune District, Rotary International District 3131, we began working on this problem in December 2019 by spreading awareness, and our campaign has been building momentum. Using hoardings, handbills, social media, and person-to-person explanations to households, we’re alerting our community to the impacts of informal disposal of e-waste on the environment and human health: carbon emissions and health hazards to sanitation workers and the public from dumping e-waste in landfills and water bodies.
We have built collaborations with Self-Help Groups to build new supply chain logistics to collect e-waste and deliver it to recyclers. To help, we’ve set up temporary kiosks at multiple locations. Self-Help Groups are segregating the e-waste, and are sorting it according to devices that can be repaired and reused, versus those that need to go to the recycler. These Self Help Groups and NGOs are jointly supported by businesses through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligations, as well as by recyclers, with help from participating Rotary clubs to make it a sustainable activity. These SHGs/NGOs are authorised by the local administration to sort a variety of wastes that can be recycled.
Rotary Clubs take care of the arrangement and coordination of kiosks, publicizing the message and partly funding the event as needed.
Impacts: Since our modest beginning at the end of 2019, we have reached 2 million consumers with our messaging and completed 230 collection drives to divert approximately 36 tons of e-waste from the landfill. We have also been able to repair 30 PCs. If you would like to discuss how to replicate this project, please feel free to contact me at skgupta014@gmail.com
SK Gupta is a member of the Rotary Club Pune Cantonment in RID 3131, India
