Legislation is the right solution

Electronics gadgets are meant to make our lives happier and simpler, but when they contain toxic substances, their disposal and recycling becomes a health nightmare. Electronic gadgets have penetrated every aspect of our lives and most of us do not think or realise that what happens to the gadgets we discard.
E-waste is the one of the fastest growing waste stream with people changing their computers, TVs, mobile phones more frequently than ever before. Every year, these computers and mobile phones are either dumped in landfills or burned in smelters. According to one estimate, about 20-50 million tonne of e-waste is generated annually worldwide. In India, the figure stands at 382,979 tonne per year. E-waste now makes up 5% of all municipal solid waste worldwide, more or less the same amount as general plastic waste, but much more hazardous. With fast and rapid technological changes and lesser life span of all products, the problems seem to be further compounding. The government plans to increase the penetration of PCs into villages and the illegal import and ever increasing consumption of electronic products are not going to give any breather for better e-waste management.
Electronics products are the complex mixture of several hundred tiny components; many of which contains deadly chemicals. These set of chemicals put stress on human health and environment. Most of the component in electronic devices contains chemicals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, beryllium and phthalates. Long-term exposure to these chemicals can damage the nervous system and some of them are carcinogenic.
Currently, India has no regulatory framework to regulate the toxics in the electronics industry. In fact, the government is still in denial mode to accept it as a major issue. In the absence of proper law, initiatives taken by NGOs and other stakeholders lack effectiveness. Indian government needs to be proactive on the issue of e-waste, as efforts should be directed towards avoiding the crisis instead of waiting for it to happen
Even the present guidelines for sound management of e-waste prepared by CPCB are not sufficient to deal with post consumer waste such as e-waste. The guidelines on e-waste management are recommendatory in nature and not mandatory. In sum, the draft is welcome as a first step to address the e-waste problem. It provides a platform for authorising e-waste treatment facilities. But such a guideline alone is far from sufficient.
The ultimate solution to the e-waste crisis lies not in treatment but in prevention and management. The handling of e-waste is dangerous due to chemicals present in products. The only way to tackle this is for the manufacturers to design clean products. The IT producers should also assume the full life cycle responsibility for their products and, once they reach their end-of-life, take their goods back for re-use, safe recycling and disposal.
The government must enact a legislation based on the principle of extended producer responsibility, which empowers the electronics industry to manufacture clean products. It must enforce the ban on import of e-waste for recycling and also ban the import of second-hand computers for re-use, as most of these products end up in recycling yard.
The writer is a Greenpeace India toxics campaigner...
Ramapati KumarPosted online: Monday , April 21, 2008 at 0105 hrs IST
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