Import of e-waste should be banned, says IT expert
by Times of India
16 February 2011 (Pune) – IT expert Deepak Shikarpur on Wednesday said that India was being used as a dumping ground for e-waste and that the country imported 50,000 tonnes of e-waste every year and only 11% of it got recycled, even as he added that the import of e-waste be banned.
"This e-waste is finally burnt in the open, along with garbage, releasing large amount of mercury and lead into the atmosphere," he said. Speaking to the media about the global e-waste situation during the fifth Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival, he said that about 80 per cent of the e-waste generated in the US was exported to India, China and Pakistan. "While these appliances may come in cheap, they tend to die out in a short period of time, leaving them to be dumped in the country," he said.
Shikarpur, who is a member of the panel working with the German International Co-operation and Pune Municipal Corporation to form a strategy and procedure for e-waste management, said the end-of-life products find their way to recycling yards where poorly-protected workers in appalling conditions dismantle them manually. Out of the total e-waste generated in the country, around 6 per cent of e-waste is generated from Pune, but there is no recycling plant in the city.
He cited the example of Delhi, where about 25,000 workers are employed at scrap-yards, where about 20,000 tonne of e-waste is handled every year, with computers accounting for 25 per cent of it. Precious metals are recovered in a very dangerous and hazardous manner and the rest goes to land filling and water bodies that disturbs ecological equilibrium. Other e-waste scrap-yards are in Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, he added.
About the future projections, he said that India will have 1.6 million tonne of e-waste generated annually by 2012 (source Greenpeace).
Shikarpur called for a ban on the import of e-waste. "A large part of e-waste comes from computers and computer accessories. In Switzerland and USA, manufacturers have to buy back e-waste. In India, there should be similar take-back service. At present, there is one mobile phone company in India that has a similar scheme, where they collect handsets and chargers," he said.
He also called for strict implementation of removal of hazardous substances guideline to phase out lead, mercury, cadmium, among others.On energy consumption, he said that around 40 per cent of energy consumption in the corporate sector was due to the use of IT and related devices. "While as computing resource costs are reducing, power costs are increasing substantially. Energy costs will exceed hardware costs in 2014. Without realising, we waste a lot of power and environment friendliness is the need of the hour," he added.
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