26-02-2013, 04:44 PM
E-Waste Management in India: Issues and Solutions
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ABSTRACT
“E-waste,” a term for discarded electronic products near the end or at the end of their useful life, contains hazardous materials like mercury, arsenic, and cadmium among other toxic substances. Although e-waste is the largest growing segment of the municipal waste stream in developing countries, domestic and international laws – and the enforcement of those laws – have not caught up.
The current practices of e-waste management in India suffer from a number of drawbacks like the difficulty in inventorisation, unhealthy conditions of informal recycling, inadequate legislation, poor awareness and reluctance on part of the corporate to address the critical issues. The consequences are that, toxic materials enter the waste stream with no special precautions to avoid the known adverse effects on the environment and human health and resources are wasted when economically valuable materials are dumped or unhealthy conditions are developed during the informal recycling. These dangerous dismantling practices present immense environmental and human health implications. However, with international cooperation and the right economic incentives, the tide of this toxic trade can be stemmed.
INTRODUCTION
Did you purchase that ultra-thin laptop with endless hard-drive space and a battery that never dies? How about that stylish and sleek new mobile phone that browses the web, shoots video and plays all your favourite music? Congratulations, you have the latest electronics!!
However, have you ever wondered where your old laptop, iPod or mobile phone ended up after disposal? There is a good chance it ended up burned and dismantled by young workers in various hubs who have to inhale the poisonous fumes every day.
Electronic waste or “E-waste,” a term for discarded electronic products near the end or at the end of their useful life, contains hazardous materials like mercury, arsenic, and cadmium among other toxic substances. E-waste is an emerging problem due to rapid obsolescence of consumer electronic items worldwide. Over these past ten years, consumer demand for items such as computers, mobile phones, televisions and other electronic devices has been phenomenal and is still growing at a rapid rate.
Every year 20 to 50 million tonnes of E-waste is generated worldwide. The developing country like India is saddled with huge generation of this toxic waste, estimated to be more than 8 million tonnes.
CONCLUSION
The IT industry has been an important driver in the growth of Indian economy and will continue to be a very significant player. The Indian economy is expected to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world. The sheer size of the market and large consumer base is expected to boost consumption patterns and result in generation of huge quantities of waste. While this throws up a serious new challenge it also brings in new set of opportunities not only to manage this waste but also for innovation of cleaner and more sustainable products. Waste minimization is a cardinal principle to be researched, experimented and adopted for sustainability. These are possibilities not only for a solution to local problems, but are also applicable to global issues on E-waste. New revenue models in the business of E-waste appear as interesting possibilities in the Indian context and could perhaps be used as one of the many working solutions. The ideal mix of skilled labour from the informal sector coupled with appropriate technology, perhaps can provide solutions for sustainable E-waste practices.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post consumer stage of the product’s life cycle, including its final disposal. In principle, all the actors along the product chain share responsibility for the lifecycle environmental impacts of the whole product system. The greater the ability of the actor to influence the environmental impacts of the product system, the greater the share of responsibility for addressing those impacts should be. These actors are the consumers, the suppliers, and the product manufacturers.
E-WASTE RECYCLING
Many discarded machines contain usable parts which could be salvaged and combined with other used equipment to create a working unit. It is labour intensive to remove, inspect and test components and then reassemble them into complete working machines. Institutional infrastructures, including e-waste collection, transportation, treatment, storage, recovery and disposal, need to be established, at national and/or regional levels for the environmentally sound management of e-wastes. These facilities should be approved by the regulatory authorities and if required provided with appropriate incentives. Establishment of e-waste collection, exchange and recycling centres should be encouraged in partnership with governments, NGOs and manufacturers.