Bhubaneswar, Dec. 7: Nasscom foundation's chief executive officer said awareness drives on management of electronic waste would be started at resident welfare associations and localities across the state capital.

CEO Shrikant Sinha said the awareness programmes would include street plays, lectures and quizzes. Addressing a workshop on 'Environmental hazards of electronic waste' here, he said management of e-waste had emerged as a challenge in cities especially those growing exponentially such as Bhubaneswar. It is imperative for youngsters, including college students and schoolchildren, to be aware of the need to dispose of such waste in a responsible manner, he said.

"The electronic waste we throw out along with regular waste is handled mostly by child labourers on open grounds and broken down manually to extract recyclable metals to be resold, leaving both the workers and soil exposed to toxic materials," Sinha said. He added that the mascot for electronic waste management and awareness.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Krishan Kumar said the civic body had recently initiated the Swachh Bhubaneswar Abhiyan and management and disposal of electronic waste was one of its primary objectives. He said BMC would hire environmental engineers to identify such waste and suggest ways to dispose of them responsibly. Senior environment scientist, State Pollution Control Board, Odisha, said almost 90 per cent of e-waste was handled by the informal sector, which included junk dealers.

There are approximately more than 5,000 junk dealers who collect all kinds of household junk including electronic waste. "They do not segregate electronic waste and dispose everything using primitive means," he said. Behera said junk dealers would be trained in disposal. Additional chief secretary and chairman, State Pollution Control Board, Odisha, R. Balakrishnan said since that Bhubaneswar was gearing up to be a smart city, its residents needed to be informed on ways to manage electronic waste.

He said an inventory study on the amount of electronic waste generated in the city had already been conducted by the Union ministry of electronics and information technology and the report would be released shortly. Balakrishnan said this would help all stakeholders, including OSPCB, BMC and forest and environment department, to chalk out a plan to effectively dispose of electronic waste.

He said the civic body of Chennai had already started a programme in some localities where residents were being asked to dispose of waste in coloured polythene bags. "This can be replicated in Bhubaneswar," he said.

Chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi urged the forest and environment department to coordinate with the school and mass education department to introduce electronic waste management as a subject at in schools. "This is already being done in European countries," he said.

SANDEEP DWIVEDY