Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
goals is to maximize proits. Notwithstanding the foregoing statements, there are
several legitimate companies in India that recycle E-waste. Among these legitimate
enterprises are Info Trek, Trishyiraya, e-Parisara, Ultrust Solutions, and Ramky.
India generates about 150,000 tons of E-waste annually. Almost all of this E-waste
presently ends up in the hands of those who work in the informal sector, because
organized alternatives are not available (TERI 2006 ). Metropolitan Indian cities,
such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, have centers where E-wastes are stockpiled.
Such stockpiles have risks of their own. According to a study conducted by Toxic
Links (Pandve 2007 ), Mumbai City generates 19,000 ton of E-waste, which is incre-
mental to the large amounts that are clandestinely imported. The large volume of
E-waste generation, coupled with uncontrolled disposal practices, pose grave envi-
ronmental and health risks to Mumbai City, because of its dense population and
spatial character (Urban Hazards 2010 ). The Karnataka State Pollution Control
Board admits to the generation of 10,000 ton/month of E-waste, chiely in Bangalore.
The risk such waste and its disposal has to the environment and to public health in
the Indian Silicon city has been noted (Shy et al. 2009 ).
The clandestine import of E-waste to developing countries has greatly aggra-
vated the E-waste exposure problem. The E-waste trade is controlled by the Basel
Convention (Electronic Waste 2009 ). However, E-waste is sent for processing,
sometimes illegally, to several countries: China, Malaysia, India, Kenya, and other
African countries. Examples of important E-waste processing areas are Guiyu in the
Shantou region of China, and Delhi and Bangalore in India (Nnorom and Osibanjo
2008 ). There are several reasons as to why these countries are selected by exporters,
including the following: they have inadequate environmental or industry-labor rela-
tions standards, cheap labor, and relatively high proit margins for recovered raw
materials for those involved in E-waste trading. Because the USA neither has rati-
ied the Basel Convention nor has domestic laws forbidding the export of toxic
E-waste, a large part of its E-waste is directed overseas for recycling, according to
estimates of the Basel Action Network (Electronic Waste 2009 ). The Basel
Convention (formally called the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes) is an international treaty designed to reduce the
movement of hazardous E-waste between nations, and speciically to prevent trans-
fer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). The
Basel Convention speciically excluded the movement of radioactive waste
(Electronic Waste 2009 ). The Convention terms are intended to do the following:
Minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated
Ensure that environmentally safe management practices are followed in LDCs
similar to those that exist at the source of generation
Assist LDCs to implement environmentally safe management practices for han-
dling the hazardous and other wastes they generate
Because of the dearth of governmental legislation on E-waste, lack of standards for
its disposal, and proper mechanisms of handling, most toxic E-waste ends up in
landills. Moreover, E-waste that has only been partly recycled is often stored, trans-
ported or handled under unhygienic conditions. However, times are changing, since
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