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Today is World Environment Day. IT solutions are catapulting people up the social ladder but there seems to be no solution in sight as far as disposal or recycling of e-waste goes, finds PREMA MANMADHAN
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NOBODY'S BABY No one wants e-waste and nobody knows how best to deal with the hazardous stuff that gets dumped along with other waste
Even Computerji has its ups and downs in life, like you and me: Here's a capsule autobiography of a computer: `Papaji, Mamaji and the kids were gushing and showing me around. There were squeals of delight as the global village descended on the small room upstairs. Papaji had his own tastes and so did the naughty boy, his son. But I was happy he used me damn well when he got into his engineering course, though I was old and in ill health. The daughter of the household loved to be by herself when she chatted. I know why, but I won't tell you. Then one fine day, I had a rival. Black is beautiful, I know, and it was all shiny. The `ji' from my name was dropped and affixed to the new computer. I was unceremoniously decapitated and put into an old cardboard box and thrown into the unused kennel. The next thing I knew, I was all broken and lying in a pond far away, with stinking waste. I knew the toxic lead and cadmium in my body, seeping into the soil, would make people sick, but I couldn't do a thing about it, you see. And here I lie... .neither death nor reincarnation... '
That's E-Waste talking. IT yug came not too late to India and the problem of e-waste is just dawning on us. Most people who know that e-waste is hazardous as it is toxic, are storing it safely, but for how long?
Everything electronic
The e-waste piling up is not only computer parts. Remember we had pagers once upon a time, before mobiles came along and created a new lifestyle? Where are those pagers? And what happens to that fridge you exchanged for a bigger, shinier one, with two doors? Also, the old TV and the outdated mobiles exchanged for trendier ones? The batteries and tubelights that go phut, ovens, toasters, vacuum cleaners, printers, phones, faxes, HiFis, electronic toys, medical appliances
... they all add to the e-waste dump that is getting bigger and bigger. Recycling these gadgets, using some parts and discarding the others reduces the dump, but the problem persists.
The looming problem is not purely desi discards. We have foreign e-waste too. Much of the Western effluence got to Indian, Chinese and Pakistani shores long before we had any inkling of the possibility of our country and people being polluted by e-waste. Recycling e-waste causes diseases to those working with the parts too.
Violating the environment is a crime against posterity. We always tend to forget that posterity includes our descendants. We are yet to wake up to the fact that our rivers and soil absorb carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) and other toxins from e-waste. The direct result is alarming: birth defects, tuberculosis and severe respiratory problems, apart from cancer.
In Kerala, the technoparks and infoparks will have amassed more outdated computers than they can store in a year or two. These big firms are contracted to agencies, which can dispose of this e-waste. Smaller outlets like cyber parlours and data processing centres sell the outdated computers to people who reassemble them and sell second hand computers. Says an IT official involved in the management sector, "We are prepared to give outdated computers for free, but who wants slow ones when the industry is updating itself almost every day? Many firms are storing outdated computers and when we run out of storage space, no one knows what can be done. It can happen in another year. So far, there is no solution in sight," he warns.
Sudhir T. K. who runs Index Communications, a data processing centre, says he has kept all discarded CDs and floppies, stacked in a pile as he knows it is dangerous to dump them into waste bins that go to land fills. "Some take them away to make handicraft items, but the bulk of the e-waste is here. Soon, I won't have space anymore to store them," he worries.
Rama Moorthy of Aroor, who gets discarded computers and reassembles them, says he sells them for Rs. 5,000-6,000 each to institutes, which do not need fast computers. The parts that are unused are sold as scrap. But even scrap dealers don't accept some parts, which are thrown into waste bins," he says.
Landfills
Corroborates Mohammed, from Thammanam, who collects scrap and old newspapers for a living, "Yes, the scrap dealer does not give any money for these computer parts, so I don't accept old computers."
Most CDs and floppies in homes, along with used batteries find their way into landfills along with the biodegradable waste. The danger lurking in the soil is yet to find expression in any programmes of environmentalists.
The corporation has yet to develop a system to deal with e-waste, when even solid waste is still looking for a place to rest. Neither does the public realise the impending hazards posed by e-waste. The problem is yet to be systematically addressed globally, when the haves are still struggling to find ways to discard their e-waste and buying time by shipping it to developing countries. A collection system or laws regarding disposal of e-waste are not in force yet, simply because people have yet to feel it harms them. The Basel Convention controls trade in e-waste. It is an international treaty to control movement of hazardous waste between nations, especially to developing nations, though some of these nations may welcome it because it means work and food for people scrapping it.
Nearer home, the problem may crop up in a year or two, when storage space is saturated, feel IT pundits. As in the global scenario, no solution seems to be in sight to date to dispose of e-waste without treading on any toes. For soon, e-waste may come in Villain's avatar, carrying a cartload of diseases to haunt cityfolks and those calmly settled in sylvan settings too. Macabre scenario, but then, `Tomorrow is another Day'.
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