Disposal of harmless looking electronic refuse such as TVs and computers, which contain toxic parts, is a huge problem
The batteries of your TV remote control are dead. Mobile phone chargers and CDs lie unused around the house, and the CFL is defunct. Not sure what to do, you throw these toxic items into the dustbin.
Workers at one of the many scrap shops at Mayapuri in west
Delhi or Seelampur in the east dismantle computers, rip apart keyboards
-- all bought from your local scrap dealer. Acid is used to clean toxic
metal components and blowlamps remove chips from circuit boards.The two techniques of disposing of and recycling defunct electronic and electrical waste — called e-waste — are different. But both poison the air, land and water.
Delhi gets 86 percent of the e-waste generated in the developed world and is fast turning into the world’s e-waste dumping yard, a recent study said. From the current 67,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum, Delhi’s e-waste generation is likely to go up to 100,000 MT by 2017.
The United States accounts for the bulk of the e-waste imports into the country, followed by China and the European Union. Over 200,000 workers are engaged in the various organised and unorganised recycling units in Delhi.
Th e Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC)
website admits there are only 17 collection centres and only four
authorised recyclers in the city. But it also cautions that disposal
through unauthorised agencies will attract a fine of up to ` 1 lakh or
jail for a maximum of five years or both.“In the absence of proper infrastructure, legislation and framework, over 95% of e-waste is handled by the informal sector, and less than 5% reaches a recycler for safe disposal,” says Nitin Gupta of Attero, an e-waste collection and recycling firm authorised by the central pollution watchdog.
The government thinks framing of rules is enough to deal with the growing hazard. “In 2012, the Centre issued electronic waste rules that make it mandatory for electronic goods producers to take back e-waste. We have tied up with some recyclers who will pick up the waste regularly and dispose it of safely,” said a DPCC official.
With a deluge of new gadgets and latest technologies being launched every day, the discard rate of electronic devices has gone up drastically. But the disposal happens unscientifically and in an extremely hazardous way. As per a survey, as many as 32% of households in Delhi are not aware of proper ways to dispose of e-waste.
“While getting rid of their old computers, business houses look
for good monetary return, discouraging recyclers to buy e-waste from
them. People must follow the extended producer responsibility rules,”
says Bharati Chaturvedi of Chintan Environmental Research and Action
Group.
Her worries seem genuine. A study by Delhi-based Toxics Link this year revealerevealed that many reputed electronictronic companies are violating laws aand putting lives and environmeronment in danger by not buying back discarded items, resulting in haphaphazard disposal. “These do not hahave information of collectiontion ccentres. Consumers remain grossgrossly unaware, and depend on unaunauthorised collectors to get rrid of their e-waste,” said Satish Sinha of Toxics Link.
