Tiruchi Corporation to launch awareness drive on e-waste segregation

Tiruchi Corporation is set to launch an awareness campaign to encourage residents and commercial establishments to segregate electronic waste and hand it over separately to sanitation workers during door-to-door waste collection.

The move follows a poor response to a pilot initiative launched across all five zones towards the end of August to collect e-waste separately. The initiative aims at preventing discarded electrical and electronic items containing hazardous substances from being dumped in public places.

Residents can hand over discarded items such as bulbs, tube lights, lamps, batteries, electrical wiring, cords, mobile phone chargers, electronic toys, smartwatches, computer components and other electronic equipment to sanitation workers.

The task has been outsourced to a private agency entrusted with the collection, segregation, transportation and processing of solid waste generated in all 65 wards of the city.

A Thuraiyur-based recycler has been roped in for the project. The accumulated waste is collected once every 15 days and processed in accordance with prescribed norms.

About 3.5 tonnes of e-waste has been collected so far, and the recycler has made two trips to collect the material, said Kishore Mohan, operations head of the agency.

Under the system, e-waste collected from households and commercial establishments is segregated at micro composting centres before being moved to designated collection points. The Corporation has identified five such points, one in each zone, at Ambedkar Nagar, J.J. Nagar, Raja Colony, Konakarai and Manalvari Thurai Road.

Despite instructions to segregate waste at source, public compliance remains low, with many residents yet to adopt the four-bin system, an official said.