Let us Refuse E-Waste as a Country

TechnoparkToday.com>> July 1, 2014:  When I was walking through the lanes of Thiruvananthapuram city, one advertisement stuck me. It was about used computers. Price looked damn cheap for me, it was 4,000 and below. They told, it comes with warranty also. I dialed them from a local phone booth to avoid call backs. They told these computers are imported from America and some European countries. They have different varities of computers from laptops and desktops with mostly CRT monitors. It is a trader whom I made call to. I was sure that it is e-waste.

E-waste is discarded electronic stuff, such as computer, Television, Mobile phone etc. The processing of the same is little bit costly and is often hazardous. Developed countries often adopt a strategy to export e – waste to developing countries. The refused items or e-waste world wide is amounting to 50 million ton per year. USA alone gives out 30 million ton of E-waste an year. Most of it ends up countries like china, Africa and India. As it comes in disguise of used computers, people will make use of it.

Once it’s useful life is over, it will be a hazard in our country. The heavy metals like lead, cadmium, etc and plastic materials end up burning in our atmosphere and it adds to our ecological footprint. 4 R’s of sustainability are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repair. Reuse phrase is valid only when it is used in the country of it’s origin. Here the trick employed makes developing countries carry waste of high-tech upgrades of developed countries.

As our country is ill equipped in processing even solid waste produced here, handling bulk quantity of e-waste will be a major challenge. Breaking up the gadgets and taking useful stuff for reuse is a big challenge itself. Is this dumping of E-waste agreeable?. Should not be there a law which can stop importing used computers for business/trade purpose?. We should not treat ourself as back yards for other countries e-waste. There has to be changes in global trade agreements if need be.We as a country need to formulate guideline for disposing and recycling e-waste in our country, instead of resulting as a mere landfill.

  –Anoop Varghese Kuriappuram