Experts from Teri urge entrepreneurs to control toxic material discharge in Aurangabad

AURANGABAD: Around 40-50 industries in Waluj deal in Electroplating business and the main concern of the particular industry is to control toxic material discharged by it that is why it has been included among 17 major polluting industries in India by Central Pollution Control Board, Government of India, said experts. Though this industry is useful from economic point of view but this industry produces hazardous electroplating waste and is one of the major contributors to heavy metal pollution in surface waters. So there is a need to control pollutants present in the waste produced by the process of electroplating through various methodologies and technologies for waste minimization, said eminent scientists from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at a workshop conducted in association with Marathwada Association of Small Scale Industries & Agriculture (MASSIA) for the entrepreneurs at Waluj MIDC, recently.

Vidya Batra eminent scientist at TERI said, "Hazardous waste generated by industries, the need for controlling the waste generated is considered as the most important need of the day. In view of it various techniques to control waste have been developed."

"Electroplating is considered a major polluting industry because it discharges toxic materials and heavy metals through wastewater (effluents), air emissions and solid wastes in environment. In order to control pollutants various techniques of treatment of waste are applied. Since, these techniques are very common in practices and are usually followed," she said.

"These techniques for treatment as well as electroplating process require a large quantity of water, chemicals and equipment which again add the cost of process. Therefore, from economic point of view, there is a requirement to manage waste in a cost-effective manner. This encompasses two procedures- firstly, minimization of waste and secondly, chemical recovery from wastewater," said Prahlad Tiwari, expert from TERI.

Narayan Pawar, Sachin Gayke and Anil Patil of MASSIA conducted the workshop, while as many as 35 entrepreneurs participated.