After being the financial capital, Mumbai has earned the dubious distinction of being the electronic waste capital of India. The city generates about 11,017 tonnes of e-waste every year. Also, among the states, Maharashtra is on top with a staggering 20,270 tonnes of annual e-waste.

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Keeping the threat in mind, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will soon be setting up an e-waste treatment plant on a public-private partnership model (PPP) in the metropolitan region by next year. The bidding process for the plant is expected to begin by November this year.

According to MMRDA, the authority has planned to engage only qualified e-waste service providers to process, treat and dispose of the e-waste, so as to safeguard the environment and human life in the most scientific way. “The land requirement for this facility is 4 hectares. A plot of land has been reserved for the green belt around the project and the authority has identified five sites for the same,” said a statement from MMRDA.

The authority has already conducted a pre-feasibility study for the need of such a plant in the metropolitan region. According to the pre-feasibility study, there is a need to develop the facility in three levels. Level 1 and 2 are primarily defined to take care of dismantling, separation and segregation of different parts depending upon further processing.

Level 3 takes care of recovery of precious metals, which is a core business. Here, the metal is primarily processed for precious metal recovery and sent to secondary reprocessing where the precious metal is physically recovered. This is a complicated and costly process compared to the other two facilities.

The study further elaborates that areas like Grant Road, Kamathipura, Lamington Road, Mahim, Andheri, Kurla and Mankhurd are threatened by e-waste hazards.