World Cleanup Day 2022: Why is it urgent to manage E-waste at personal and organisational levels?

Electronic waste or e-waste refers to old and discarded electrical or electronic equipment or components, which are not used by the owner anymore. A global rise in e-waste and its impact on the environment is one of the major hindrances to attaining the sustainable goals of clean waste, management of hazardous waste, sanitation and good health by 2030.

According to the ‘Global E-waste monitor report 2020' by the United Nations Institute of Training and Research, the global quantity of e-waste is increasing at an alarming rate of almost 2 Mt per year. In 2019, a record 53.6 million Mt of electronic waste was generated worldwide, up 21 per cent in just five years and India contributed 3.2 kilo tonnes to it, with only one percent of it being formally collected.

In Mumbai, e-waste management is regulated by the E-waste (Management) Rules of 2016 under which the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) designated zonal contractors, dismantlers and recyclers for collection, segregation and disposal of e-waste materials. According to BK Soni, chairman of ‘Book My Junk', an e-waste collection facility, business offices and industry sectors majorly contribute to the city's e-waste, apart from household electrical devices such as cellular phones, computers, televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators, wireless devices, storage devices, fax, xerox machine and even Electric Vehicles.

Prassann Daphal, CEO for ‘Evergreen Recyclekaro' explains that this e-waste is classified based on different composition and components such as ferrous and non-ferrous metals such as plastics, glass and others. While metals such as copper, aluminium, silver, gold and platinum are extracted from the e-waste, toxic materials include lead and cadmium in circuit boards, lead oxide and cadmium in cathode ray tubes, mercury in switches and flat screen monitors need to be disposed responsibly.

Currently, a major part of these components are disposed of incorrectly through informal channels, thus adding to the environmental and human health hazards caused by toxic materials and chemicals released into the land and water through electrical and electronic waste. On World Cleanup Day 2022, we look at the challenges in managing e-waste and the ways in which people can consciously mitigate the brewing crisis.

Covid-19 pandemic and rise in accumulation of E-waste

According to a United Nations' report ‘The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on E-waste in the First Three Quarters of 2020', the pandemic provided a breathing space for the e-waste management industry as lower consumption of electrical and electronic equipment in the first three quarters of 2020 led to a reduction of 4.9 million Mt of e-waste generated in future. However, it is also important to note that increased consumption of game consoles, cell phones, ovens and laptops during the pandemic added 0.3 Mt to the total consumption of electrical equipment, and hence future e-waste generation. The report says that the increase is solely caused by high-income countries.

Soni and Daphal highlight that there has been a significant rise in the accumulation of the city's e-waste during and post Covid-19 as there were instances of a number of businesses shutting down and many of them had to give up their offices and assets. While every household invested heavily into electronic products to remain connected to the world to transact studies, relationships and business, they were also retiring and replacing their old non working electronics leading to an increase in the e-waste generation in the post-lockdown period.

"There is a significant increase seen in sales of electronic equipment due to work from home scenarios during the pandemic. There was a significant increase in e-waste; almost 15 percent increase compared to pre-pandemic," observes Daphal.

Those involved in collection, segregation and recycling operations warn about the ever-growing menace of e-waste owing to the increasing shift towards digitisation and use of newer technological tools for basic activities in daily life and their impact on quality of life and environment. However, there is little awareness about safe e-waste disposal among the masses. While there has been a consistent awareness campaign about segregation of dry and wet waste and plastic control through government and environment bodies, we are yet to see a similar action on a larger scale against e-waste accumulation in our surroundings.

Lack of awareness is one of the biggest challenges in treating e-waste. Soni says, "There is no education drive by the authorities to educate the masses about the perils of e-waste and the need for safe disposal of the same with authorised recyclers and the need to avoid throwing of any metal. These include electrical or electronic waste in the garbage can, including a small pencil battery cell or an old headphone or a non-working remote."

Another area of challenge is navigating options to deploy adequate human and material resources for e-waste management. Daphal states absence of collection and storage infrastructure or facility at prime locations generating e-waste leads to harmful components being dumped in landfills and other dumping grounds.

According to Soni, once there is awareness among the public, the market will have enough opportunities for capable players to provide the facilities and logistics support services and that organisations like BMJ are currently working in these areas with dedicated fully-equipped vehicles and trained staff for servicing the households at their doorstep.

Action at an individual and community level

Organisations like BMJ and Evergreen conduct local awareness and collection drives in and around the city areas and use social media to spread the message and amplify the need to stop and think about how people treat different kinds of waste generated at their homes.

"It helps in developing a mind-set of reuse, repair and recycle, which will help proper e-waste management to protect the livelihood, health, environment and sustainable development," says Daphal.

In addition to organising activities at residential societies, these companies also cooperate with local municipal bodies to source e-waste from various local sources and involve volunteers for assistance. Additionally, in order to build a culture of accountability, it is equally important for individuals to keep a check on their personal electronic devices and their disposal.

Here are some of the steps that Daphal and Soni suggest one can be mindful of to do their bit for e-waste management:

1. Sell off your outdated technology devices. You can either donate it for reuse or return it to the electronic companies.

2. Do not discard batteries or end-of-life electronics in dustbins and segregate them from other solid waste.

3. One can store all end of life electronics at one place and contact recycle@recyclekaro.com for e-waste collection or login to BMJ app or register at www.BookMyJunk.com and request for a free home pickup of the collected e-waste.

4. People can share these activities and tips on their social media accounts and encourage others to do the same to tackle the menace of unhealthy disposal of these materials.

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