Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation will introduce biweekly e-waste collection drives across all 100 wards after a month-long campaign collected 21,467kg of discarded electronic and electrical equipment from the city’s five zones.
The civic body is preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding with an authorised e-waste processing company to establish a regular collection and recycling system. The same company that handled the recent campaign is expected to continue the work after the agreement is signed.
The collection campaign was conducted from October 2 to 31 under the Centre’s Special Campaign 6.0. The corporation set up dedicated collection points to enable residents to hand over obsolete electronic goods separately from regular household waste.
The collected material included discarded items such as computers, mobile phones and household appliances. Corporation officials said the proposed system would give residents a predictable channel for disposing of electronic waste, reducing the likelihood of such material being mixed with municipal garbage or entering informal recycling channels.
The campaign involved awareness rallies, collection camps, exhibitions, kolam competitions and two-wheeler rallies. School students, self-help groups and residents participated in the activities across the corporation’s five zones. Green Era Recyclers, which supported the collection and processing initiative, received a certificate of appreciation from corporation commissioner Katta Ravi Teja on October 31.
The commissioner said the proposed drives were intended to strengthen waste segregation in the city. He said the initiative would operate under what he described as the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026, which came into force on April 1 and separately categorised e-waste.
According to the commissioner, the corporation has assessed the generation of e-waste in the city and will regulate collection at a frequency of once every two weeks or, if feasible, every alternate day. The final frequency will depend on the arrangements established through the proposed agreement with the authorised processing company.
The corporation’s plan places responsibility for the next stage on a formal municipal-private partnership: the civic body will organise access for residents across its wards, while the authorised processor will handle the collected material. The MoU is yet to be signed, and the corporation has not announced a specific date for the first regular citywide drive.
