The facts are now well established: electrical and electronic waste is currently the largest growing waste stream globally and China is now the world's biggest e-waste dumping ground. And a recent report in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reconfirms that the e-waste threat to Asia is spreading rapidly beyond the known danger zones - China and India. Unless governments wake up and begin to draw up effective measures to contain the threat, the situation might go completely out of control and land us in a big environmental mess.
In a detailed study published last year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that about 40 million tonnes of e-waste is being produced globally every year and only 13 per cent of it is recycled in a proper manner. The rest finds its way to developing countries where millions of workers are engaged in informal recycling to recover whatever valuables they can from it to be sold back in the marketplace for profit. Nobody seems to care even though the practice is extremely hazardous to health and the environment.
According to United Nations data reported last April, about 70 per cent of all e-waste produced globally every year now ends up in China, where the coastal town of Guiyu in the southern province of Guangdong has come to be known as the world's e-waste graveyard. Some 5,500 businesses have sprouted there with over 150,000 people engaged in dismantling discarded computers, cell phones, and other electronics. Its roads are lined with huge bundles of waste and its dust is contaminated with high levels of copper, zinc, nickel, and lead. These harmful materials get into human bodies, food, and crops in many different ways.
But there are other Guiyus in the making that are not so well known. The Dawn report describes how Shershah in Karachi has emerged as Pakistan's major e-waste market, where all sorts of electronic and electrical goods and spare parts arrive by sea and land for sale or further distribution to other Pakistani cities. India has its Seelampur (outside Delhi), Moore Markets (in Chennai), and the slums of Mumbai, while other lesser-known ghettos have started to emerge in countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia.
What compounds the danger is that Asia is not only at the receiving end of global e-waste but is rapidly becoming a major e-waste producer itself. As affluence spreads through the region and sales of new electronics and electrical gadgets explode, the waste burden will continue to grow heavier. The ILO report predicts that, by 2018, more personal computers will be discarded in developing countries than in the developed world. By 2020, China would be generating 200 per cent to 400 per cent more e-waste from old computers than in 2007, while India will be producing 500 per cent more by then.
Governments need to act and act soon. Though the Basel Convention prohibits the export of e-waste and countries such as China have initiated laws to regulate e-waste imports, obviously they aren't working. India introduced a law in May last year that requires all collection centres, refurbishers to be registered and licensed. But is it being enforced? The ILO report regrets "there is a general lack of legislation or enforcement surrounding it" and points out that most e-waste is still being discarded in the general waste stream.
This can't be stopped unless a strict system of scientific recycling and an effective collection system are in place, and regular campaigns are held to make people aware of how and where they can get rid of their electronic junk. Private companies are increasingly coming into the picture, but people don't know who they are, where are they located, or how can one reach them. In some locations, e-waste collection bins have been established in public places but are hardly used because not many know of their existence. Lack of information is surely a major hindrance in the fight against e-waste.
At the same time, we need to pressure electronics manufacturers themselves to assume a greater recycling role. Japan encourages manufacturers to voluntarily help recycle goods. South Korea demands manufacturers to recycle 75 per cent of their annual production. Given the seriousness of the problem, producer responsibility should be more widely enforced, and New York provides a good example of how government intervention can make a difference.
Two years ago, New York passed a comprehensive law requiring manufacturers to create and finance a system collecting, transporting, and processing old electronics. As a result, over 44 million pounds of scrap electronics were collected in the first year alone. Since then, volumes have risen substantially and so have the number of recycling sites. One now waits to see the fate of the "Responsible Electronics Recycling Act" introduced last July in the US House of Representatives, banning e-waste dumping overseas by American companies, which should stimulate the recycling industry in the world's biggest e-waste breeding ground.
rbarun@gmail.com
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper