E-Waste A Damocles’ Sword

Consumer electronics like smart phones, e-books, laptops, MP3 players and televisions, game consoles and wireless devices have enhanced the lives of the people. But what do you do when these ‘life-made-easy’ items breakdown or become obsolete? Discard them carelessly!

Of the total e-waste generated in India, one third of it is from mobile phones alone and this is set to rise steeply in the coming years. India’s yearly e-waste generation is growing at the rate of 15 per cent and is expected to cross 800,000 tones or even more in the years to come.

Apart from the e-waste generated within the country, a large junk of e-waste comes to India annually from developed nations under the pretext of reuse. A great percentage of this makes its way to unsafe and unauthorized dumping yards posing grave health and environmental risks. And with fast emerging technology, growing consumerism along with perceived obsolescence and planned obsolescence, managing e-waste will be a herculean task in the coming years.

Have you noticed how some electronic goods die as soon as the warranty ends? Well, this may not be a coincidence but a planned obsolescence to compel us to buy a brand new product as the component to be replaced would be nearly as costly as the new product. If planned obsolescence is the handiwork of companies, perceived obsolescence is purely one’s own making. It is all about our perception of things and styles which makes a product trendy and ‘cool.

When electronics are handled and sorted properly, e-waste is a valuable source of secondary raw materials. It is estimated that out of the 53 million tons of electronic waste generated worldwide in 2009 only about 13 per cent of it was recycled.

As young Indians we need to become continually conscious of the colossal catastrophe that is looming over our environment. If we don’t care for the environment and address the problem today, our planet can become a hazardous and poisonous dumpyard for e-waste. If we don’t check our rush for digital-media frenzy consumerism and if we don’t recognise the connect between our digital media desire and environmental impact, they could undo our very existence one day.

Let us not forget that every time we discard an electronic product on account of it not being trendy or because of our laziness to replace an obsolete part, we are slowly getting under the Damocles’ sword of e-waste. Pull the plug on e-waste before it pulls the plug on us. Reduce, reuse, recycle!