With the available waste management policies, including e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 silent on handling of used fluorescent tubelights (FTLs), which contain mercury, the Puducherry Pollution Control Committee is in the process of framing a draft policy for safe management of FTLs.

The core element of the policy, according to a PPCC official, was to encourage manufacturers to set up plants to recycle used FTLs and dealers, both wholesalers and retailers to provide special disposal bins in their outlets to collect the lamps. The organisation was also mulling to provide a small sum as incentive to get back the used FTLs.

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board is vexed over the rampant burning of household trash in personal backyards in complete violation of instructions from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

Pollution control experts say that when household garbage is burnt, Dioxins, a known carcinogen, associated also with birth defects, are released into the air we inhale. Dioxins are impossible to be removed from the food chain since these are Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins (PBTs) which enter plants through air and water, then cattle and poultry, and finally, humans.

KOLKATA, 5 JUNE: The first three collection points ever for e-waste were set up in the city today by the environmental group Toxic Link.

Most of us often face a situation where the cellphone we use becomes obsolete thanks to a newer technology emerging. When we give in to this, how many of us really worry about what happens to the older gadget?

More often than not, such electronic waste is thrown into dustbins. This problem of e-waste generation and its subsequent disposal is now seen as a global occurrence. The United Nations Environment Programme states that 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year.

Less than five per cent of India's total electronic waste (e-waste) gets recycled due to absence of proper infrastructure, legislation and framework, industry body Assocham said today.

In its analysis on the World Environment Day, it said that India, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of about 20 per cent, annually generates over 4.4 lakh tonnes of e-waste.

Dell has launched its free consumer laptop battery recycling programme for its consumers across all major metros and tier 1 cities in India.

The e-waste rules, which require manufacturers of electronic wares to introduce mechanisms for collecting and recycling their goods, came into force on May 1—a year after those were notified.

Ahmedabad: These tiny creatures love heavy metal. It’s not music we mean, but toxic metals like cadmium, mercury, chromium, lead and zinc: stuff that not only cause cancer but also trigger impairments in humans after they seep into our soil and groundwater. A five-year research at the Central University of Gujarat (CUG) has zeroed in on a special group of microbes — mainly bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes — that not only munch on these deadly wastes but also turn the land useful by a process of bio-cleansing.