India's e-waste problem: Once a trickle, now a torrent

The overwhelming presence of the informal sector in the country's e-waste processing scene poses a health and environmental hazard that will only worsen

Outside an e-waste recycling centre in Nayandahalli in Bengaluru, there are huge piles of wires taller than the average person. On the side, lie circuit boards and the empty shells of monitors and printers.

Hidden behind this, waste workers hunt for gold and silver in the remains of old CPUs and other machinery with hammers and other blunt tools.

“Our establishment receives 350 metric tonnes of e-waste every year,” said 27-year-old Saahil Pasha, the owner of the operation.

“For us the money comes from the copper in wires, and other parts of gadgets. Then there are trace amounts of gold, silver and other precious metals that we dig for,” he said.

In another corner, a group of people sort through sacks of calculators, VR tapes and cassettes. Some of them even handle batteries and even CFL bulbs, but none of them wear gloves or even a mask.

Dhanush* (35) has been running a small operation sorting e-waste since the past four years, which he buys from waste pickers and kabadiwallahs.

He stumbled on this job after struggling to find work in the city as an uneducated migrant worker. “We need the job to be able to eat,” he said.

Abdul Mustafa* (55) smells metal in the air everyday and is afraid his profession is affecting his health somehow.

“We do what we can, sanitise and move on, what else can we do?”

For now, the workers have no pressing illnesses but they also cannot afford to think of the long-term consequences. And the consequences are not just limited to the health of the workers in India’s e-waste sector, but also that of the environment.

Also Read | Finding value in e-waste

Ever wondered what happened to that dry-cell you tossed in a bin? You don't need to look too far. Out of 2.7 billion pieces that are used annually in the country, 2.4 billion find their way to landfills, according to a report by a Delhi-based NGO Toxics Link.

While technology is ubiquitous to our lives, it also means that these useful gadgets only add to the country’s burgeoning waste management crisis.

India is the third largest producer of e-waste after the USA and China, according to a UN report. With the push to digitise school learning, government and private systems, e-waste is on the brink of becoming as unmanageable and toxic as the plastic crisis.

It is estimated that we generate some two million tonnes of e-waste each year, with a compound annual growth rate of 30%. Karnataka, which contributes close to 9% of the e-waste generated in the country, is ranked at sixth place while Maharashtra tops the charts.

However, reliable data on the amount of e-waste generated in Karnataka is scarce. Even some 10 years after the laws to regulate the disposal of e-waste were framed, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has no data about the amount of e-waste generated in the state.

However, this lack of information is not unique to Karnataka. Across the country, the e-waste recycling sector is mostly informal, inchoate and in search of precious metals.

Nationwide, just a fraction of e-waste is recycled — in 2017, 0.036 MT of e-waste was handled. And even here, the lion’s share of e-waste recycling — close to 95% — takes place in the informal sector.

The process starts with the corner kabadiwalas and waste pickers, who sort through garbage looking for high-value waste to sell to e-waste dismantlers and sorters like Dhanush, running backyard operations in Nayandahalli.

Once these gadgets are dismantled and aggregated, they are sold to extractors and plastic recyclers in Goripalya, Nayandahalli, Peenya and Dabuspet, who use chemicals and machinery to extract value from the waste.

Rajesh Babu G M, the co-founder of Swachcha, an NGO that deals with Dry Waste Management in Bengaluru, explains that the recovery process of the metals is perhaps the most hazardous to both the workers and the environment since it is done in an unscientific way without much safety measures.

“Many components or servers have mercury, lead. If they are burnt in open air, the workers are exposing themselves to hazardous, carcinogenic chemicals and materials. These chemicals and gases may also have an effect on their lungs, causing infections,” he explained.

When the quantities are huge, such extractors feel compelled to burn components to recover metals since the labour costs are high.

Handling e-waste with blunt tools is no less hazardous, according to a study submitted to the Rajya Sabha secretariat in 2011.

Handling Cathode Ray Tubes, present in old monitors, releases lead fumes, as does removing the soldering from microchips. Chromium, brominated flame retardants, mercury and acid all present challenges when they are handled unscientifically by informal waste recyclers.

Located in thickly populated areas, these practices are not only hazardous to them but also to residents in and around the areas where these metals are extracted.

Cherrypicking

Processed this way, only about 25% of the material from computers and IT industries can be salvaged, while the rest inevitably end up in landfills or are burnt, releasing harmful chemicals into the environment.

Perhaps, the dry-cell, a staple piece of technology is the most easily available example of the fallout that is possible because of this kind of cherrypicking.

From powering clocks to toys, the battery is essential for the functioning of so many gadgets in our homes. A report by Toxics Links, an environmental research and advocacy NGO, suggests that about 2.7 billion pieces of dry cell batteries are consumed annually in the country. After use, most of these — about 2.4 billion cells — find their way into landfills.

Made from heavy metals like cadmium, nickel, lead mercury, manganese or lithium, grouped with other waste and left in landfills, dead batteries pollute the air, water and soil with hazardous chemicals. Given the volume of discarded batteries annually from our households, if efficiently extracted, 15,000 tonnes of zinc could be salvaged, reducing the burden on primary mining. But because recyclers don’t find it viable to aggregate batteries, they end up in landfills, insidiously polluting the water, soil and people in the area.

Most informal e-waste processors, like Saahil Pasha’s operation, have tie ups with medium-scale IT or telecommunications organisations that provide them with bulk amounts of waste. “It is not feasible for us to employ 12 people if we cater to domestic e-waste,” Pasha says.

At present, Karnataka has just 71 authorised enterprises that recycle e-waste.

A majority of these organisations recycle waste that is supplied directly by bulk waste producers like IT companies, government organisations and colleges explains Rajesh Babu, who oversees the operation of 28 dry waste management centres, across Bengaluru. “The chain to deal with domestic e-waste has many gaps,” he said.

“We get chargers, CDs, cassettes, batteries and old telephones. In a month we get 150 kg of e-waste at every collection centre,” said Rajesh. “The chain to deal with domestic e-waste has many gaps,” he added.

“Non-bulk generators, which are individual households, are left out. What about the e-waste of these individuals. From a business perspective, given that they provide a minimal amount of e-waste, a recycler won't engage with them. It doesn't make sense logistically or financially,” said Anshul Rawal, a project coordinator at Saahas, an organisation that works on providing end-to-end waste management solutions.

Way forward

Ahmed Khan* (45) an informal e-waste worker is aware of some of the risks associated with his job, but doesn’t want anybody to see his trials and tribulations. “The government will try to shut it down,” he said, “what about my job?”

What about Ahmed’s job? As the bulk of e-waste is processed by the informal sector, trying to curb the operations of these backyard recyclers would end what little processing does take place, besides taking away the livelihoods of thousands of people.

Saahil Pasha wants his organisation authorised, but cannot afford to comply with the E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016, which call for a minimum area of 300 sqm and capacity to process upto one tonne of waste per day.

A 2016 study by the Indian Institute for Environment and Development suggests harnessing the “efficiencies of the informal networks already in place”, especially in the early supply chain, and link them to formal e-waste recyclers who can process the waste in a much more scientific manner.

Senior officials in the KSPCB indicated that they are hesitant to take action given that there is a lack of data on the e-waste sector in the state and the capacity of the formal sector is limited

“Most of the waste processing happens through the informal sector, but most of the processing here happens in a very crude way that is harmful to the environment as well as the people involved. That is worrisome. We need to develop the infrastructure in the sector and impart some skill to workers so that some formalisation takes place,” the senior KSPCB official added.

Since the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules was brought into force in 2011, the government made manufacturers of electronic gadgets responsible for managing some of their end-of-life products.

Under the updated 2016 rules, it also sets up targets for the amount of e-waste that manufacturers will process.

They can meet this target by partnering with Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) that will process the waste for them. However, monitoring mechanisms are poor and action against manufacturers without many small and medium sized industries who do not have EPR authorisation has not been initiated, according to a report filed by the KSPCB with the Central Pollution Control Board.

The problem with large producers is that they also want to be at an economic advantage when dealing with e-waste, said Shobha Raghavan, COO of Saahas Zero Waste, a registered PRO that partners with companies to deal with their waste responsibly.

"They auction their waste through Ariba and such auction websites to informal recyclers, putting the waste through that ecosystem, " she explains. "Companies need to want to deal with their e-waste responsibly."

The situation is grim but we can take control as there is immense potential, believes Peethambaram Parthasarathy, the founder-director of E-Parisaraa, one of the pioneers in authorised e-waste recycling. “When we started out, there were barely any authorised recyclers out there, now there are 71. We just have to keep putting in effort before the situation spirals out of control.” he says.

*names changed

(With inputs from Prajwal Suvarna)