Mustafa Jabbar urged to establish e-waste disposing address first

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar emphasized on creating e-waste address first in addition to creating awareness from primary school. At the same time, he urged for the establishment of individual e-waste bins under the Ministry of City Corporation and Local Government immediately.

The minister expressed this opinion while speaking as the chief guest at the discussion meeting held at the conference room of Vision 2041 Tower in Kawran Bazar on the occasion of World E-Waste Day for the first time in the country on Saturday.

Emphasizing smart waste management in the speech of the chief guest, Mustafa Jabbar said that it is necessary to hold an inter-ministerial meeting to reduce and manage e-waste on an urgent basis. Only if Internet cable sharing can be introduced, the use of this cable will be reduced to a fraction of 100%. This will also reduce waste. But the battery may pose the biggest risk in the days ahead. Therefore, attention should be paid to how to recycle expired batteries or electronics products such as laptops, PCs, routers. The country's computer importers and distributors should take incentive initiatives to take back their products from customers if they are unusable. Moreover, BTRC will take steps to take back the phones produced in the country as e-waste within the next couple of weeks.

Dean of Computer and Information Technology Department of Daffodil International University and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Department Dr. Syed Akhtar Hossain presented the main article in the event.

Dhaka University Institute of Information Technology (IIT), Professor Dr. BM Mainul Hossain was present as the main speaker.

Chief Executive Officer of Innovation and Research Center of FBCCI was present as a special guest. Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, Director of Consumer Rights Protection Directorate Manjur Mohammad Shahriar, Deputy Director of Central Digital Commerce Cell of Ministry of Commerce Mohammad Said Ali, Bangladesh Computer Association President Subrata Sarkar and ISPAB President Imdadul Haque.

Shahid Munir, former president of Bangladesh Computer Association and Touhid Hossain, general secretary of BACCO, were present as honored guests in the seminar.

Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Disaster Management Faculty of Daffodil University Dr. Mahfuza Parveen, Associate Head of Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering Sheikh Rashed Haider Noori, President of Mobile Phone Consumers Association Mohiuddin Ahmed and General Manager of JR Recycling Solutions Manzoor Alam also spoke at the event.

BIJF General Secretary Sabbin Hasan delivered the closing speech on the occasion.

Earlier in the morning, a rally was held in front of the National Press Club to sensitize stakeholders on proper e-waste management with the intention of making the variously recyclable e-waste economically viable, holding the 'Anything with a Plug, Battery and Cable' protest. The rally ended with various placards and festoons on e-waste at Doyle Square. In the rally, the participants of the rally chanted slogans like 'E-waste will be the wealth, we will do this work'.

In the gathering, the speakers emphasized creating mass awareness of e-waste management in the country and said that we are moving forward to fulfill the dream of Smart Bangladesh, the use of technology products is increasing especially smartphones, computers and household electronic products. And 3 million metric tons of e-waste is generated annually from this product. However, if this waste can be managed in the right way, this waste can be a resource. And the market size of this asset is about USD 220 million, which we have not been able to capture due to lack of proper management only. So now is the time to be smart in managing the waste generated by the use of technology products or digital products.

Observing this day organized for the first time in the country as 'demand of the hour', the speakers also said – along with mass awareness of e-waste management, product manufacturers or marketing organizations should also take responsibility in this regard. Along with this, the government has to play an important role in the enforcement and implementation of laws to protect the environment from the risk of e-waste.