Activists warn it is another tsunami in the making. At the rate the world is discarding its old, used computers, mobile phones, televisions and other commercial and domestic electronic equipment, the day is not far when the huge electronic waste pile up could wash over us and there's nothing we could do about it.

A scary scenario by an "over-imaginative" eco-activist? Not really. For often facts are more shocking than fiction. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that 20-50 million tonnes of e-waste are discarded worldwide every year. That's an average of 35 million tonnes, or 4,000 tonnes per hour.

Interestingly, Greenpeace has equated this to the weight of an Asian elephant which is approx. 4000 kgs. Thus, in effect the world discards e-waste which is an equivalent to 1,000 elephants every hour!

And though developing countries like India sit back and say there are other pressing environmental issues at hand, the fact remains that this mammoth pile up could blow up on our faces if we did not plug it right away.

For it is an open secret now that countries like India, China and Pakistan have become the West's best dumping backyard, where it is being reprocessed in operations extremely harmful to both human health and the environment. (E-waste contains over one thousand different substances, many of which are highly toxic like lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury and others).

Routinely, and often illegally, used electronic items are shipped from Europe, Japan and the US to Asia because it is "cheaper and easier to dump the problem on countries that have poor environmental standards than to tackle it at home."

Calling it double standards practiced by transnational companies, Ramapati KR, toxic campaigner Greenpeace India, says, "Because of the stringent laws prevailing in Europe and US, most of these companies buy back old systems from customers and dump them in developing nations in the name of recycling."

Not just talk

Ramapati says Greenpeace will Svery soon launch an active campaign in India - Bangalore in particular - against those responsible for producing e-junk, including IT multinationals. In May, Greenpeace activists delivered a truckload of electronic waste to Hewlett-Packard's European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. They piled the waste up at the entrance of the building and unfurled a banner that read "Hi-tech, highly toxic."

According to this international watchdog on environment, companies such as Samsung, Sony and Sony Ericsson have already taken a first step by eliminating brominated flame retardants and PVC plastic from some of their products. Sony Ericsson has committed to removing them from all their products by the end of 2005. Nokia has committed to do the same by the end of 2006, but Hewlett Packard, Apple, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, IBM, LG, Motorola, Panasonic, and Toshiba have, to date, made no such commitment.

However, in a statement released by HP following Greenpeace action, the company maintained that "it proactively prohibits or restricts the use of many materials in products through an environmental specification called the General Specification for Environment (GSE)." The statement maintained that HP has set a goal for all products worldwide to meet the standards for use of lead, mercury, cadmium and other restricted chemicals prior to the July 1, 2006.

While the debate remains open on the double standards being practiced by global players, in India, meanwhile, the heat is being felt by Bangalore-based IT giant Wipro Technologies. Recently, the company was issued a showcasue notice by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board for transportation of e-waste to an unauthoried recycling dealer in Chennai.

Maintaining that Wipro is storing its e-waste safely in "our own godown", Raghunandan, GM, Wipro, who also handles e-waste issues in the company, adds, "Till we receive clear guidelines from the pollution control board on how we are suppose to dispose of it, we will continue storing them."

HP India"s director for government and public affairs in Bangalore, P Ravindranath, though refusing to comment on HP's alleged role in dumping e-waste in Asia, adds, "HP worldwide has a number of programmes on recycling, including the HP planet partners return and recycling programme. Under this initiative, HP offers to take back end-of-life hardware and other supplies in India and send it for recycling to Singapore, which has its own stringent eco laws."

Viscious (re)cycle

With the increased IT activity in the country that began in the 1990s, experts fear that of the nearly 12 million PCs alone in India, nearly 2 million are either 486s or below. This means a vast amount of equipment - in addition to the huge dumped e-waste by the West - will soon be added to the waste stream as upgradation beyond a point becomes uneconomical and incompatible with software in demand. It is further estimated that by 2009, 15 million PCs are expected to be added to the Indian market.

And though Indians are seen as good re-users, the problem of e-waste arises when any component cannot be put to further use or has to be discarded. A study done by Bakul Rao, consultant, Environment, Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), Bangalore, indicates there is huge accumulation of outdated and unusable sets (discarded) at homes and commercial organisations due to lack of disposal facilities.

Old models which are still in working conditions are exchanged at the rate of 15 per cent and nearly 70 per cent are again reused and recycled. Contrastingly, the industries and commercial establishments are reusing around 15 per cent of the computers and balance 80 per cent is stored as junk or auctioned to scrap dealers.

According to Bakul, "The reuse market is quite well organised especially in Bangalore. Second hand dealers repair, refurbish and sell to secondary users and at present nearly 70 per cent of the computers are reused. Similar studies in the US has revealed that the recycling or reuse of the computers is around 15 per cent and the rest is stockpiled."

So what happens to this junk? Experts says there is a thriving enterprise at work where dismantling and sorting is done to salvage some of the retrievable components from motherboards, chips, monitors, chords and so on. Says Rajiv Kumar of Project Agastya (part of eWAG), "You will be surprised that e-waste yields gold in a more viable manner than the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF)."

But what is more shocking is the pathetic and unhyegnic conditions under which workers slog in the back alleys of congested lanes of old Delhi, Kandla and Chennai to retrieve precious metals. There are nearly 500 small recycling units operating in Bangalore alone which extract precious metals like gold and other metals using crude chemical processes. It is roughly estimated that nearly 15 per cent of the plastic and lead waste coming from the electronic sourse is disposed of unscientifically and is getting mixed up with the municipal solid waste as there are no other ways of disposal available.

Nonetheless, this situation could be turned to India's advantage if the concerned authorities imposed stringent regulations and provided the necessary infrastructure to set up authorised recycling units.

Legal loopholes

There are no specific laws or guidelines for electronic waste. The import of hazardous waste into India is actually prohibited by a 1997 Supreme Court directive, which reflects the international Basel Ban treaty. However, the law is still grey regarding hundreds of recycling dealers in the country. Says D C Sharma, zonal officer south, Central Pollution Control Board, "We are in the process of giving a green signal to India's first recycling facility at Dobbaspet, Karnataka."

But he maintains that e-waste is a totally new area and authorities are working on including e-waste as hazardous waste. Talks are also on to set up a landfill using German technology at Dobbaspet. According to various research done by experts on e-waste, there is no exim code for trade in second-hand computers for donation purpose or for resale, the same exim code as new computers under chapter 84 of the Indian Customs Tariff Act is followed. Exporters sometimes club junk computers along with new ones.

In the event of no clear guidelines and checks, the e-waste story now reads more like the Buddhist tale of "Six Blind Men and the Elephant." The day when all concerned parties, including the consumer, shed their own perspectives and see the issue as a whole, will the elephantine task of disposing e-waste in a safe and viable manner become a reality.

Thermostats, flat panel displays, switches, medical equipment, lamps, mobile phones contain mercury. It causes damage to the brain and kidneys as well as the foetus. Mobiles also contain brominated flame retardants which are highly toxic.

The largest volume of plastics (26%) used in electronics has been PVC. PVC elements are found in floppies, cabling and computer housings.

Computer monitors and solder in PCBs contain lead. It causes damage to the nervous systems, blood systems, kidney and reproductive system in humans. It also affects the endocrine system and impedes brain development among children.

Barium, is used in the front panel of a CRT to protect users from radiation. The toxicity depends on the size of the screen. Short-term exposure to barium causes brain swelling, muscle weakness, damage to the heart, liver and spleen. Chip resistors, infra-red detectors, semiconductor chips and older cathode ray tubes (CRT) contain cadmium that can accumulate in kidneys.

Colour toners (cyan, magenta and yellow) contain heavy metals. Acute exposure may lead to respiratory tract irritation. Found in the plastic printer cartridge.

The phosphor coating on cathode ray tubes contain heavy metals such as cadmium and other rare earth metals, for example, zinc, vanadium as additives. These metals and their compounds are very toxic. This is a serious hazard posed for those who dismantle CRTs by hand. Phosphor affects the display resolution and luminance of the images that is seen in the monitor.

Around 1120 tons of e-waste is being generated annually in India by Indian manufacurers and suppliers.

Around 5228 tons of e-waste being imported to India illegally.

There are about some 270 medium and big scrap dealers in the country.

More than 2000 small recyclers are involved in the recycling of e-waste.

About 2 million PCs are going to be obsolete in India by June 2006.

In a single month there is a report of e-waste import upto 48 million tons at various custom points in the country.

Source: Greenpeace India