E-waste .. a Serius Prob..

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Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, or broken electrical or
electronic devices. Environmental groups claim that the informal processing of
electronic waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution
problems. Some electronic scrap components, such as CRTs, contain
contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury, and brominated flame
retardants. Activists claim that even in developed countries recycling and disposal
of e-waste may involve significant risk to workers and communities and great care
must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaching of
material such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes. Scrap industry
and USA EPA officials agree that materials should be managed with caution, but
that environmental dangers of unused electronics have been exaggerated by
roups which benefit from increased regulation.
Definitions

"Electronic waste" may be defined as all secondary computers, entertainment

device electronics, mobile phones, and other items such as television sets and
refrigerators, whether sold, donated, or discarded by their original owners. This
definition includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage,
recycling, or disposal. Others define the re-usables (working and repairable
electronics) and secondary scrap (copper, steel, plastic, etc.) to be "commodities",
and reserve the term "waste" for residue or material which was represented as
working or repairable but which is dumped or disposed or discarded by the buyer
rather than recycled, including residue from reuse and recycling operations.
Because loads of surplus electronics are frequently commingled (good, recyclable,
and non-recyclable), several public policy advocates apply the term "e-waste"
broadly to all surplus electronics. The United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) includes discarded CRT monitors in its category of "hazardous
household waste". but considers CRTs set aside for testing to be commodities if
they are not discarded, speculatively accumulated, or left unprotected from
weather and other damage.

Debate continues over the distinction between "commodity" and "waste"

electronics definitions. Some exporters may deliberately leave difficult-to-spot
obsolete or non-working equipment mixed in loads of working equipment
(through ignorance, or to avoid more costly treatment processes). Protectionists
may broaden the definition of "waste" electronics. The high value of the
computer recycling subset of electronic waste (working and reusable laptops,
computers, and components like RAM) can help pay the cost of transportation for
a large number of worthless "electronic commodities".

Problems

Rapid change in technology, low initial cost, and planned obsolescence have
resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. Dave
Kruch, CEO of Cash For Laptops, regards electronic waste as a "rapidly expanding"
issue. Technical solutions are available, but in most cases a legal framework, a
collection system, logistics, and other services need to be implemented before a
technical solution can be applied. An estimated 50 million tons of E-waste is
produced each year. The USA discards 30 million computers each year and 100
million phones are disposed of in Europe each year. The Environmental Protection
Agency estimates that only 15-20% of e-waste is recycled, the rest of these
electronics go directly into landfills and incinerators. In the United States, an
estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills comes from discarded electronics.

Mumbai generating 19,000 tones of e-waste annually:

In a grim reminder of the increasing environmental and health hazards in India's

urban centres, a new study by Toxics Link, an environmental group, has revealed
that Mumbai is not just the leading generator of electronic waste in the country,
but also that the rate at which the commercial capital is throwing away electronic
goods is far higher than believed so far.

India generates about 150,000 tons of WEEE annually and almost all of it finds its
way into the informal sector, as there is no organised alternative available at
present. The trend is likely to increase manifold in proportion to the growth in the
consumption of electronic products.
Key findings:
1. Mumbai generates roughly 19,000 tonnes of WEEE annually, which is
substantially higher than the existing approximation. This figure includes
not just computers, but also televisions, refrigerators and washing
machines. The actual WEEE quantity is expected to be much higher, as
several other electronic products, which have not been used in the study,
are being dumped into the city's waste stream, and also because there are
no figures available on imports from developed nations.
2. A substantial part of Mumbai's WEEE, both imported and locally generated,
is sent to recycling markets located in other parts of the country. The
National Capital Region of Delhi is a preferred recycling destination for
printed circuit boards (PCBs) originating from the city.
3. Being the hub of India's commercial and financial activities, the banks and
financial institutions in Mumbai generate huge amounts of WEEE, but they
do not have any method for its safe handling contributing to disastrous
health and environmental impacts of WEEE. The issue of security of data on
discarded computers is adequately addressed when such waste is
auctioned to waste dealers as scrap.
4. Mumbai has a large network of scrap traders. The hotspots that handle
WEEE in and around Mumbai are - Kurla, Saki Naka, Kamthipura-Grant
Road, Jogeshwari and Malad. Recycling in these shops and rooftops not
only exposes those involved in the activity to serious health hazards, but
also pollutes the surrounding environment. The rate of WEEE generation
and the current methods of disposal in Mumbai pose grave environmental
and health risks to the city at large due to its dense population and spatial
character.
5. The current handling practices suffer from use of crude methods for
dismantling and storage, minimal capital input and zero health and
environmental safeguards.
6. Lack of a legislative framework to address the issue of WEEE management
by taking on-board all stakeholders is hampering solution implementation.
 7. Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) approach, which broadly implies
that producers be made responsible for their product even after the
consumer has bought and used it, is emerging as popular alternative for e-
waste management in various countries of the world. India needs to take
steps in this direction.

Processing techniques

In developed countries, electronic waste processing usually first involves

dismantling the equipment into various parts (metal frames, power supplies,
circuit boards, plastics), often by hand. The advantages of this process are the
human's ability to recognize and save working and repairable parts, including
chips, transistors, RAM, etc. The disadvantage is that the labor is often cheapest
in countries with the lowest health and safety standards.

In an alternative bulk system, a hopper conveys material for shredding into a

sophisticated mechanical separator, with screening and granulating machines to
separate constituent metal and plastic fractions, which are sold to smelters or
plastics recyclers. Such recycling machinery is enclosed and employs a dust
collection system. Most of the emissions are caught by scrubbers and screens.
Magnets, eddy currents, and trommel screens are employed to separate glass,
plastic, and ferrous and nonferrous metals, which can then be further separated
at a smelter. Leaded glass from CRTs is reused in car batteries, ammunition, and
lead wheel weights,[11] or sold to foundries as a fluxing agent in processing raw
lead ore. Copper, gold, palladium, silver, and tin are valuable metals sold to
smelters for recycling. Hazardous smoke and gases are captured, contained, and
treated to mitigate environmental threat. These methods allow for safe
reclamation of all valuable computer construction materials. [7] Hewlett-Packard
product recycling solutions manager Renee St. Denis describes its process as: "We
move them through giant shredders about 30 feet tall and it shreds everything
into pieces about the size of a quarter. Once your disk drive is shredded into
pieces about this big, it's hard to get the data off."[24]

An ideal electronic waste recycling plant combines dismantling for component

recovery with increased cost-effective processing of bulk electronic waste.
Electronic waste substances

Some computer components can be reused in assembling new computer

products, while others are reduced to metals that can be reused in applications as
varied as construction, flatware, and jewelry.

Substances found in large quantities include epoxy resins, fiberglass, PCBs, PVC
(polyvinyl chlorides), thermosetting plastics, lead, tin, copper, silicon, beryllium,
carbon, iron and aluminium. Elements found in small amounts include cadmium,
mercury, and thallium.

Elements found in trace amounts include americium, antimony, arsenic, barium,

bismuth, boron, cobalt, europium, gallium, germanium, gold, indium, lithium,
manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium,
silver, tantalum, terbium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium.

Almost all electronics contain lead and tin (as solder) and copper (as wire and
printed circuit board tracks), though the use of lead-free solder is now spreading
rapidly. The following are ordinary applications:

Hazardous

 Americium: smoke alarms (radioactive source).

 Mercury: fluorescent tubes (numerous applications), tilt switches (pinball
games, mechanical doorbells, thermostats). With new technologies arising,
the elimination of mercury in many new-model computers is taking place.
[26]

 Sulphur : lead-acid batteries.

 PCBs: prior to ban, almost all 1930s–1970s equipment, including capacitors,
transformers, wiring insulation, paints, inks, and flexible sealants.
 Cadmium: light-sensitive resistors, corrosion-resistant alloys for marine and
aviation environments, nickel-cadmium batteries.
 Lead: solder, CRT monitor glass, lead-acid batteries, some formulations of
PVC. A typical 15-inch cathode ray tube may contain 1.5 pounds of lead, but
other CRTs have been estimated as having up to 8 pounds of lead.
  Beryllium oxide: filler in some thermal interface materials such as thermal
grease used on heat sinks for CPUs and power transistors, magnetrons, X-
ray-transparent ceramic windows, heat transfer fins in vacuum tubes, and
gas lasers.
 Polyvinyl chloride Third most widely produced plastic, contains additional
chemicals to change the chemical consistency of the product. Some of
these additional chemicals called additives can leach out of vinyl products.
Plasticizers that must be added to make PVC flexible have been additives of
particular concern

Generally non-hazardous

Recyclable Materials

 Tin: solder, coatings on component leads.

 Copper: copper wire, printed circuit board tracks, component leads.
 Aluminum: nearly all electronic goods using more than a few watts of
power (heat sinks), electrolytic capacitors.
 Iron: steel chassis, cases, and fixings.
 Germanium: 1950s–1960s transistorized electronics (bipolar junction
transistors).
 Silicon: glass, transistors, ICs, printed circuit boards.
 Nickel: nickel-cadmium batteries.
 Lithium: lithium-ion batteries.
 Zinc: plating for steel parts.
 Gold: connector plating, primarily in computer equipment.
According to our information The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Thursday
said Mumbai topped the list of electronic waste producing cities in the country.
Delhi was placed second in the list.

The board predicts the country's annual e-waste production to increase to

800,000 tonnes by 2012.
"During 2005, 146,800 tonnes of e-waste was generated in the country, which is
expected to increase to 800,000 by 2012," said a statement of the environment
ministry.
The statement said the CPCB survey had found that "the top ten cities generating
e-waste are Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmadabad,
Hyderabad, Pune, Surat and Nagpur."
"There are 36,165 hazardous waste generating industries in the country. 6.2
million Tonnes of hazardous waste is generated by them every year, of which
landfillable waste is 2.7 million tonnes, incinerable 0.41 million tonnes and
recyclable hazardous waste is 3.08 million tonnes," the ministry said.
As per the hazardous wastes (management, handling and trans-boundary
movement) rules, 2008, all units handling e-waste need to register with the CPCB
and the hazardous wastes generated should be given to an authorised recycler or
re-user.
Due to this waste truth has come front of us that Mumbai choking on e-waste
The city faces grave health and environmental risks posed by a whopping
19,000 tones of electronic waste produced here apart from a good amount of
the same being imported clandestinely, a new report has revealed.

What is more alarming is that the rate at which the city is discarding e-waste - old
computers, television, refrigerators and washing machines - is far higher than
what was believed so far, the study has shown.

The report hints that even this shocking figure is at best modest, Satish Sinha,
chief program coordinator of NGO Toxic Link.
"The rate of e-waste generation and the current methods of disposal in Mumbai
pose grave environmental and health risks to the city at large due to its dense
population and spatial character."

Economic extremities and rampant urban poverty have made processing of old
and discarded electronic products a dangerous and booming cottage industry for
a substantial population of recyclers, waste dealers and middlemen.

"But the fact that this poses a very serious threat to the environment and human
health cannot be emphasized enough."

India generates about 1.5 lakh tones of e-waste annually and almost all of it finds
its way into the informal sector as there is no organised alternative available at
present...The trend is likely to increase manifold in proportion to growth in
electronic goods consumption, the report says.
Effects on ENVIRONMENT
 Pollution of Ground-Water.
 Acidification of soil.
 Air Pollution.
 E-Waste accounts for 40 percent of the lead and 75 percent of the heavy
metals found in landfills.

Effects On HUMAN HEALTH

 Damage to central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems and
kidney damage.
 Affects brain development of children.
 Chronic damage to the brain.
 Respiratory and skin disorders due to bioaccumulation in fishes.
 Asthmatic bronchitis.
 DNA damage.
 Reproductive and developmental problems.
 Immune system damage.
 Lung Cancer.
 Damage to heart, liver and spleen.