‘Eastern India recycling E-waste in unorganized way, inviting health risks’

Jamshedpur, Feb. 26: Skill Training programme on E-waste Deconstruction (EWD 2018) organized by CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur began at NML on February 27.

As India is among the fastest developing countries with everyday advancing equipments and every day dumped e-waste that have the least possibility of disposal. There are ways out to dispose it off in an ecofriendly manner.

With this thought people from technical background such as diploma and graduates were encouraged to participate in this programme. The objective of the programme was to create entrepreneurs in the field of E-waste management.

This training program was organized under the CSIR Integrated Skill Initiative Program for development of Entrepreneurship. CSIR-NML has several technologies for extracting precious metals from E-waste and intends to mentor entrepreneurs who would like to work in the area of E-waste management.

The programme was formally inaugurated by Dr. Indranil Chattoraj, Director CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur. Dr. Chattoraj welcomed the participants and appreciated them for coming to CSIR-NML to attend this two day training programme during 27-28 February 2018. He highlighted about the issues related to recovery of valuable metals from E- waste.
He mentioned that only western part of India is recycling the E-waste in organised way, and CSIR-NML is in touch with these institutions. Meanwhile rest of the country is doing so, in an unorganized way; which in turn is exposing them to health risk. He also encouraged the participants to enhance their career in field of E-waste so as to give benefit to the environment as well as to the society.

Dr. Amitava Mitra, Head-Research Planning and Business Development discussed about the importance of CSIR Skill Training Programme. He spoke about the CSIR history and basis of the Integrated Skill training programme that was to align CSIR Skill/ training with the National Skill Mission for achieving Country�s Green Mission. He highlighted about the Energy efficiency furnaces which are going to be established in rural areas this financial year. He mentioned that this training programme is a small initiative of CSIR-NML, for aspiring entrepreneurs in the field of E- waste management and creating trainers who will train other people in the industry and ultimately create awareness in the society.

Dr. Mita Tarafder, Senior Principal Scientist of RPBD and the Co-ordinator of this programme spoke about the issues related to E-waste. She highlighted that India is the 5th largest E-waste producer and Mumbai tops the list in producing E-waste. She discussed about the annual production ratio of E-waste across country. She focused on the processing of E-waste which is being done by the unskilled workers in a non-eco-friendly manner. She mentioned that this training programme is the 1st phase and in future more phases are to be conducted. The Inaugural programme was concluded after the introduction of participants. Each participant shared their thoughts about the training program.

Around twenty five participants from institutions from all over the country such as Tata Steel Limited a,Jamshedpur; IIT Kharagpur; Mrs. K.M.P.M Vocational College, Jamshedpur; Orissa Engineering College,Orissa; Himalaya Enterprises,Jamshedpur; Doon University,Dhalbhumgarh; Sri Sri University, Cuttack; Institute of Forest Productivity, Ranchi;Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangthan,Sopodera ; Ranchi College, A N College,Patna; and E waste recycler, Jamshedpur participated in the programme.

This technical programme included various technical sessions, lectures and hands-on sessions followed by case study and laboratory visit. Around four lecture were given by the renowned Scientists of CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory and one was delivered by Mr. Rajesh Gupta, CEO of �Recyle karo�. The lectures delivered in the two sessions were �Entrepreneurship development in E-waste Management�, �Case study on E-waste Recycling Plant�, �Technologies for Extraction of Metals from E-Waste�, and �E-waste Deconstruction of a Desktop Computer�.

The valedictory programme of EWD 2018 will be conducted on 28th February 2018. The participants will be given the certificates of participation and each participant will give presentation, summarizing their learning. Moreover an event on e-waste deconstruction competition will be conducted and attractive prizes will be given to the winner and runner-up.