Dealing with E-Waste

By Himani Gandhi

There is a need for electronics consumers to become conscious users of their gadgets, and for the govt to take a more proactive role in ensuring that e-waste is recycled under proper international guidelines.

Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a term for electronic products that have become unwanted, non-working or obsolete, and have essentially reached the end of their useful life.

Enter the narrow and congested lanes of Seelampur in North-East Delhi, and you are greeted by a strong, pungent smell of burnt aluminium and metal. It’s almost unbearable for “outsiders” to breathe in this area but there’s no sign of discomfort on the faces of the people on the streets, those who lean against the wall on the pavement or sit amid a pile of metal scrap. The “insiders” have become immune to the odour and care little about the health hazards that hang over their heads. These insiders work amid the same dump of metal scrap that reeks of chemicals.

As much as 90% of e-waste in the country is dismantled and recycled in unorganized hubs like Seelampur in Delhi and Andheri in Mumbai, where the efficiency of extracting metals is extremely poor due to lack of equipment and unskilled staff, according to a research by the Centre for Science and Environment.

With this increasing interest and concern about how to best deal with our electronic leftovers here are three of the best ways to get rid of them.

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        Buy-Back

The one way to deal with the problem is to see if anyone wants to buy your old tech toys.

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        Taking Back the Junk

This is probably the simplest program but it requires that the stores you deal with have a take-back program. In the majority of cases you won’t receive any money in exchange for your old equipment.

   

   Recycling those old electronic goodies

This is probably the one method of getting rid of our old electronics that is the most fraught with problems. While recycling old electronics may seem like the best way to deal with the problem it is also as we saw in the 60 Minutes show the one with the most potential to cause a lot of harm – both to people and the environment.