Currently Bangladesh is producing 30 lakh tons of electronic waste or e-waste every year and alarmingly it is growing at an around 30% rate every year, experts said at a roundtable in the capital on Saturday.
Syed Akhter Hossain, dean, School of Science and Engineering at Canadian University of Bangladesh in his keynote called for immediate actions and strict e-waste management at national level alongside banning used electronics imports.
Growing at the current rate, Bangladesh will have a crore tons of cumulative e-waste irresponsibly dumped across the country and that will be a serious hazard for the environment and health, said the professor at the program organized by the Bangladesh ICT Journalists Forum at a city hotel.
He also announced to observe 14 October as the e-waste awareness day.
Making producers recollect the e-waste for safe recycling, incentivizing e-waste recycling industries and punishing the wrongdoers would be the key to get rid of the alarming situation, said speakers representing a wide range of stakeholders including the authorities for environment, commerce, consumer rights, telecommunication alongside the ones from the academia and electronics industry.
