The organised sector handles only 10 per cent of e-waste. The rest is handled by the unorganised sector that employs unscientific methods.

Bangalore surely basked in the global glory of its “IT hub” tag for years. Thanks to the huge IT revenues it generated and the big ticket firms that dug deep roots here, Bangalore deserved that. But now, it is wake up time. No, not from its unrelenting garbage piles or its mounting civic problems, but this time from the rising threat of its electronic waste. Rising because, the city’s e-waste volumes are going beyond 18,000 metric tonnes per annum, an astounding piece of statistic brought home by a recent Assocham survey.