Little drops for a clean green world

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Nobel laureate Dr. Rajendrakumar Pachouri has already cautioned us about the rising fever of our mother earth. The emission of green house gases (GHG) has resulted in global warming. But here the story is all about optimistic steps taken by engineering students in managing the e-waste in their campus. It silver lines the hope for gen-next. Francis Xavier reports from the BVB College, Hubli campus.

Over 220 million tones of computers and technological hardware are trashed every year in the United States. While the total e-waste in India has been estimated to be 1, 46,180 tons per year 8,000 tone of e-waste is generated in Bangalore alone by the 1,322 software and 36 hardware companies. The question that arises is where does all this take us to?

Most of us are aware of the urgent need to save the planet earth and while some of us claim to be a bitten by the green peace bug, unfortunately over a period of time, we have all grown immune to this problem. Abyuth, a group of young computer science graduates from BVBCET Hubli have become an example of youngsters who live in the present and are concerned about the future.

Under the direction of Prof G H Joshi Abyuth (Abhineeta Vaidya, Madhumita Nadkarni, Badarinarayan Burli, Badarinath Deshpande, Samina Khan, Shwetashree and Sushum Mutalik Patil) have taken this cause forward in their own little way to help create an environment that is green, clean and conducive for healthy living by starting the e-waste management project on BVBCET campus.

Inspired by a similar waste management progamme on campus, Abyuth began working on the e-waste management starting from their computer department. Their research led them to learn the use, maintenance and the disposal policies of the institute with regard to e-waste. Armed with this knowledge, they are now working on an e-waste disposal programme which they hope will eventually be extended to the rest of the campus and the twin cities of Hubli and Dharwad.

Coming face to face with the dangers of e-waste and the hazards of chemicals like chromium and lead that are slowly but definitely entering our daily lives, the group though still in the process of evolving a policy has already arrived at a certain understanding with line of action that can be easily followed by us all. They are:

- Reusing computers of a lower configuration to carry out meager clerical applications.
- Donating old PC’s in working condition to lesser privileged schools.

- Re-selling gadgets that is striking a deal with the vendor to accept their product at end-of-life.
- Setting up a junk yard for segregation of the waste that are later dispatched as valuable recyclable (composite metal equipments).

- Refilling the cartridges of printers at least twice before disposing them as waste.
- Using proper instruments in handling equipments to avoid mishandling and damage there by reducing wastage.

- Ban on disposal of electronic equipments directly into the dustbins.
Though the task at hand is magnanimous, Abyuth have shown us that the little we can do no matter may just be a drop in the ocean, nevertheless it is these drops that will eventually form the mighty ocean.

Francis Xavier

MAJM IVth SemIMCR, HUBLI