E-Waste Management (English):-

After the Industrial revolution human lives have been transformed to a greater extent. Many electrical and electronics items have been invented and still going on. Since last century many invention were made in electronics sector which has made our lives better and comfortable. In early ’50s when transistor was invented, it has revolutionized the whole electronics. After this, electronics sector grows like exponentially, many solid state-based electronic items have been developed by researchers. As electronics were getting increased in the market our lives were also changes. In the early ’90s when electronic items were becoming household things, it has impacted our life tremendously from then to now. From the ’90s, television, telephone, cell phones, cameras, DVDs, video games, computers, heaters refrigerators, and many more electronic items came into our household and became a vital part of our lives.

Advancement in the sector of electronics has helped society tremendously, from satellites, medical equipment, entertainment (TV, mobile, etc.), communication sector, education, business to the cosmetics sector. With the use of electronics we can transmit our message to lacs of kilometre in just a few seconds, it has helped us to decode the reality of universe through the satellites and space missions, it has enabled us to look deep into our body so we can live healthily and treat well in case of a medical emergency. With the use of electronic items like cameras, broadcasting channels, TV and mobile phones we can entertain ourselves and see what is happening anywhere in the world in just a lag of a few seconds. It has made our surveillance system so strong that we can provide the best security to people. Obviously, it has revolutionized our world, but there is a very famous saying that “Every coin has two faces”. Everything in this universe has a certain amount of life, and the same case is with all electronic items. After years of use electronic items not remain so efficient and get liquidated. After the ’90s electronics is upgrading very rapidly, a version of any mobile phone or TV is being replaced by a few versions which have more features as compared to the previous one and this is happening in intervals of few months. Evolutionary human has a curious nature to upgrade himself with time. During the improvement we always replace old items with new advance items, it doesn’t matter whether old ones are fine or broken. In the last 30 years, due to these rapid technological advancements and extraction of outdated technological advancements and extraction of outdated technology, the world is now facing a new challenge of e-waste disposal.

What is this E-Waste: E-waste is any electrical or electronic item that has been discarded. This includes working, unused, and broken items that are thrown in the garbage, or have been pitted in the ground. Often, if the electronic equipment goes unsold in the market, it will be thrown away. Electronic items get fastly replaced with newer models due to the rapid technological advancements. This has helm to an exponential increase in e-waste generation. Society tends to switch over to the newer models and the life of products has also decreased.

But now the question arises that why all over the world governments and social leaders are worried about the increase in e-waste?

Around the globe, people don’t know how to dispose of solid waste or e-waste. People dispose of this waste like ordinary organic waste because they are not aware of problems and hazards associated with improper disposal of e-waste. E-waste typically consists of metals, plastics, printed circuit boards, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), mobile phones, and so on. Valuable metals such as copper, silver, platinum, and gold and proper parts which are fit to use somewhere else could be recovered from e-wastes if they are processed with the scientific procedure. Manufacturing of electronic waste consists of the treatment of electronic raw parts with toxic substances such as liquid crystal, mercury, nickel, lithium, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), arsenic, selenium, barium, brominated flame retardants, cobalt, copper, cadmium, lead, and chrome makes it very hazardous, if e-waste is dismantled, handled and processed in rudimentary techniques. If we put it under the ground, toxic substances like mercury, lead, beryllium, and cadmium will leach out from these electronic items and degrade the quality of soil, which leads to the intoxication of groundwater and eventually harm the environment, animals, and humans. E-waste poses a huge risk to animals, humans, and the environment. The presence of heavy metals and highly toxic substances such as beryllium, mercury, lead, and cadmium pose a significant threat to the ecosystem even in minute quantities. These toxic substances can cause neural damage, skin cancer, heart damage, kidney failure, and so on.

In a year, the world produces over 50 million tonnes of e-waste. And India produces more than 2 million tonnes of e-waste in a year. According to a UN report, only 20% of the world’s total e-waste is formally recycled. And much of the rest ends up in improper recycling or in landfills.

In India, more than 95% of e-waste is processed by a network of unorganized or informal workers of waste pickers. They collect, dismantle, and recycle it in an unscientific and unsafe manner, due to which many serious health issues have developed in them.

But are our governments not doing something to tackle this problem?

Governments across the globe are taking many crucial steps to limit this e-waste, even many people are taking steps on their own to dispose of e-waste properly in a scientific manner. The government is propelling the research institutions to build eco-friendly technology that can be used for e-waste disposal in of natural or less pollutive way. As a result of an increase in e-waste and its possible hazards, in march 1989, the Basel Convention came into the picture, this is an international treaty designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations and it legally bound the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less-developed countries. Many countries have made laws that prohibit the improper disposal of electronic items and if some want to dispose of them he needs to submit that item to the government-authorized e-waste recycling center. In India, more than 95% of e-waste is processed by a network of unorganized or informal workers of waste pickers. They collect, dismantle, and recycle it in an unscientific and unsafe manner. But things have little changed since India introduced the e-waste management legislation in 2016.

Business Opportunities: As a result of the Basel Convention, a new business came into the picture called e-waste recycling industries, the main work of these recycling industries is to take reusable parts from discarded electronic devices and recycling them for the benefit of people, local businesses and manufacturers. In 1991, the first electronic waste recycling industry was set up in Switzerland. Since, over the years amount of e-waste has increased tremendously, so, to dispose of this e-waste many e-waste recycling industries has been grown around the globe and created lacs of job opportunities. In India, there are some e-waste recycling industries but their recycling capacity is very less as compared to the production of e-waste in India. So, we need more industries that can dispose of e-waste in a more scientific, innovative, and less pollutive way. So, these recycling industries have a better future in India to grow.

Best way to dispose of the e-waste: Till now, plasma pyrolysis is the best technique to dispose of e-waste or solid waste. In plasma pyrolysis, waste is compressed at very high temperature (10,000 Degree Celcius) and pressure, due to which the Nox gases, toxic substances which released from e-waste get broken into constituent atoms form not remain in molecule form and as a residue, we have only water vapor left. So this is the best way to dispose of e-waste or solid waste. There is another technique called compressed pyrolysis which is a little similar to plasma pyrolysis, but in this temperature is not very high(not equal to plasma temperature). As a residue, we get some amount of Nox gases, toxic substances because due to less temperature some of the molecules are not broken into atomic form. So till now, we have plasma pyrolysis as the best technique to dispose of e-waste or solid waste.

Our Duty: To reduce the e-waste, we people can use the 3R formula which says that reduce, reuse or recycle any item we are using. If we want to dispose of any electronic item then we should approach the government-authorized recycling industries. As human beings, it’s our duty to take any possible steps to save our own mother nature.