What is E-waste?
E-Waste aka electronic waste is a discarded , expired and thrown out unused device which is a threat to the environment. All of us in our household also have tangled wire , worn out chargers, unused mobiles , tube light and many more ,these are what exactly is E-waste . The main environmental affects of E-wastes that it releases heavy metals which is the alarming bell for our world.
India itself generates 3 million tons of E-waste.
During cleaning or shifting of our offices and houses we used to throw E-wastes or used to sell it to scrap or junk dealers or do landfilling.
On an average 0.034gm gold is used in the motherboard and 14.17gm of copper is used in each cell phone . The scrap dealers used to extract these gold and copper form the motherboard and throws out the rest pieces which contains heavy metals like cadmium(Cd), lead(Pb), Mercury(Hg), Arsenic(As)etc into the soil or near water bodies which polluted the water and soil both . During rainfall these heavy metals are mixed out with soil and water that is very harmful for humans or aquatic life.
How heavy metals from E-Waste disturbed the food chain??
Plants do absorb these heavy metals through roots with water and through xylem that carries water and minerals to fruits and leaves , heavy metals accumulate there where fruit is eaten by normal human beings and leaves are eaten by herbivores.When heavy metals mixed with water they may occupy the aquifer, which affects human life and aquatic life too.
Diseases caused by Heavy metals….
We can see many diseases caused because of heavy metals :-
– MINIMATA DISEASE – 1956 in Japan , which is caused by the accumulation or bio magnification of mercury . Mercury affects neurologically where 17-18 people died because of that.
– ARSENIC POISONING:- The most highlighted part of India is Bhatinda in Punjab in case of cancer patients. A train used to run in the name of Cancer Express . On an average 70 patients per day travel from Bhatinda . The reason is that the soil of that area is so much addicted to fertilizers , pesticides that no crops can be grown there without the use of these . A high amount of arsenic and other heavy metals is found in their soil that enters their food chain which results in gene sequencing or gene mapping.DNA has damaged 36% of the farmers. The same happened in Bangladesh where 80% of the population is suffering from arsenic poisoning because arsenic entered their food cycle as they use arsenic contaminated water for cooking also .Some traces of that are also found in mother’s milk.
In the coming next 4-5 years you will see a drastic change in pollution because of E-Waste as we don’t have the proper method to discard this.
Ways to reduce our growing mountain of E-waste..
– REPAIR – if your screen is cracked or it may have water damage ,see if there is any way to fix your gadget instead of buying a replacement
– EXTENT – when the new update won’t go through ,resist the temptation of buying a new one ,use it as long as possible
– RESELL – if you are not going to use it ,consider selling it to someone else, that is one less device in a landfill for now
– RECYCLE – if you have to get rid of electronics , check your local regulations to see how to recycle them properly. Some cities do have easy drop off spots.
The scrap policy has decided the validity period for gadgets. For example –
Fridge – 10 yrs
Ceiling fan – 10 yrs
AC – 10 yrs
Microwave-10 yrs
Video camera -10 yrs
Laptop – 5 yrs
Washing machine -9 yrs
Radio- 8 yrs
Smart phone – 5 yr
By 2025, type C cable will become mandatory for every electronic device as it will reduce e-waste and also do fast charging which will save time and uses less energy that results in less energy leakage
=》 E-waste Generation Trends:
There is a significant increase in global e-waste generation, rising from 34 billion (bn) kg in 2010 to 62 bn kg in 2022.
This trend is projected to continue, reaching 82 bn kg by 2030.
Of this 62 bn kg, only 13.8 bn kg is documented as ‘formally collected and recycled in an environmentally sound manner’.
62 bn kg of e-waste includes 31 bn kg of metals, 17 bn kg of plastics and 14 bn kg of other materials (minerals, glass)
Policy Adoption:
81 countries have adopted e-waste policy, legislation or regulation.
Sixty-seven countries have legal provisions on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for e-waste.Another 46 have provisions on e-waste collection rate targets. Finally, 36 countries have provisions on e-waste recycling rate targets.
=》OUR GOVERNMENT ACTION ON E-WASTE
The central government on 8th March, 2024 has issued the E-Waste (Management) Amendment Rules, 2024. The amendment provides that the Central Government may, if it is satisfied that it is necessary so to do in the public interest or for effective implementation of these rules, by order, relax any period within which any return or report is to be filed under these rules by a manufacture, producer, refurbisher or recycler of electrical and electronic equipment and components or consumables or parts or spares thereof, for a further period not exceeding nine months. The Central Government may by, order, establish one or more platforms for exchange or transfer of extended producer responsibility certificates in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board with the approval of the Central Government.