E-waste is already a big problem. Overall, countries in the developing world are now the biggest generators of e-waste. E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their “useful life.” Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, and fax machines are common electronic products. Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled. Unfortunately, electronic discards is one of the fastest growing segments of our nation’s waste stream.
While e-waste contains both valuable materials such as gold, palladium, silver and copper, it also contains harmful metals like lead, cadmium and mercury. In the absence of suitable techniques and protective measures, recycling e-waste can result in toxic emissions to the air, water and soil and pose a serious health and environmental hazard. In India, e-waste is mostly generated in large cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. In these cities a complex e-waste handling infrastructure has developed mainly based on a long tradition of waste recycling. But the problem is that these recycling processes are extremely harmful and have negative impacts on the worker‟s health and the environment. There is no generally accepted definition of e-waste, in most cases, e-waste comprises of relatively expensive and essentially durable products used for data processing, telecommunication or entertainment in private households and businesses. Public perception of e-waste is often restricted to a narrower sense, comprising mainly of end-of-life information and telecommunication equipment and consumer electronics. The world is consuming more and more electronic products every year. This has caused a dangerous explosion in electronic scrap containing toxic chemical and heavy metals that cannot be disposed of or recycled safely. So the concept is that how this e-waste should preventfully recycled so that there should be prevention on environmental damage. E-waste is assuming serious proportions in India and urgent steps need to be taken to mitigate this problem.
IMPACT OF E-WASTE
Electronic wastes can cause widespread environmental damage due to the use of toxic materials in the manufacture of electronic goods. Hazardous metals such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg) and hexavalent chromium [Cr (VI)], in one form or the other are present in such wastes primarily consisting of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), Printed Board Assemblies, Capacitors, Mercury Switches and Relays, Batteries, Liquid Cr tetardants on printed circuit boardsystal Displays (LCDs), Cartridges from photocopying Machines, Selenium drums (photocopier) and Electrolytes. Although it is hardly known, e-waste contain toxic metals such as lead and cadmium in circuit boards; lead oxide and cadmium in monitors, cadmium in computer batteries; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in older capacitors and transformers; brominated flame retardants on printed circuit boards, plastic castings, cables and poly vinyl chloride (PVC) cable insulation that releases highly toxic dioxins and furans when burned to retrieve copper from the wires. All electronic equipment contain printed circuit boards which are hazardous because of their content of lead (in solder), brominated flame retardants (typically 5% to 10% by weight) and antimony oxide, which is also present as a flame retardant (typically 1% to 2% by weight). Landfilling of e-waste can lead to the leaching of lead into the groundwater. If the CRT is crushed and burned, it emits toxic fumes into the air. These products contain several rechargeable battery types, all of which contain toxic substances that can contaminate when burned in incinerators or disposed of in landfills. The cadmium from one cellular phone battery is enough to pollute 600m3 of water. The quantity of cadmium in landfill sites is significant, and considerable toxic contamination is caused by the inevitable medium and long term effects of cadmium leaking into the surrounding soil. Because plastics are highly flammable, the printed wiring board and housings of electronic products contain brominated flame retardants, a number of which are clearly damaging to human health and environment.
STRATEGIES FOR REDUCTION OF ELECTRONIC WASTE
The best option for dealing with E-wastes is to reduce the volume. Designers should ensure that the product is built for re-use, repair and/ or upgradability. Stress should be laid on use of less toxic, easily recoverable and recyclable materials which can be taken back for refurbishment, remanufacturing, disassembly and reuse. Recycling and reuse of material are the next level of potential options to reduce e-waste. Recovery of metals, plastic, glass and materials reduces the magnitude of e-waste. These options have a potential to conserve the energy and keep the environment free of toxic material that would otherwise have been released. It is high time the manufactures, consumers, regulators, municipal authorities, state governments, and policy makers take up the matter seriously so that the different critical elements are addressed in an integrated manner. It is need of the hour to have an “e-waste policy” and national regulatory framework for promotion of such activities. An e-waste policy is best created but those who understand the issues. So it is best for industry to initiate policy formation collectively, but with user involvement. Sustainability of e-waste management systems has to be ensured by improving the effectiveness of collection and recycling systems (e. g. public-private-partnership in setting up buy-back or drop-off centres) and by designing-in additional funding e.g., advance recycling fees.
NEED FOR E-WASTE POLICY AND REGULATION
The policy should address all issues ranging from production and trade to final disposal, including technology transfers for the recycling of electronic waste. Clear regulatory instruments, adequate to control both legal and illegal exports and imports of e-waste and ensuring their environmentally sound management should be in place. There is also a need to address the loop holes in the prevailing legal framework to ensure that e-wastes from developed countries are not reaching the country for disposal. The Port and custom authorities need to monitor these aspects. The regulations should prohibit the disposal of e-wastes in municipal landfills and encourage owners and generators of e-waste to properly recycle the wastes. Manufactures of products must be made financially, physically and legally responsible for their products. Better management of restricted substances may be implemented through measures such as
Specific product take-back obligations for industry
Financial responsibility for actions and schemes
Greater attention to the role of new product design
Material and/or substance bans including stringent restrictions on certain substances
Greater scrutiny of cross-border movements of Electrical and Electronic Products and e-waste
Increasing public awareness by labelling products as „environmental hazard‟
The key questions about the effectiveness of legislation would include:
What is to be covered by the term electronic waste?
Who pays for disposal?
Is producer responsibility the answer?
What would be the benefits of voluntary commitments?
How can sufficient recovery of materials be achieved to guarantee recycling firms a reliable and adequate flow of secondary material?
A complete national level inventory, covering all the cities and all the sectors must be initiated. A public-private participatory forum (E-Waste Agency) of decision making and problem resolution in e-waste management must be developed. This could be working group comprising Regulatory Agencies, NGOs, Industry Associations, experts, etc. to keep pace with the temporal and spatial changes in structure and content of e-waste. This working group can be the feedback providing mechanism to the government that will periodically review the existing rules, plans and strategies for e-waste management. Mandatory labelling of all computer monitors, television sets and other household/industrial electronic devices may be implemented for declaration of hazardous material contents with a view to identifying environmental situation through regulations. Though an important step; are usually only modestly effective because of the lack of enforcement. While there has been some progress made in this direction with the support of various agencies, enforcement of regulations is often weak due to lack of resources and underdeveloped legal systems. Penalties for non-compliance and target for collection or recycling are often used to ensure compliance.
CONCLUSION
E-waste has emerged as perhaps the most critical waste disposal issue of the twenty-first century. The problem is exacerbated by the increasing rate of computer and television production in the world including India, and by relatively short life spans of recent computer models. Additionally, the number of computers currently in storage would result in a massive influx of toxins to the municipal waste stream if they were land filled. The presence of lead, mercury, BFRs, and chromium along with other hazardous chemicals may lead to potentially severe negative health effects if exposed to the environment through conventional disposal. Although there is some debate about the specific type and level of risk involved with each substance, there is little doubt that these hazardous chemicals will cause significant harm over the course of the twenty first century if they are not disposed of properly. The potential risks to the developing nervous systems of babies and children are particularly significant.
