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ELECTRONIC WASTE MANAGEMENT

IN INDIA

Babuponnusami.A, PalanivelMurugan.M, Suresh.A.KDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Adhiparasakthi Engineering College

ababupo nnusami@gmail.com, 89pazhanivel@gmail.com,a.k.suresh.chem.engg@gmail.comAbstract - The current practices of e-waste

management in India suffer from a number of

drawbacks like the difficulty in inventorisation,

unhealthy conditions of informal recycling, poor

awareness and reluctance on part of the corporate

to address the critical issues. Electronic waste or e-

waste consists of obsolete electronic devices which

are caused to the environmental change. The e-

waste material which including iron, copper,

aluminum, gold and other metals over 60%, while

plastics account for about 30% and hazardouspollutants only about 2.7%(Widmer et al, 2005). In

this paper contains what is the current scenario of

e-waste management in India. The sources of the e-

waste are IT and Telecom industries, large and

small household appliances, electronic and

electrical tools, medical devices, monitoring and

control equipment. At the end of 2010, 500 million

mobile users (80%), 80million computers (20%)

over 15 million old PCs are ready to disposal and

also TV (18%). Nowadays the e-waste disposal is

done by unsafe method by manually informal

recycling as lack of awareness. These are disposed

with safety handling by the way of collecting and

transportation, treatment and proper disposalsystem. The recyclers zone also involved in the

disposal of e-waste management system. 2009 They

are collecting e-waste from material recovery

technologies. In country the recyclers are often

handled open roasting, smelting and acid bath for

getting useful component from e-waste. We can

resolve the e-waste minimization by the

optimization usage of electronic things and

equipment in household and industry also. The

paper highlights the associated issues and

management of e-waste to emerge this problem, inthe light of initiatives in India.

Keywords: obsolete electronic device, environmental

change, sources of e-waste, material recoverytechnologies, optimization usage.

1. INTRODUCTION

E-waste is defined as the electronic

equipment/products that connect with power plug,

Batteries which have become obsolete due to

advancement in technology, changes in fashion, style

and status, near the end of their useful life. The

electronic industry is the worlds largest and fastest

growing manufacturing industry (RATHA 2002).The

main problems of e-waste are the most rapidlygrowing. It is a crisis of not quantity alone but also a

crisis born from toxics ingredients, posing a threat to

the occupational health as well as the environment.

The rapid technology change, low initial cost, high

obsolescence rate have resulted in a fast growing

problem around the globe, legal framework, proper

collection system missing. Inhuman working

conditions for recycling. The e-waste fraction

including iron, copper, aluminum, gold and other

metals over 60%, while plastics account for about30% and hazardous pollutants comprise only about

2.7% (Widmer et al.., 2005). The classification of e-

waste is shown in table 1.1.Mechanism of e-waste

trade can be explained in terms of three elements.

These elements are given below. Material flow

along the Life cycle of electrical and electronic

equipment including the phase of obsolescence within

a Geographical boundary forms the basis of e-waste

generation in cities/countries.

1.1 Types of E-Waste

Classification of

e-waste

Mobile

phones

Computer

Printer Scanner

CD Microwave

Military

electronics

Cartridges

Washing machine Automobile catalytic convertor

Air conditioner Alarm and

siren

Security device Sensor

TV Telecom

Calculators Server

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2. INDIANCURRENT SCENERIO ON E-WASTE

PRODUCTION

According to a report of Confederation ofIndian Industries, the total waste generated by

obsolete or broken down electronic and electrical

equipment in India has been estimated to be 1,46,000

tons per year (Kurian Joseph,2007). The results of a

field survey conducted in the Chennai, a metropolitan

city of India to assess the average usage and life of the

personal computers (PCs), television (TV) and mobilephone showed that the average household usage of the

PC ranges from 0.39 to 1.7years, depending on the

income class (Kurian Joseph, 2007). In the case of TV

it varied from 1.07 to 1.78years and for mobile

phones varied from 0.88 to 1.7years.

The low-income households use the PC for

5.94 years, TV for 8.16 years and the mobile phonesfor 1.63 years. Further, it is growing at a faster rate.

The growth rate of the mobile phones (80%) is very

high compared to that of PC (20%) and TV (18%).

The public awareness on e-waste and the willingness

of the public to pay for e-waste management as

assessed during the study based on an organized

survey revealed that about 50% of the public are

aware of environmental and health impacts of the

electronic items. The enthusiasm of public to pay for

e-waste management ranges from 3.57% to 5.92% of

the product cost for PC, 3.94% to 5.95% for TV and

3.4% to 5% for the mobile phones. The e-waste

production in Indian cities are shown in table 2.1

Table 2.1: E-waste Production in Indian cities

e-waste production cities in India Tonnes per

annum

Mumbai 50000

Delhi 35000

Bangalore 30000

Chennai 20000

Kolkata 19000

Ahmedabad 14000

Hyderabad 13000

Pune 10000

Indore 8000

Source: CPCB annual report 2010.

'There are 36,165 hazardous waste generating

industries in the country. 6.2 million Tonnes of

hazardous waste is generated by them every year, of

which land fillable waste is 2.7 million tonnes,

incinerable 0.41 million tonnes and recyclablehazardous waste is 3.08 million tonnes,' the ministrysaid. As per the hazardous waste (management,

handling and trans-boundary movement) rules, 2008,

all units handling e-waste need to register with the

CPCB and the hazardous wastes generated should be

given to an authorized recycler or re-user.

Fig.1 Issues and Challenges in e-waste management

3. E-WASTES MANAGEMENT

The current practice on e-waste management in Indiawas not up to the level due to the various reasons as

shown in Fig.1.

E-wastes are currently managed in the following

steps.

1.E-waste collection and transportation system2.E-waste treatments system3.E-waste disposal system

E-waste collection system consists of

producer/retailer take back system. Since e-waste ishazardous in nature, it is collected, stored and

transported under controlled conditions. Each of the

agencies should have its own e-waste collection and

storage centers. The collection methods will vary

based on distance, rural or urban patterns and the size

of collected appliances. Some categories will require

specific collection routes like flatbed collection (for

refrigerators and other reusable household

appliances).

3.1. TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE

Input: E-waste items like TV, refrigerator and

PCs

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Unit operations involved in first level of

treatment

Removal of all liquids and gases Dismantling (manual) Segregation

Output:

1. Segregated hazardous wastes like CFC, Mercury

(Hg) Switches, CRT, batteries and capacitors.

2. Decontaminated e-waste consisting of segregated

non-hazardous e-waste like plastic, circuit board and

cables

3.2. POSSIBLE STEPS FOR DISPOSING E-

WASTE

Step 1: Determine e-waste trade value chain in a

city/geographic region.

Step 2: Determine existing and future item-wise e-

waste inventory in a city/geographic region.

Step 3: Determine item-wise e-waste quantities

collected and segregated in informal/unorganized and

formal/organized sectors.

Step 4: The output of above step will give an idea of

existing capacity of informal/unorganized and

formal/organized sectors in e-waste treatment

Step 5: Determine recovery quantities of items of

economic value from existing e-wise quantitiestreated in informal/unorganized and formal/organizedsectors.

Step 6: Determine existing item-wise e-waste fraction

quantities disposed and disposal procedure using the

data collected from survey.

4. CONCLUSIONSolid waste management, which is a mammoth

task in India, is becoming more complicated by the

assault of e-waste, particularly computer waste. There

exists an urgent need for assessment of the current

and future scenario including quantification,

characteristics, existing disposal practices,environmental impacts etc. Policies should include

development of e-waste regulation, control of import

and export of e-wastes. Take-back and exchange

program can be followed for e-waste reduction. End-

of life management should be made a priority in the

design of new electronic products.

5. REFERENCES

[1] Central Pollution Control Board annual report

(2010), India.

[2] KuriyanJoseph,(2007) SardiniaEleventh

International Waste Management and

Landfill Symposium .[3]Ratha G. (2002). A Study of the Performance ofthe Indian IT Sector at www.nautilus.org accessed on

21st June 2005.

[4]Widmer R et al.,(2005)Global perspectives on e-

waste.