The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will start paying people who deposit their e-waste with the civic body.

A senior official said they were planning to set up collection points in some parks after the general elections are over.

The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, have put the onus of the collection of e-waste on the civic body.

While many companies and institutions have appointed authorised agencies to collect e-waste from them, individuals do not have any designated place to dispose of e-waste generated at home.

E-waste generated at home like mobile phones, various electronic cables, wires and adaptors are usually sold to people in the unorganised sector who get exposed to toxic materials while handling such waste.

The KMC had announced in January last year that it would set up e-waste collection points in some of its offices.

An official said very few people deposited e-waste and the initiative hardly took off.

The earlier initiative was voluntary and the KMC did not announce any payment for those who deposited their e-waste with the civic body.

The latest initiative, which will begin after the Lok Sabha polls, will include a commitment to pay the depositors of e-waste.

“The payment will be as per rates fixed by the West Bengal Electronic Industry Development Corporation (Webel). We will set up points where the e-waste will be collected. Webel will take the waste away,” said the KMC official.

According to the plan, the KMC will set up collection points at strategic locations that are easy to access. Setting up collection points inside some parks has also been discussed.

The setting up of the collection camp will be preceded by an awareness campaign in the vicinity of the collection point for a fortnight.

“The awareness campaign will be very important because people must know that the KMC will start collecting the e-waste also,” said the official.

The civic body’s role has remained restricted to the collection of solid waste and it is only now that it is expanding its role.

The 2022 Rules say a local body should “facilitate setting up e-waste collection, segregation and disposal systems”.

It adds that “e-waste if found to be mixed with Municipal Solid Waste is properly segregated, collected and is channelised to registered recycler or refurbisher.”

“We will decide on details like how to make the payment, whether we should use UPI payments or only pay in the bank account of the depositor in the next few days,” said an official of the KMC.

The awareness campaigns or the collection cannot begin before the Lok Sabha polls end.

“We aim to start the collection by the end of June (polls end on June 1),” said the official.

While only a few collection points will be fixed initially, the number of collection points will increase and also spread across the city with time.

“The collection will be at intervals of a week or a fortnight,” said the official.