EcoWorldly

Delhi, India is becoming the world’s e-waste capital. Delhi alone generates 50,000 tons of e-waste from recycled and discarded electronic parts. Mumbai and Kolkatta closely follow this lead.

The problem is only partly indigenous; imports into these cities from America add to the burden, with 50-80% of America’s e-waste being exported. California alone exports about 9,000 tons (20 million pounds) to the developing world.

Often, it’s the least desirable and most environmentally harmful materials that are the first to be shipped to other, less affluent countries. No one wants to do deal with them and yet everyone wants to pay the least price to dispose of them.  The economics of e-waste further encourage globalized waste dumping.

Satish Sinha, associate director of environmental NGO Toxic Link, told the Hindustan Times that for US recyclers avoiding the $20 cost of electronics recycling in the US plus raking in up to $15 paid by Indian e-waste importers “means a net gain of $35 for the US recycler.”

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Coordinated, global action is required to address these issues that are currently manifesting themselves locally in Delhi and other Indian cities.

The e-waste problem needs to be dealt with simultaneously at two levels: locally and globally. On the one hand, we need to ‘think globally, act locally.’ As cities act locally, they need to remember the global roots of the problem. At the same time, they need to demand action globally to contain the menace of e-waste. Thus it is also a problem that requires us to ‘think locally, act globally.’

The Basel convention is an early instance of recognizing and seeking to prevent the exports of hazardous waste from developed to developing world.  Unfortunately, the United States has not ratified this treaty and exports a vast majority of its waste. Moreover, e-waste can hardly be treated as identical to hazardous waste. A lot of e-waste gets exported under the guise of repair and refurbishment, which is permitted in under the convention rules.

The complex, global nature of e-waste needs to be addressed head-on. Globalized recycling provides a livelihood to the very poor people and in some cases the authorized e-waste recycler is able to make a neat profit. Although it makes economic sense for many individuals across the globe to recycle e-waste as is currently the practice, there are greater environmental, health, and safety hazards that the individual overlooks and that necessitate the involvement of government.

Possibly, a healthier set of alternatives would require companies producing these products to also recycle them. That way, they would re-use whatever can be re-used, thus reducing e-waste. It might also convince the companies to develop products that recycle easily and cleanly.

In Part 2, I will discuss how addressing the menace of e-waste also warrants “thinking globally and acting locally“…

Image Credit: Pinpin at Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons License.

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