I am a
fairly conservative user of electronic gadgets. I do not like to
throw away and buy new gadgets just because something better has
become available. Probably, this attitude has developed in me because
of my age, which no way can be considered as young. Even then, I was
horrified to find out other day that I have used and scrapped in last
decade, 3 laptops, 1 PC, 2 printers, about 3 mobile phones, 2 cameras
and at least 2 cordless phones, besides countless, ink cartridges and
batteries of various kind. If I generated so much of electronic
scrap, I shuddered to think of the colossal heaps of scrap, that
today's gadget savvy generation must be discarding every year.
Recently
I read about an organization in the city of Thiruvananthapuram
(Trivandrum) in the Kerala, state of India. This organization, known
as Technopark is a Technology park dedicated to IT ventures. It is
one of the largest technology parks in India. As on 2012, it had 4
million square feet of built-up area, and was home to over 285
companies, employing nearly 40,000 professionals. It is now being
expanded by adding another 37 hectares as part of Phase III expansion
and another 450 acres as a seperate Technocity—an integrated IT
township near Pallippuram, again in Kerala state.
Wikipedia
says that the units in Technopark include domestic firms, joint
ventures and subsidiaries of foreign companies engaged in a wide
variety of activities, which include embedded software development,
smart card technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP), process
control software design, engineering and computer-aided design
software development, IT Enabled Services (ITES), process
re-engineering, animation and e-business.
Readers
can well imagine the amount of e-waste this technology park must be
creating every week and disposing it off, in an environmentally
friendly way, has always been a daunting task before the management
of the park. I would think that the e waste created by such a park
in the city itself would be a major environmental issue for the city.
However
Technopark appears to have found a solution to the challenge and
claims that its status as the ‘greenest Technopolis’ in the
country through a successful e-waste management system and it even
lists the same as an achievement. Mr. K. C. Chandrashekeran Nair,
chief financial officer at Technopark says proudly; “The numbers
are daunting, yes. But e-waste has been under control in the recent
past, ever since 2008 when we introduced (through a tendering
process) a government approved company to collect it. Before that I
remember how we used to have to pay people to come collect e-waste.”
Assistant
manager IT, Mr. Azeeb A.K., explains: “In 2008, we actually
collected 12,000 kg of e-waste! Since then we have put a system in
place for e-waste management. E-waste levels have now come down to at
the most, 800 kg a quarter. Nowadays for each kg of e-waste that a
company gives up it gets Rs.44 (it used to be Rs.7 until recently;
fresh tenders are called annually). Last quarter we collected 480 kg
of e-waste. This does not include tube lights, bulbs and other
similar electrical/glass waste.”
Every
quarter, tendered e-waste collection company comes for its rounds in
the park. Prior to that the administration sends out notices to
companies within campus. The e-waste collectors then go door to door
accompanied by an administration official and each lot of e-waste is
weighed, payment agreed upon and settled.
Most
of the smaller companies from the park have signed for the e
collection drive. Mr. Anil Saraswathy, director, Fischer Systems
India says: “We are a small office of 36 people but we do generate
e-waste. There is a box that we have kept inside the office into
which we dump used CDs, monitors, hard drives and so on. When it gets
filled, which happens every six months or so, we put in a request
with Technopark administration or the e-waste company and it’s
picked up reasonably promptly. It saves us the hassle of having to
dispose it ourselves.”
Most
of the bigger companies from the park however are reluctant to
participate in the e waste collection drive. It appears that already
have in place their own e-waste collection systems. Most of these
companies, have standards of operation which require systems to be
upgraded often. When their computer systems are upgraded, they
usually give away used monitors, CPUs, printers and the like to
various charitable organisations, as a part of their corporate social
responsibility activities. Some of the companies also give used
systems to their employees free of cost.
I
thought that initiative shown by an enterprise from far off corner of
India is not only praiseworthy but needs to be followed by other
cities. For example my home city Pune has a big software industry
doing turnover of Billions of Dollars every year. Besides large IT
companies like Infosys and Wipro, there are hundreds or thousands
small or medium scale IT enterprises. The large companies perhaps
have their own e-waste disposal systems, yet the small and medium
sector depends on the scrap dealer route, which is not a very
eco-friendly route.
Perhaps
the Technopark initiative from Thiruananthpuram is well worth
following by Pune. It will definitely help in clearing the
environment.
30
March 2013
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