The Hindu : Warning on e-waste threat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Warning on e-waste threat

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 16. Warning that the threat of e-waste was not limited to Delhi alone, a study "E-Waste in Chennai: Time is Running Out'' released here this past week points out that the issue is a national one as the practice of computer and electronic waste dumping and recycling under very hazardous conditions is rampant in Chennai and Mumbai as well.

Conducted by the non-government organisation, Toxics Link, the report points out that even as the domestic generation of e-waste is likely to increase soon with the high rate of obsolesce of technology, the "illegal'' import of e-waste from developed countries continues unabated.

Following up on their study on e-waste in Delhi released last year, this time Chennai was put under the scanner because it was identified as the Southern Capital to India's Information Technology revolution and a major port of South India.

The prime "hotspots'' identified in the report as handling computer waste in and around Chennai are New Moore Market, Madras Export Processing Zone, Urapakkan and Puzhal. According to the report, handling of e-waste in these areas is unorganised and presents an environmental and health hazard.

"Recycling in India is primarily unorganised and the working conditions are far from satisfactory. As we observed in Chennai and in Delhi earlier, recycling is mainly a backyard operation. There is open burning of PVC wires, de-soldering of circuit boards and glass which exposes the workers to lead, mercury and other toxic chemicals. The method of acid bath is used openly and without taking any precautions. We also noticed that women and children are also engaged on a large-scale in these recycling operations,'' said a member of Toxics Link, Kishore Wankhade.

The report also revealed that a large percentage of e-waste was dumped into the Indian market by developed countries like the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Belgium and Middle East. It also noted that to circumvent the Custom Authorities, computer waste was imported as "Mixed Electronic Computer Scrap'' through the Chennai Port.

"According to our data, it is United States that imports most of the e-waste. And while there were instances of e-waste coming in from Singapore and Middle East, in all probability, these two could be acting as turntable ports for computer scrap coming in originally from the European countries,'' said Mr. Wankhade.

The report also points out certain lacunae in the Environmental Laws of the country. "There are no specific laws or guidelines for e-waste. The import of e-waste needs special clearance under the Hazardous Waste Rules 2003 and a prior informed consent under the procedures of the Basel Convention.

However, in no case has this been found to take place from our research. In fact, the Government has denied any imports at all, which is a common practice on ground,'' pointed out Mr. Wankhade.

Certain recommendations have also been made for the future which include a total ban on hazardous waste imports including e-waste, making the producers responsible for their product, educating the consumers and designing the device in clear, safe and efficient mechanism for recovering raw materials.

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