E-waste gives citizens a big headache

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">MUMBAI: In a dingy little junkyard in Dharavi, a few ragpickers are downloading their pickings of the day. Close by, heaps of amorphous junk are going up in smoke.Although few object to the foul odour emitted during the burning, the pollution triggered by thousands of such scrapyards burning electronic waste is giving the country a big headache.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Toxics Link, a Delhi-based organisation, says India generates $1.5 billion worth of e-waste annually.In other words, manufacturers and assemblers produce around 1,050 tonnes of electronic scrap in a single year.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">India is much worse off because it has become a favourite dumping ground for countries like the US, Malaysia, Sweden, Canada and Singapore, according to government sources. Unlike the US, which has banned hazardous electronic waste imports, India has no law on the subject except the Basel convention, which bans import of hazardous ewaste. But imports sneak in under the purported guise of re-use.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">"Most of this waste comes in illegally or purportedly for re-use as the law doesn''t allow hazardous waste to be imported," says a customs official.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">The junk then lands in the </span><span style="" font-size:="" font-style:="" italic="">kabbadiwalla</span><span style="" font-size:="">''s yard.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Dr D B Boralkar, member-secretary of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and an expert on ewaste, says, "The </span><span style="" font-size:="" font-style:="" italic="">kabbadiwalla</span><span style="" font-size:=""> simply burns materials. The process releases pollutants that cause diseases like silicosis, pulmonary edema, circulatory failure and suchlike."</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Consider the fact that your average computer and television set has-apart from complex plastic blends that are difficult to recycle and valuable components such as gold and platinum-materials such as cadmium, mercury, lead and brominated flame-retardants.</span></div> </div>