Electronic wasteland

Zakir Hussain is on the boil. "Yeh log sabko c*****e banate hai (These people make fools of everyone)," seethes the Govandi-based scrap dealer. "They buy the junk and do the same thing we do. Recycle, my foot!"

The people referred to are licensed electronic waste (e-waste) recyclers who constitute the formal sector. Scrap dealers or kabadiwalas like Hussain make up the informal sector, and are criticised for 'primitive' handling of e-waste.

Mumbai's kabadiwalas aren't alone here. Guiyu in China's Guangdong province and Agbogbloshie district in Accra, Ghana, are e-waste hubs where locals make a killing from environmentally-unfriendly e-waste management. Much of the western world's e-waste, it's believed, is illegally dumped in locations like these. According to the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) just-released Waste Crimes, Waste Risks: Gaps and Challenges In the Waste Sector report, 90 per cent of global e-waste is traded to China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria, Ghana, Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivoire.

India isn't just a leading e-waste importer. According to the UN Global e-waste Monitor 2014 report, it's also the world's fifth highest e-waste generator.

So what can the average Indian household that relies on kabadiwalas to dispose everything from paper to obsolete technology do? After all, more raw material means more frequent processes like acid baths. "Karkhanas (workshops) where bhangar (junk) is sold by kabadiwalas use 40-50l of hydrochloric-nitric acid solutions to extract few grams of metal from circuit boards. Once the metal is separated, the acid is dumped in sewers or water bodies," informs Gaurav Mardia, founder, E-Incarnation Recycling Pvt. Ltd.

Zakir Hussain, however, alleges most e-cyclers claim to work for the environment, but do the opposite. A case in point is CRT or dabba TVs and monitors. "Most recyclers don't buy them as they have no resale value, or they sell them to the very bhangarwalas they crib about," he stresses.

Battery down
Many think e-waste is limited to large appliances, gadgets or obsolete tech. But what about peripherals like batteries and earphones?

"Batteries aren't bought by scrap dealers, so they're binned and end up in landfills," says Debartha Banerjee, co-founder of urban waste management start-up Sampurn(e)arth Environment Solutions. "It's a serious hazard."

Prof Sadhan Kumar Ghosh, head of Jadavpur University's Mechanical Engineering Department and president of the International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water (ISWMAW), agrees: "Indians usually don't throw 'prized material' at dump sites. But mobile, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), pencil and AA batteries are commonly out in the trash." Such batteries have cadmium, lead and other carcinogenic metals that leak into soil and water and cause health problems.

Poor economies of scale
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much vaunted scheme to clean India, allocated Rs.376 crore for solid waste management (SWM), but didn't formulate any guidelines for it, leave alone for e-waste. It's a downer for India's 100-odd licensed e-cyclers, most of who have poor supply chain and logistics networks. Chances of a recycler sending a vehicle to collect one laptop or smartphone are zero. So people will naturally call a kabadiwala who's around the corner and offer more money than recyclers.

"E-waste recyclers should use the kabadiwalas' network to increase reach," feels Satish Sinha, associate director of environmental NGO Toxics Link. "Few places in the world have such a thriving informal sector where people come to your doorstep to collect waste. Why not train them to be part of the formal sector's supply chain?"

Mardia claims he'd approached scrap dealers to be part of his network, only to be stonewalled. "Consumers themselves want to give their e-waste to the highest bidder. e-cyclers can't pay as much as kabadiwalas due to various overheads. What's needed is a shift in mentality and implementation at the municipal level to manage e-waste effectively."

What you can do
What happens to old appliances or gadgets you exchange for their discounted, newer counterparts? They go to the informal sector since most old-for-new offers are run by dealers, not electronics producers, says Sinha.
Toxics Link's campaign to push for extended producer responsibility (EPR) bore fruit with the E-Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011. According to the rules, brands/producers have to collect, process and recycle their discarded products. But the problem, as with our e-waste and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) regulations, is that it's not effectively implemented.

"Even then, I'd ask people find out if a brand has a take back programme. If not, give e-waste to authorised recyclers. Many women and children in the informal sector dismantle e-waste without masks and gloves, in rooms that aren't ventilated. It's hazardous and shouldn't be encouraged."

Banerjee and Mardia suggest that societies install bins for all forms of e-waste, including batteries, which can be collected on a monthly basis by recycling companies.

As for the long term, Ghosh hopes laws such as the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 will be updated. "Segregation for dry and wet garbage itself is not implemented, leave alone e-waste. Unless this and EPR is taken seriously, hazardous e-waste disposal will thrive."