The Common Effluent Treatment Plan (CETP) was introduced to deal with the effluent in the SSI sector, in the hope that not only would it help in pollution abatement but would also be a step towards a cleaner environment. This-much hyped “solution” has failed because of the heterogeneous nature of the effluent from different industries. It has only compounded the toxic content to larger volumes. In addition, with the changing nature of effluents, many toxic substances have found their way into the waste stream. With the growing pace of industrialisation, CETP is unable to cater to the need of the industrial clusters, which has resulted in bypassing the treatment and directly discharging the untreated effluent in water bodies. There is a need to take an integrated approach to environmental resource use and consumption. We should be careful not to create a new problem while addressing old ones or shift the problems from one sector to another.
When you consider that the electronics industry is the fastest growing manufacturing industry, it is not surprising that discarded electronic waste is the fastest growing stream of waste in industrialised countries. The way these countries deal with this problem is to unethically export such e-waste to developing countries such as India, China and Pakistan, thereby shifting the onus of development to communities that are ill-equipped to deal with such waste. E-waste contains over 1,000 different substances and chemicals, many of which are toxic and are likely to create serious problems for the environment and human health if not handled properly. However, classification of e-waste as hazardous, or otherwise, depends on the amount of hazardous constituents present in it. The rapid obsolescence of electronics goods, compounded by dumping from developed countries, has brought the e-waste problem in India to the brink of spilling over into an acute crisis.
Toxic e-waste patterns in Chennai underline the fact that the IT industry and the government need to take immediate steps to curb this menace before it overwhelms the city. Electronic waste, or e-waste as it is popularly called, is a collective terminology for the entire stream of electronic wastes such as used TVs, refrigerators, computers, mobile phones, etc. Computer waste is the most significant of all e-waste due to the gigantic amounts as well as the rate at which it is generated. E-waste is of particular concern to India. According to a report on the Indian IT Sector by Radha Gopalan, the rate of obsolescence of computers in India is 2% per week, that is, in 50 weeks time the value of the computer is effectively zero. To take stock of the scenario of e-waste, especially computer waste, Toxics Link conducted a pioneering study in and around Delhi. Fearing that the findings could just be a tip of an iceberg, Toxics Link has decided to conduct a similar study in South India.
Even as the Central Pollution Control Body seeks feedback on the draft guidelines on e-waste management in the country, Delhi-based Toxics Link has released a pioneering study mapping the e-waste scenario in Kolkata, revealing that not only is the city fast joining other metros in e-waste generation, but is also emerging as a major centre for hazardous e-waste recycling in its residential areas that is being imported from overseas apart from other parts of India. The study titled: “E-waste: Flooding the city of joy”, places the figure of e-waste generation in Kolkata at 9,000 tonnes annually. This only includes the waste generated from computers, television sets and refrigerators, implying that the figure is much higher if washing machines, cellphones, music players, compact disc/DVD players etc are also added. For more information please write us at info@toxicslink.org
