Kerala government to bring legislation to regulate and recycle e-waste

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government is thinking of bringing in a new legislation to regulate and recycle e-waste, which poses a great threat to the environment.

Minister for Local Self-Government, KT Jaleel told the state assembly that the Centre had already brought a law for e-waste management.

“As per the Centre’s law, the recycling of electronic equipment should be carried out by the manufacturing companies itself. But the law is not implemented effectively at present,” he said.

“The state is mulling to introduce new legislation for the effective implementation of the Centre’s e-waste (management) rules,” the minister said during question hour.

Jaleel said the state has no plant or facility to recycle e-waste at present, which is one of the major challenges faced in treating electronic waste.

E-waste collected from the state is currently sent to the plants in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for recycling, he said, adding, government was ready to provide land for entrepreneurs who come up with proposal to start recycling units.

The state-run ‘Clean Kerala’ company had been entrusted to set up plastic shredding units in block and village panchayats to deal with the plastic waste in the state, the minister added.