JCI Vizag Steel City KICK START its E WASTE management Project-E GREEN Era

India generates about 3 million tonnes (MT) of e-waste annually and ranks third among e-waste producing countries, after China and the United States. Reports state that it might rise to 5 million tonnes by 2021

To address this issue and to kick-start an e-waste collection drive in the residential area of Visakhapatnam JCI Vizag Steel City partnered with Grean Wave Environmental Solutions and conducted a webinar on 24th January. The Webinar was attended by 2020 NOM Cordinator for “No Plastic World” JCI Senator Pavan Kumar and other National Officers and Zone Officers, members and Non-members.

Due to the presence of many materials and chemicals in electronic products, resulting waste has the potential to severely compromise human health and the environment. Hazardous chemicals typically found in e-waste include (but are not limited to) various heavy metals – mercury, cadmium, and lead – brominated flame retardant plastics (BFRs) that can convert into dioxins and furans when burned at high temperatures, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Wath et al., 2010). Thus, the toxic chemicals derived from these consumer goods can have a high bodily accumulation capacity, are carcinogenic, or are highly detrimental to the nervous system, kidney, bones, and reproductive and endocrine systems. Without effective government regulation of the disposal of electronic consumer goods, and without public awareness of the inherent hazards, accumulation of such waste will have dire consequences for the human population

The project is led by JC Leela Rani and JC Jaya Lakshmi with the Mr Anil Chowdari, MD of Green Waves Environmental Solutions. In the Webinar, Mr Anil explained how the e-waste is generated , why it is harmful and how they manage to dispose them. The LOM JCI Vizag Steel City with Green Waves Environmental Solutions has planned to conduct the awareness programs through out the year across the Zone and arrange the collection of e-waste from the residential area for its management.