How to go from “Waste to Wealth”
Start by making your pledge today with: https://pledge.mygov.in/e-waste-2022/?
What is e-waste?
E-waste comprises electronic and electric equipment and devices that have no further use and are disposed by their owners in their current condition.
It is divided into two categories:?
How is e-waste handled?
E-waste recycling is controlled by two sectors:?
Did you know that the informal sector controls more than 90% of the e-waste in India??
What is the problem?
According to statistics, we are expected to produce 74 million tons of e-waste EVERY YEAR, by 2030, and here is why. We live in a throwaway world - a generalized concept of using consumables only once, from disposable packaging, where even the products are not designed for reuse or lifetime use.?
It is hard to imagine even 50 million tonnes, yet this is equivalent in weight to all the commercial aircraft we have ever built throughout history, or 4,500 Eiffel Towers, enough to cover an area the size of Manhattan - and that’s just one year’s worth of the e-waste we create.
So, in light of the trend, here are statistics showing the impact and projected impact that e-waste will have in the next few years.?
We produced about 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste in 2019, of which barely 17.4 percent was recycled. In the same duration, 3,230 kilotonnes of e-waste, of which only 30 kilotonnes was even formally collected. The remainder remained either with the consumers at home, was disposed of with unsorted waste, which ultimately resides in the landfills now, or was sold to the local kabaddiwalas.
While the per capita generation of e-waste in India remains the lowest in the world, the country still produces the third-highest volume of e-waste worldwide.
What are the implications of improper e-waste disposal?
E-waste needs to undergo a proper recovery cycle; otherwise, it causes environmental pollution and risk to life. During the recovery cycle, the e-waste needs to be reused, recycled, salvaged, resold, or disposed of.?
The Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ministry announced the E-Waste Management Rules in 2016.?
The Deposit Refund Scheme was developed so that when a piece of end-of-life equipment is returned, the producer takes an extra amount as a deposit at the time of sale of electrical and electronic equipment and subsequently returns it to the consumer with interest.
E-waste poses multiple threats to the environment as well as to human health. Electronics contain heavy metals like Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Lead, Lithium, Silver Brominated dioxins, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc. If e-waste is improperly disposed of in landfills, these toxic compounds leach out into the environment through soil, water and can be poisonous.?
Human life is greatly impacted in innumerable ways. Heavy metal exposure leads to brain, liver, heart, and kidneys damage. It also leads to the neural system, skeletal system, and reproductive system damage.?
The environment is also equally vandalized.?
The toxic fumes that are released through improper disassembly, and the burning of e-waste causes chronic diseases and cancers, affecting not only human life, but also animal and plant life.??
When these heavy metals dissolve in water to ultimately pollute groundwater, leaving it unfit for any kind of consumption, since it becomes acidic and toxic.
Did you know that landfill soil is majorly contaminated by lead?
About 40 percent of the lead found in landfills comes from e-waste and as much as 70 percent of all toxic metals found in landfills come from e-waste.?
The distance of the site of contamination does not necessarily matter, since these pollutants can travel through the air, water, and soil for several kilometers! All of the areas affected are unsuitable for living or agriculture - locally or in the area in the future, for several years, as these metals do not decompose.?
How should e-waste be disposed of?
As consumers, here is where we can begin:?
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Where do we stand today?
A lot of producers are penalized for the products that they produce. Hence they levy a disposal fee from consumers when selling products. This is the recycling fee, along with interest is refunded when the products are returned to the producer at the end-of-life stage.
China established a fund to subsidize the e-waste recycling process, which led to significant improvements in their e-waste recycling market.?
It is crucial for us to not only design better measures to recycle our e-waste, but it is equally important to optimize the process while doing so. We can take examples of Guatemala, China, Japan, and Switzerland. These countries have handled their e-waste recycling in ways that are cost-effective, and efficient.?
Delhi has taken the country’s first major step in this regard, with the government’s approval. The government has decided to establish an eco-park where e-waste will be recycled and remanufactured. About 20 acres of land is assigned to the park, under the supervision of a government consultant, where scientific disposal of e-waste and E vehicle batteries will be carried out.?
?Did you know that the United Nations estimates that 7% of the world’s gold may be contained in e-waste, with 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than in gold ore?
Apple, being the most valuable technology company in the world, has taken great measures towards sustainability and aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.?
By harvesting the metals and compounds in e-waste, we can substantially save our carbon dioxide emissions, than we would be able to by drilling the earth’s crust for fresh minerals. A tonne of mobile phones is estimated to have 100 times more gold than a tonne of gold ore.?
Entrepreneur Raj Kumar, Founder, and CEO, Deshwal Waste Management, says, “India accounted for nearly three million metric tonnes of e-waste in 2018, and the nation has a recycling capacity of only five percent of this amount,” says Mr. Raj Kumar.
“Looking at this, I decided to serve the society and contribute to global welfare and environment safety by establishing my first e-waste recycling plant in Khushkhera, Rajasthan under the name Deshwal e-waste recycler,” he says.?
Read the entire story here:
Mr. Kumar has invested Rs 15 crore into Deshwal and is expecting a turnover of Rs 23 crore for 2018-19. Since its inception, Deshwal has recycled more than 1,000 metric tonnes of e-waste and is targeting to recycle more than 500 tonnes per year after 2019.?
Did you remember to take the pledge??
https://pledge.mygov.in/e-waste-2022/
If yes, more power to you!?
If not, make a difference and feel good!?
Let’s do what we can to prevent e-waste from becoming the new plastic!
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