Govt looks to fast-track work on eco-park!

A management consultant has been appointed by the environment department to expedite the procedure of establishing the first eco-park in India for recycling, dismantling, and refurbishing electronic waste in the Holambi Kalan area of the city. This particular eco-park is going to cover an area of approximately 21 acres.

It is a fact that more than 2 lakh tonnes of e-waste is produced by the city of Delhi every year which is approximately 9.5% of the total amount of e-waste produced in the country and only 5% of the generated e-waste is recycled in the proper manner.

Delhi is the fifth biggest producer of e-waste in the country

The term "e-waste eco park" refers to the establishment of a site where this e-waste will be refurbished, dismantled, recycled, and manufactured in a manner that is environmentally and scientifically sound. Incidentally, Delhi happens to be the fifth biggest producer of e-waste in the country following the states of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra, as well as West Bengal. It is a fact that the establishment of this eco Park will help to minimize the contamination caused by e-waste to a great extent.

The authorities have given the task of preparing a comprehensive report for the project to the consultant. We can expect the eco park for managing e-waste to come up following 18 months of the comprehensive DPR being ready. A technical and steering committee has been constituted to develop the eco-park to finalize the consultant for supervising the entire procedure till the eco-park is made functional in a time-bound way.

There is no doubt that the establishment of this park is going to minimize the pollution caused by e-waste significantly. The eco-park is going to engage informal operators performing these activities for quite some time and having an adequate knowledge base within the collection network.

It is meant to have an official refurbishing market as a subordinate product sale market for electronic items. Collaboration with the informal segment is going to aid in ensuring the accessibility of e-waste for processing in the formal segment and this is going to play an important role in making the formal units viable economically.