E-Waste Management with respect to Indian Scenario

E-Waste Management with respect to Indian Scenario

Next >

Narendra Sukhdevrao Naik*, Dr. Arif Khan**

* Environmental Engineering Department; Nuva College of Engineering & Technology Nagpur ,India

** Environmental Engineering Department ;Nuva College of Engineering & Technology Nagpur ,India

Abstract- The electronic industry is the worlds largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry in the world. The increasing market penetration in developing countries, replacement market in developed countries and high obsolescence rate of electrical and electronic goods make electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) one of the fastest growing waste streams. E-waste is valuable source for secondary raw material but harmful if treated and discarded improperly as it contains many toxic components such as lead, cadmium, mercury, polychlorinated biphenlys etc.

Electronic waste or e-waste refers to unwanted, obsolete or unusable electronic and electrical products. Ever increasing usage of electronics and electrical equipments has resulted in piling up of e-waste. The current practices of e-waste management in India encounters many challenges like the difficulty in inventorization, ineffective regulations, pathetic and unsafe conditions of informal recycling, poor awareness of consumers and reluctance on part of the stakeholders to address the issues. In this paper case study of E-Waste management in India and using some efficient methods for E- Waste Management Like RRR.& E-waste contains a good amount of valuable recyclable materials also and has potential to become lucrative business in the country.

Keywords- E-Waste, Recycling, Electronic, Reuse, Hazardous,Househlod, Landfilling, Equipments, Environmentally Sound Management.

I. INTRODUCTION

E-waste is the popular name for discarded electrical and electronic equipment with all of their peripherals at the end of their life. E-waste comprises of wastes generated from used electronic devices and household appliances which are not fit for their original intended use and are destined for recovery, recycling or disposal. Such wastes encompasses wide range of electrical and electronic devices such as computers, hand held cellular phones, personal stereos, including large household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners etc.

The electronic industry is the worlds largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry in the world. The increasing market penetration in developing countries, replacement market in developed countries and high obsolescence rate of electrical and electronic goods make electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) one of the fastest growing waste streams. E-waste is valuable source for secondary raw material but harmful if treated and discarded improperly as it contains many toxic components such as lead, cadmium, mercury, polychlorinated biphenlys etc. (Bandyopadhyay, 2010).

The quantity of e-waste generated in developed countries equals 1% of total solid waste on an average and is expected

to grow to 2% by 2010 (UNEP Manual, 2007).In United States alone, 1,30,000 computers and 3,00,000 cell phones are trashed each day (Anderson,

2010).The developed countries use most of the worlds electronic products and generate most of the E-waste (Basel Action Network, 2002). Rather than treat e-waste in an environmentally friendly manner, the developed countries are finding an easy way out of the problem by exporting these wastes to developing economies especially, South Asian countries (Basel Action Network, 2002).

The import of e-waste to the developing countries is in violation of the ban imposed by Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, as e-waste come under the definition of hazardous waste (Basel Convention 1992).Following this, our country, a party to the convention, banned the import of hazardous waste including e-waste into the country. But a major source of e- waste in India is illegal imports (Sathish, 2006).

(Fig.1 E-Waste Scenario)

The major portion of the e-waste generated domestically as well as illegally imported are recycled in crude manner leading to pollution of the environment. Lack of legislation in our country at present is aiding this hazardous form of recycling. Therefore there is urgent need to frame and implement rules for regulating this waste and to find

environmentally sound, economically viable methods for recycling and disposing of this necessary evil.

The necessity of environmentally sound management of e- waste is brought out with the help of a case study of uncontrolled dumping of e-waste.

1.1 E-WASTE-1.2 MAJOR SOURCES-3.1 COMPONENTS OF E-WASTE-3.2 COMPOSITION OF E-WASTE-METHODOLOGY FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND MANAGEMENT OF E-WASTE4.2 Assessment of Hazardousness of E-waste-4.3 RECYCLING, REUSE AND RECOVERY OPTIONS-(i) Dismantling(iii) Refurbishment and reuse5.1 Landfilling-5.2 Incineration-

Next >