The decision was taken at a meeting of MMRDA officials, MPCB member secretary Sanjay Kandhare and officials of municipal corporations and councils.

According to M R Shah, principal advisor, solid waste management cell, MMRDA, the idea behind the formation of the committee is to formulate a policy to deal with e-waste and setting up of processing plant for recovery of precious metal from e-waste. The proposed plant will be located in MMR.

Shah said that the MMR, especially Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, will face a serious problem over the handling of e-waste in years to come. “It’s something like the scenario the civic body faced around 25-30 years back with solid waste in Mumbai,” Shah stated.

The core committee, besides locating a site for the proposed processing plant, will also frame guidelines for the collection and transportation of the waste from designated centres to the plant, which would be operated by private players.

According to Shah, the civic bodies in MMR will have to play a greater role in collection of these waste form households. “It is easier for the plant operator to collect waste from IT centres, but waste from household and smaller commercial units will need to be collected by civic bodies and transported to a designated site.