Environment and Health Implications of E-wastes and Its Management

S. Mohammed Ghouse et al., IJSID, 2011, 1 (3), 16-25

International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries, Volume 1, Issue 3, November-December 2011

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ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF E-WASTES AND ITS MANAGEMENT

Dr.S.Mohammed Ghouse1* Dr.Silar Mohammed1, S.Masood Ahmed1, Dr.Mansoor Rehman1, M.Jafarullah Baig1,

Meer Altaf Ahmed1 , S.Gulam Hussain1, Prof. P. Indira2

1Osmania College (NAAC Accredt–A Grade), Kurnool, A.P, India; 2Head of dept. of Zoology, S.K.University, Anantapur, A.P, India

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

ISSN:2249-5347 IJSID

International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries An International peer

Review Journal for Science

Review Article Available online through www.ijsidonline.info

Received: 13.09.2011

Modified: 06.10.2011

Published: 29.12.2011

*Corresponding Author

Address:

Name:

Dr.S. Mohammed Ghouse

Place:

Kurnool, AP, India

E-mail:

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Human civilization witnessed rapid changes from time to time with the

technological advancements. E wastes are becoming the primary concern due to

their health hazards and environment pollution. E wastes consist of electronic

goods which are not fit for their originally intended use and irreparable which

includes TVs, computers, washing machines, mobile phones etc. Global e waste is

about 40 million tons a year. In developing countries availability of cheap labour,

profitability in the recycling process lure the non formal sectors to import e

waste. China banned the import of e waste from developed countries in 2000, but

due to improper laws most of the waste material from the developed countries

ends here. Basel Convention draft is to reduce and minimize, reuse and recycle

the hazardous waste European countries ratified the ban against e waste exports

through Basel Convention. With advancement of science and technology

particularly in the last fifty years the life span of man is increased drastically i.e.

68 in the world, but in India it is 62 years, but the quality of life is severely

affected by pollutants. Most of e waste is kept in the house hold because most of

them do not know how to handle it. Whenever they are disposing the e waste, it

must be separated from the other municipality solid wastes. Reduce, Reuse,

Recycle, Recover and Reassemble slogan is catchy, but its implementation save

the planet biodiversity and us.

Keywords: Human civilization, E wastes, developing countries, cheap labour,

quality of life, save, biodiversity



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INTRODUCTION

World scenario

Global e-waste is about 40 million tons a year. Electronic industry is adding growth of the economy as it is a

fastest growing industry by 2020.

E waste production in different countries

America: 3 billion tons of e-waste a year

China: 2.3 billion tones of e waste per year (science daily feb23-2010)

One of the fastest growing industries in the world is electronics. Nowadays mobiles and computers are

commonly used gadgets. Globally 20 t0 50 million tons of e waste is generated every year (Green Peace) United

States of America and Britain are dumping huge amount of to Asia. First world countries produce twice the e waste

of developed countries. ( Science daily-2010).Hundreds of thousands of computers and mobile phones and other

electronic appliances are discarded by the developing countries like United states of America Japan, .Europe and

other industrialized countries , many of them find their way to landfills and the remaining are shipped to Asia

(green peace international). United States of America dumps around 30

Million Computers a year. For the developed countries India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, and

African countries like Ghana, Kenya have become the popular destinations of e waste disposal.

China banned the import of e waste from developed countries in 2000, but due to improper laws most of

the waste material from the developed countries ends here. China alone produces 1 million tons of e waste

annually. Britain dumps around 25,000 tons of e waste into South Asia. Asia alone is estimated to produce 12

million tons of e wastes a year. (Asian times 2006). ).In Uganda with the agreement with Microsoft secondary PC s

are available to small and medium sized entrepreneurs (UNIDO JULY 2006) In Uganda recycling facilities are less,

plastics , ferrous metals , aluminum are recycled , the remaining recycling is not available so they are dumped to

Asian countries. In Bangladesh more than 155 of child labourers die as a result of e waste recycling in a unhealthy

manner. Bangladesh has generated 10,504 metric tons of e waste. There are no manufacturers of TVs in

Bangladesh, only assembling.( Case study on e waste, Bangladesh situation 2010). In developing countries the

recycling of e waste is done because recycling of copper, gold, iron etc from e waste is more profitable than mining,

the same quantity from their ore. A cell phone contains 5-9 times gold than its ore.

Basel Convention:

It is a global environment treaty. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 1987 took first step

to solve the problem of disposal of hazardous waste from developed countries to developing countries, as the

developing countries are not equipped with machinery, skills to recycle. The Basel Convention signed by 116

nations was an effort of UNEP in 1987 in Hungary. 97 countries ratified the convention and began its

implementation. Basel Convention draft is to reduce and minimize, reuse and recycle the hazardous waste

European countries ratified the ban against e waste exports through Basel Convention. . United States of America



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has signed the convention but not ratified it, with a loop hole to export the e waste to developing countries. Most of

the e waste is dumped in China. The convention aims in introducing a system for controlling the export and import

and disposal of hazardous waste to protect the human health and environment. The Basel Convention came into

force in 1992.The basal convention prevents generation, management of Trans-boundary movement and disposal

of hazardous and other waste. In European countries it came into force in 7 Feb. 1994, as per the Basel Convention

act of European nations movement of waste from one place to another is authorized where there is no danger to

their movement and disposal. Movement of waste material must be labeled with international rules with proper

documentation. A company cannot export e waste if the importing country has banned it. If the exporting country

knows that importing country does not have the machinery to handle it in a scientific manner, it should stop

exporting.

Indian scenario:

In India advances in information technology, industry and communication lead to the use of many

electronic gadgets like the computers, mobiles and home appliances etc in day to day lives. E waste is emerging

problem in India and the world. India is a vast country with a population of 1.21 billons. In India approximately 1,

50,000 tons of e waste is generated annually. Due to poor legislation and poor awareness among the people,

availability of cheap labour, e waste is dumped into the developing countries like India, which compounds the

problem further (Toxic link, 2000).Some educational institutions, charitable organizations receive used computers

from the business sectors. The growth rate of mobile handsets is very high when compared to Personal Computer

sand Televisions. India with strict negotiations with United States of America is importing approximately 40.000

tons of e waste every month with 80% residuals having some life left. (Asian times 2006).India has no specific law

to ban the import of e waste, but we have a court order, which bans the import the all hazardous materials. (Asian

times 2006). The import of e waste is governed by the amended hazardous waste (management) and handling

rules of Ministry of Environment and Forests. Ten states generate 70% of e wastes in India. Life of electronic

products in a small city like Kurnool the former capital of Andhra Pradesh

Table 1

Product Upper income class Lower income group

Computers 5.64 YEARS 8.56 YEARS

Televisions 3.6O YEARS 5.11 YEARS

Mobile phones 1.54 YEARS 3.12 YEARS

(Study by Dr.Ghouse and Venkata swamy in 2011)

Production of e waste in different states of India in 2007 is approximately:

Maharashtra 202770.59 metric tons

Tamilanadu 13486.24 metric tons

Andhra Pradesh 12780.33 metric tons



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Uttar Pradesh 10381.11 metric tons

West Bengal 100059.36 metric tons

Delhi 9729.15 metric tons

Karnataka 9118.74 metric tons

Gujarat 8994.33 metric tons

Madhya Pradesh 7800.62 metric tons

Punjab 6958.46 metric tons

Courtesy: International journal of Energy and Environment

The cost of recycling of a computer in United States of America costs 20 $, but in India it costs only 2 $

(Elucina 2009). Nowadays the recycling of e waste in America is not viable because the cost of labour is high, the

recovery of precious metals from the automatic machines is less, they need the manual labour for the separation of

components of e products which is a costly affair,. In developing countries availability of cheap labour, profitability

in the recycling process lure the non formal sectors to import e waste. Non formal sectors employ child and women

labourers from poor sections of the society; most of them don’t have the idea of labour rights and health impacts of

e waste recycling. Non formal sector process around 95% of the e-waste.

Steps Taken by the Indian Government For The Management Of E Waste:

• Indian government has taken the following steps for the management of e waste. The import of e waste is

governed by the amended hazardous waste (management) and handling rules of Ministry of Environment and

Forests. Various workshops by the central pollution control board and technical guide on environment

anagement for information technology initiative India. India is working very hardly to minimize the import

and environmentally friendly recycling of e waste. In India Eco- Reco, authorized e waste recycler in Mumbai,

collects the e waste across the India and recycle it in a environmentally friendly manner in association with

industries like State Bank of India, CASTROL etc , E parisra, and trishyiraya of Bangalore and Tamilanadu

comes under this category. Authorized recyclers recycle around 5% of e waste only.

Health Implications:

With advancement of science and technology particularly in the last fifty years the life span of man is

increased drastically i.e. 68 in the world, but in India it is 62 years, but the quality of life is severely affected by

pollutants, which includes e waste. E waste includes 60 percent of metals like iron, copper, gold, aluminum and 30

percent of plastics and approximately 2.7% of hazardous pollutants (Widmer et.al 2005). Land filling of e-waste

can lead to the leaching of Lead into the ground water. Acid sludge causes the acidification of soil derived from

melting of computer chips. This is a threat to biodiversity

Computers contain hundreds of chemicals including lead, mercury, cadmium, brominated flame retardants,

poly vinyl chloride. Many of them are carcinogenic, cause respiratory, reproductive problems. They can travel to



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long distances through air , water and accumulate in our bodies and environment. The release of e waste from

households along with the other solid wastes results in adverse effect on our health and his environment.

Table 2: Effects of E-Waste constituent on health

E waste policy and regulation:

• Facilitation and development of infrastructure for environmental friendly recycling process

• The policy should extend the responsibility of the producer from production to recycling, financially, physically

and legally.

• The import of the e waste from the developed or from other countries should be banned or strictly monitored.

• The disposal of e waste along with other solid waste from households should be monitored.

• In E-waste management, NGOs (non-government organizations), experts from industries should form e waste

recycling agency periodically monitored by the government.

• Take back policy by the manufacturers.

• Creating the awareness of ill effects of e waste among the public by the way of seminars, advertisement in

media etc

Source of e-wastes Constituent Health effects

Solder in printed circuit boards, glass panels and gaskets in

computer monitors Lead (PB)

• Damage to central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems and kidney damage.

• Affects brain development of children.

Chip resistors and semiconductors

Cadmium (CD)

• Toxic irreversible effects on human health. • Accumulates in kidney and liver. • Causes neural damage. • Teratogenic.

Relays and switches, printed circuit boards

Mercury (Hg) • Chronic damage to the brain. • Respiratory and skin disorders due to

bioaccumulation in fishes.

Corrosion protection of untreated and galvanized steel plates, decorator or hardner for

steel housings

Hexavalent chromium (Cr) VI

• Asthmatic bronchitis. • DNA(Deoxy ribonucleic acid) damage.

Cabling and computer housing Plastics including

PVC(poly vinyl chloride)

Burning produces dioxin. It causes • Reproductive and developmental problems; • Immune system damage; • Interfere with regulatory hormones

Plastic housing of electronic equipments and circuit boards.

Brominated flame retardants

• Disrupts endocrine system functions

Front panel of CRTs (Cathode ray tubes)

Barium (Ba) Short term exposure causes:

• Muscle weakness; • Damage to heart, liver and spleen.

Motherboard Beryllium (Be)

• Carcinogenic (lung cancer) • Inhalation of fumes and dust. Causes chronic

beryllium disease or beryllicosis. • Skin diseases such as warts.



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• Encouragement of scientific recycling agencies by providing subsidies.

• Establishment of collection centre’s of e waste by the manufacturers along with NGO s and other private

organizations.

• Separation of e waste from the other solid waste from households should be encouraged by creating awareness

among the public.

E Waste Management Stratergies:

• Usable parts of many discarded computers, TVs, mobile phones etc., can be reassembled in to workable

products. Re use of electronics

• Apple completely eliminated the use of cathode ray tube technology and adopted l LCD (Liquid crystal display)

which reduces lead content in laptops from 484 grams to 1 gram and their life span is doubled.

• Switzerland uses e waste collection points. Going green increases awareness among the people(International

journal of Environment and Waste management feb-2008)

• Products take back by the manufacturer.

• Greater attention for new product design.

• Extended Producer Responsibility

• Consumers should choose environmentally friendly products.

• Buy back of old electronic goods by the manufacturers.

• Establishment of e waste collection centres, recycling centres should be encouraged with the manufacturer,

government organizations, NGOs with private voluntary organizations.

• Company should take back the responsibility of their products throughout their life cycle.

• Imposing the strict legislation may result in the formation of new e waste recycling industries, new jobs etc

• Most of the e waste recycling involves small entrepreneurs who are widespread, many in number and their

regulation is very hard.

• Use of recycled plastics.

• Proper skilled training of persons involved in e waste recycling should be encouraged.

• E waste management not only depends on the product manufacturers, local government, and recycling

agencies but also on the consumers. Their participation is promoted.

• Awareness of health and environmental hazards of e waste should be created among the citizens.

• Employment of unemployed youth in e waste recycling process by providing them the skilled training of

environmental friendly methods.

• Manufacturers of electronic goods should minimize the use of hazardous materials in their products.

• Products of long life, up gradation and applicability should be designed.

• Product testing should be done by the manufacturers before releasing it in to the market, so that rejection,

repair of the product is minimized.



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• Sustainable product design. for example production of thinner computer without separate monitor and cp, thin

and touch screen mobiles.

• Biopolymers may be used in the place of plastics in the manufacture of electronic products.

• E products that can be upgraded by the manufacturer may be encouraged for example; a TV may be used for

internet browsing and storage of some data by using memory card or inbuilt memory.

• Regulation and strict implementation of laws for proper handling of bulk e waste.

• E regulatory agencies should be set up at the village level under the authority of district officer.

• Encouragement of R&D (Research and development) separately in the handling of e waste.

Responsibilities of the manufacturer:

• Up gradation of machinery techniques to minimize the release of waste during the manufacture of e products.

• Qualified, trained and skilled personnel should be involved in the handling of hazardous e waste.

• Manufacturer, distributor and retailer should take the responsibility of recycling / disposal of the e waste, for

example Nokia is collecting used phones in their Nokia care service centres.

• Manufacturers must educate the consumers not only about their product efficiency but also hazardous material

present in it and also after its life who should they should handed over safely.

• Children and women (pregnant women) should not be allowed to work in the handling of e-waste.

• Manufacture of universal adaptor or battery charger will reduce the use of many adapters for charging

different electronic items.

Role of citizens:

• Most of e waste is kept in the house hold because most of them do not know how to handle it. Whenever they

are disposing the e waste, it must be separated from the other municipality solid wastes.

• House hold computers, other electronic appliances can be donated to low income groups, for example

computers to school.

• While selecting a pp e product the product which is energy efficient, and with long life should be chosen.

• Citizens must choose those products which have collection centres after the expiry of their life.

• E products with take back offer should be encouraged.

Recycling:

• 75% of the e waste is unusable. According to the environmental protection agency statistics 2007out of the

2.25 million tons of TVs , mobiles, computers and other electronics appliances only 18% (414,000 tons) are

recycled and 82% 1.84 million tons was disposed in landfills . Dumps around 23.000 metric tons of e waste to

India, China and Africa.

• It is possible to segregate and dismantle the e waste in environmentally sound manner without harming the

human, other living organisms and environment. In India most of the recycling is done in with bare hands by

non formal sectors by using hammers and screwdrivers. Recycling of e waste is a costly affair in developed



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countries, so it finds its way to developing countries like India where cheap labour is available. Cadmium

obtained from the mobile battery is enough to pollute 600m3 of water (Trick-2002).The e waste which does not

have reuse value is burnt openly, there by contaminating the air with the pollutants. Capacitors are burnt in

open air on charcoal to get gold. Lack of a safe e waste recycling infra structure in the formal sector.

• In non formal sectors the recycling of 95-97% of the plastics, glass except the PCBS (Printer circuit boards)

and connectors should be done by the non formal sectors by the way of segregation and dismantling. The PCBs

should be sold to the formal recyclers for the recovery of precious metals like gold, silver, and palladium, to the

maximum extent. PCBs consist of 3-5 % of total e waste which contains valuable metals like gold, which should

be processed by the formal sector. In India the formal sector agencies can be counted on fingers, where as the

non formal sector is widely spread it is very difficult to regulate.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover and Reassemble:

The above theme appears to be very catchy, but coming to its implementation level it is too low. Regarding

the e waste, the use of hazardous material should be reduced, so that recycling process is not time consuming and

environment friendly. Most of the e waste is recycled by the non formal sectors in developing countries by using

cheaply available manual labour .the PCBS, Connectors which is about 3-5% of the e waste and hazardous

containing precious, valuable metals is recycled by the non formal sectors in a unhealthy manner involving women

and children, but it must be done by the formal sectors scientifically.

The plastics and other recycled products can be used again in the manufacture of new products which

minimize the health hazards and environmental pollution to a larger extent. Recovered parts of e waste which have

some Life should be segregated and assembled in to usable product that can be sold in the secondary market

CONCLUSION

The survival of the biodiversity and ourselves on the planet depends upon the environment, which we are

polluting knowingly, unknowingly. E waste are nowadays causing so many health implications and harm to

biodiversity polluting our environment, so it is time to wake up and implement the Basel Convention guidelines

strictly so that the problem of hazardous e waste can be reduced. Governments and manufacturers along with

private corporate sectors should work efficiently to minimize the e waste and to recycle it in a healthy manner As a

citizens it is our duty to select the products having long life and less hazardous materials. Further study and

research is required in the above work to minimize the use of hazardous waste material and scientific recycling.

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