Wipro rolls out e-waste disposal plan

Just a day ahead of the annual general meeting of Wipro, international NGO Greenpeace staged a demonstration seeking a roadmap on phasing out toxic chemicals from the company's products. Consequently, Wipro announced e-waste disposal services to end user customers.

Greenpeace demanded that Wipro should comply with the European directive (Restriction on certain hazardous substances -- RoHS), which bans the use of six chemicals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium in electrical and electronic products.

Wipro vice president (personal computing division) Ashutosh Vaidya said, "Wipro has been actively working on the issue since August 2005. We will offer the e-waste disposal service to our customers from September 1. Our customers can use this service by paying nominal freight charges. This displays our commitment to the environment."

Additionally, Wipro is driving efforts to maximise the usage of RoHS-compliant components.

"The present outlook of supply-side dynamics makes us believe that we can offer RoHS compliant electronic components in our PCs by the middle of next year," Vaidya added.

Greenpeace campaigner Vinuta Gopal said the NGO would continue to monitor the implementation of Wipro's assurance.

She said that Greenpeace will step up their demands that other IT industry leaders also become RoHS compliant. "We will also intensify our campaign against the government seeking policies and legislations on RoHS," she said.