A school has launched an e-waste collection centre on its campus to create awareness about proper disposal of electronic waste.
Parents, students and teachers can drop their old phones, batteries, LED lamps, chargers at the collection centre at Sri Sri Academy, that was inaugurated on the foundation day of the school on Monday.
In the past two years the amount of e-waste accumulated in households has gone up. The idea is to get rid of the waste responsibly so that it does not pollute the environment, said principal Suvina Shunglu.
The school has tied up with an e-waste management company that will take care of the waste deposited in the box.
“It is normal for people to dump e-waste in garbage. What seems innocuous comes back to us, causing harm,” said Shunglu.
The e-waste firm will dispose it of responsibly. It will also provide the school a report on the amount of e-waste generated by it, she said.
In the last two years, students and teachers have been using laptops, smartphones and tablets at a higher rate and many families have generated huge quantities of e-waste.
Samkit Samsukha, a Class XI student, dropped a smartphone he was using for the past two years.
“Had it not been for the drive I would have thrown it in the trash can of my house. This could have been picked up by ragpickers, including children, and it could have harmed them. We have been informed that chemicals from electronic waste get mixed in air, water and soil and pollute the environment,”he said.
The school said that it was possible that some students or their parents might ignore the initiative but as educators “one needs to highlight what is good”.
The school wants the children to think about such issues.
“In the last two years we held online awareness camps on e-waste. As soon as the school reopened we initiated the drive,” said Shunglu.
Schools reopened for pre-primary to Class VII last week.
Sri Sri Academy is calling students back to the campus in phases.
The school expects the drive to gain momentum in the new session in April, when more students return to campus.