E-Waste: The Biggest Environmental Crisis

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.

Bibliography - Hindustan Times (09 January 2015)

      

Plastic waste time bomb ticking for India

Precipitating the crisis, the daily generation of garbage is expected to rise from the current 2,300 trucks to 4,700 trucks by 2024, and Delhi will need an additional area more than the entire spread of Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone to dump its daily waste as early as 2020.  

Three of Delhi's four landfills are full;there's hardly any space left for 10,000 tonnes of waste generated everyday which is 0.8 kg per capita a day.The city waste is made of 55% of municipal waste(6,000 tonnes),3% of Electronic waste(30 tonnes),5% of biomedical waste(70 tonnes),7% plastic(900 tonnes) and 30% construction/demolition waste(4000 tonnes).

 Almost 85 per cent of the city does not have a formal door-to-door trash pickup system and if steps are not taken now, residents will have no option but to start throwing waste out of their doors, community bins ( dhalaos) will start overflowing, and only garbage will be seen on the streets — making Delhi drown in its own discards.

Landfills have been especially a problem. Because of poor and unscientific way of maintenance, the waste yards have become massive, polluting and stinking mountains of garbage. This is precisely the reason why people are bitterly opposed to new landfills in their neighbourhood.

The black thick liquid leachate — created when rainwater filters down through the landfill — has made the soil highly toxic. Rainwater runoff goes into surface-water drains and deadly methane is released in the air. More than a dozen landfills have been filled up in Delhi.

Despite court intervention, government and civic agencies have failed to find a way forward. The municipal corporations have now told the Delhi high court that “since there’s no other option, we have been forced to put human life and property at risk”.

Non- dumping options to mange waste have shrunk drastically. Burning waste no longer seems viable because of growing environmental concerns and poor segregation of waste. Compost plants are not doing well because manure doesn’t sell, and again becomes garbage.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has told the authorities to introduce waste segregation at source, a move that is likely to reduce pollution and ensure a much cleaner Delhi. People in residential and commercial areas will have to pay ‘ an appropriate amount’ for the service, aimed at reducing waste reaching overflowing landfills by 80% through recycling and composting.

As much as 50% of the waste is fit for composting and about 30 per cent of it can be recycled. Effective segregation at source, in transit and during disposal, will mean that only 20 per cent of refuse would be sent to landfills. This means a cleaner city with fewer waste stations, garbage trucks and longer life span for landfills. But even that’s not done properly.

The municipal corporations say residents don’t segregate waste. But residents ask what’s the use when eventually lands up at the same place. Segregation by residents will only work when the corporations have a complete door-to-door waste collection system and trash pickups have separate containers for dry and wet waste.

Experts say the authorities must ensure segregation and promote composting and recycling. They first need to quantify waste generation and study its composition for effective reduction targets.

But the corporations are not the only culprit in this messy story. Citizens who litter without a second thought are equally at fault. People can help in segregation, recycling and composting. While the entire country is following prime minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, closer home the city’s streets constantly reflect the need for such a drive to take shape urgently.

Bharati Chaturvedi of Chintan Group says: “Wet waste can be easily composted, or turned into bio- gas. To do this, we don’t need more large compost plants, but more and smaller ones, at the ward level. Those who can must start small composting at home. People must start reducing their own packaging. There can be no change without consuming less.” 

What Govt and Civic Agencies can do

• Ensure segregation at source, in transit and during disposal.
• Close overflowing landfills, ready portions for fresh use
• Provide more space for recycling 
• Ensure sale of manure produced in compost plants
• Ensure use of this manure in greening
• Set waste reduction targets.
• Check ground, air and water pollution at landfills
• Check effects on public health, especially by burning of waste
• Quantify waste and study its composition for effective handling. 

Bibliography - Hindustan Times (02 January 2015)

A NATION OF COFFEE DRINKERS..

Last year, sales of coffee outpaced tea sales for the first time in the UK. Research by Allegra shows that the category grew 7.5pc to reach £5.8bn sales in 2012. Coffee-making is highly wasteful, however, as the entire bean is thrown away once the flavour is extracted. London alone produces 200,000 tonnes of coffee waste every year.

UCL architecture student Arthur Kay landed on an idea to turn these waste coffee grounds into fuel last year. “I wanted to design a coffee shop where all the coffee grounds were turned into biodiesel to provide light and heat for the shop,” he explained.

All vegetables have oil content but no technology existed for extracting the energy from coffee. Mr Kay enlisted the services of a team of bio-chemical engineers and developed a brand new technology for processing the new waste stock. 

MAKING MONEY OUT OF WASTE

Make money out of wastes sounds difficult right! But it’s not that difficult. If you know the process of waste management recycling then making money through waste recycling is very simple. A lot of people have already started their waste recycling business and thus, getting benefited from their business.

A bit of newspaper report

Well, friends if I say that while carrying a poly bag in your hand while returning home from shop bringing in it the items of daily use, you will be fined minimum Rs 50 ranging till Rs 25000. It might be hard to believe or you may call me telling you this entire not the citizen of our country, India wherein a large section of the population does use a plastic bag. The surprising truth is in India, plastic bags are banned. In spite of a law in the constitution we all are using it. We all are denying and disrespecting our own constitution. Seeing this does it really makes sense to call ourselves citizens of the country. In 2011-12 about 321violators were fined and in 2012-13 only 108 violators were fined. Moreover, let me aware you with another bitter truth also. “Gurgaon authorities have not fined anyone for using plastic bags since May 2013. Reason: They don’t have ‘challan books’.” The government has banned plastic items which are less than 50 microns in the thickness while any form of plastic carry bags are also outlawed. It is surprising, how the law has never caught up with most of us, who have violated it many times. Isn’t it very shameful for the people of a country wherein they hold government responsible for the restriction of development of a country. My fellow citizens, there is a need to seek a solution to this problem because if only for once this problem slips from our hands we won’t be able to do anything and result as we all are aware will be very disastrous and will ruin all forms of life on Earth and then we will be helpless, capable of doing nothing. “This is a very sensitive issue that forced the government to ban manufacture, distribution and selling of polythene bags below 40 microns,” said former forest and environment minister in Haryana government captain Ajay Singh. “The digestive system of animals breakdown after they eat polythene bags. (but) we have no records of animal death due to consumption of polythene bags,” said Rajendra Yadav, director, animal husbandry. “Hundreds of thousands of shops are operating in the city without license and they are selling polythene bags. The MCG has power to seize their license,” said an official of pollution department. “We are witness to several such homeless cows died after consuming plastic bags. We started a campaign some time back to save these homeless animals. To treat such animals there is only one hospital available in the state of Karnal,”said president of NGO Walk for animals Habitat, Amita Singh. These are some of the dialogues been put forward by various officials but what about the actions? Is the implementation of laws being done correctly by officials as well as we, the ones on whom they are implemented. Well, the answer to this question is NO. The most common thing in our bins is polythene bags. In fact, garbage bags itself are made of polythene but unlike other garbage these are non-biodegradable and therefore hazardous if they are dumped like any other waste. Let us know some rules on plastic products  Carry bags shall either be white or made using only those pigments and colours, which are in comformity with Indian standard IS 9833: 1981  No person shall use carry bags made of recycled plastics for storing, carrying, dispensing or packaging food stuffs.  No person shall manufacture, stock, distribute, or sale any carry bag made of virgin or recycled or compostable plastic which is less than 40 microns in thickness.  Sachets using plastic material shall not be used for storing, packing or selling gutkha, tobacco and paan masala.  There is a blanket ban on burning of plastic in open. Now let us once again come to the point we started with. Anyone with the plastic bag can be find at least Rs. 50. Shops storing bags will be fined according to the weight of the stock Rs 50 is minimum fine Rs 500 for 100gm Rs 1500 for 100-500gm Rs 3000 for 500 to 1kg Rs 10000 for 1kg to 5kg Rs 20,000 for 5kg to 10kg Rs 25000 for 10kg+ Ok, so next question might be Who can fine you? Well, anyone from district magistrate to marketing committee can do it. ADCs, DDPOs, SDM, City magistrate, MCG commissioner and joint commissioners, municipal committee secretaries, EO Huda, executive engineers public health, district food supply officer, DTP, BDOs, tehsildar, naib tehsildar, RO HSPCB…. I think this much is enough to warn you for storing plastic bags. - Heartiest thanks to Hindustan Times for sharing their concern over this issue…