WHAT GOES AROUND , COMES AROUND : E-WASTE

When we get rid of our electronic waste , we often think about where it will end up. I am sure we all are guilty of keeping our old cameras , latops , mobiles , television and other electonic products hoping to do something good with them but eventually we just give them to the rag pickers . However , when you actually consider the damage one CRT television or monitor can do to our environment , wildlife and health , we might think again before sending your e-waste to landfill . Electronic industry is the world s largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry. Rapid growth combined with rapid product obsolescence and discarded electronics is now fastest growing waste stream in the industrialized world . Solid waste management , which is already a mammoth task in India and is becoming more complicated by the invasion of e- waste , particularly computer waste. E waste from developed countries find and easy way into developing countries in the name of free trade. India has a large middle class ready market and a high rate of illegal imports of electronic goods , which are taking over the branded electronic gadgets and gizmos. One of todays most ubiquitous electronic gadgets is the cell phone; where there is no validated evidence to suggest the persistence use of cell phones will trigger brain tumours and other health related problemsindeed it houses a lot of stuff like copper , gold , lead, nickel , antimony , zinc etc. Once trashed a cell phone travel to the local landfill where its compacted , smashed , crunched or burned. At this moment there are more than a billion computers worldwide. 200 million television were sold in 2009 alone, 8 billion dashtop and 110 million digitial cameras were sold in 2009. Apple blew out 20 million ipods in just the first quarter of that same year. Clearly this are staggering figure and certainly more proof as if we needed it-that we live in a disposable society . Now we dumped our bulky energy sucking CRT television . We then jumped on the flat panel band wagon , but soon there after we discovered the joys of true 1080 HD ( high definition ). And many of us changed over yet again . Now, for better or worse , there is 3D TV. Now think about the length of the time you keep any of your modern

electronics before you give them up , either because they are broken or more likely because they have been supplemented by something faster or better. A continuing rise in the rate of waste production is no longer acceptable hazardous waste affects the health of millions of people and poisons large areas of our planet. In many places people live surrounded by garbage and landfills. It is essential that governments and corporations face up to waste, using what we know about reduction, recycling and reuse, but also developing new technologies that eliminate waste. Waste is a crisis of our own doing, (the result of a collision between rising living standards and insufficiently regulated capitalism). It is becoming more and more diffi cult to just run faster, catch up and solve the problem. There are just too many of us, producing too much waste. It must start with acceptance of responsibility for waste, whether we are consumers or manufacturers. Once this happens the next step is anticipation. The eventual fate of every product must be anticipated at the outset, costed, and this cost built into the production process and/or the life of the product. Finally it requires a co-ordinated series of legislative measures, research funding and public education, and the development of public-private partnerships that can bring additional technical and financial resources and innovative solutions to the 21st century challenges.

- Pronoti Sinha - BA III Year - ( Economics Hons.)