How Electronic Waste impacts our Environment? - Facts & Figures

[Sneha Gill]

We all talk about global warming, marine pollution, climate issues & biological pollutants from time to time. But, rarely do we see electronic waste issues among the top atmospheric troubles being discussed worldwide. Though the issues we talk or hear about have also not been solved yet. But, the question is, ‘how e-waste affects human life and poses great threat to future generations?’  Are we all aware of this truth?   

While going through an article online (referring to United Nations Environmental Program) I came across the horrendous figure of 40 million metric tons i.e. the supposed amount of e-waste being produced globally every year. 60-80 percent of it is handled by China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines, while Guiyu (a town in China) is the largest site for e waste recycling in world.

The electronic waste is dismantled in Guiyu to extract metals that are hazardous to human health. A study has found that 80% of its children are affected with the presence of lead in their blood. There are various damages that can lead to a human body like brain hurt, numbness, fertility problems and low growth in children etc.

This is just a small preview of how dangerous e-waste can prove to our environment. The changes that it makes to our surroundings by adding devastating matter to atmosphere tend to damage soil, air, water, animals, humans and everything around us.

My purpose of sharing the hazardous impacts of electronic waste is not to glorify the figures but to spread the word that we need to be equally considerate about its aftereffects like we are doing about other environmental issues.

Technology has become an inseparable part of us, so tossing it away once and for all is not the solution. But, what else? If not this then how the environmental problem can be brought to light and solved at grass-roots level.

Share your views and possible solutions on this issue, so that it can contribute in spreading awareness about current scenario of e-waste in the world. 

[Jaideep]

Interesting and shocking..

[Apoorva Gadre]

Hello All,

My team works especially for Solid waste management for the Government of Goa; and we are currently looking at options for safe disposal of e-waste lying across the State of Goa. Please rely to this thread in case anyone wishes to take this forward from this point. We would like to know the emails of people who have put their comments in the thread below. You can also drop a mail to [e-mail]

[Upasana Choudhry]

Electronic waste indeed is a fast growing issue and hence requires adequate attention. Managing e-waste requires a shared responsibility - the responsibility of consumers to discard their electronic waste appropriately, the responsibility of government to provide adequate infrastructure and the responsibility of manufacturers to manage the treatment and recycling of their products. Recyclers are another important stakeholder in proper handling and processing e-waste; NGOs in raising awareness and so on. Another important point to remember about e-waste is that 'it has value" and more so the reason why appropriate solutions need to be devised.

[Ankita Jena]

It is an extremely useful piece of information and there has been a lot of work done on ewaste in India. I am working with Toxics Link, an environmental NGO who pioneered the work on ewaste in India and it is because of our efforts that we have separate Ewaste Rules 2011 in the country.

A lot of research on quantity, informal sector and their rudimentary ways of recycling, illegal dumping of ewaste has been done... We would love to share information if any one is interested

[shailendra kumar yadav]

This nice work and if there have any plan to together work on that than ma and my organisation is ready to work on it because we already have done some work on it