Give us an upgrade

Give us an upgrade

India’s e-waste problem has long outgrown the informal sector’s capacity to manage it.

Mobile phones are ubiquitous in India, a necessary requirement to carry out everyday tasks such as banking and identity verification. There is a flip side to this convenience. Disposing e-waste (electronic and electrical items) is a complex challenge as it contains heavy metals and other toxic substances. In India, it’s been largely confined to the informal sector which does not have the skills or resources to deal with this challenge. This translates into serious environmental damage, especially in cities like Moradabad which handle a disproportionate share of e-waste.

Not only is the e-waste generated domestically not receiving adequate attention, field research indicates that e-waste from more affluent countries is also being imported into India for disposal. This problem needs urgent attention at all levels of government as the eventual price will be paid in terms of deteriorating health. The economic summit at Davos has flagged the problem too. A set of UN entities put the matter in perspective there, by observing that the world generates 50 million tonnes of e-waste a year, which exceeds by weight all commercial airliners ever made. In India one estimate is that the country has a capacity to dismantle and recycle only 20% of its total e-waste.

There is a regulatory framework to deal with safe disposal of e-waste but its impact has been limited. For instance, the legal responsibility on smartphone manufacturers to help in waste management hardly works in practice. This perhaps explains why the informal sector handles most of the e-waste. Given the link between human health and e-waste disposal there is an urgent case for government to regulate an effective upgrade of the recycling ecosystem. It will save healthcare costs and improve quality of life.