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A. V. Swaminathan

MUCH of the throwaway attitude that prevailed in the American way of life, even until the late 1960s, is disappearing and giving place to refreshing concepts of recycling and recovery of material.

The practice of segregation from garbage dumpsites by the agencies concerned is now a regular practice, forming the first stage in the elaborate process of salvaging. But efforts in the separation and classification of items for systematic recycling or disposal as landfill are still inadequate.

For the enormity of the task, particularly with the accumulation of discarded computers and electronic equipment in ever-increasing numbers week after week, baffles city administrators.

What should be a routine landfill allocation is increasingly turning out to be a hi-tech waste repository, where the presence of a surfeit of dead gadgets could prove hazardous. As their contents start leaching out, the outbreak major diseases and hazard to the health of the citizens are a natural corollary.

The Oregonian, published from Portland, recently reported that nearly 2 per cent of the garbage collected last year was electronic — a staggering figure of 46,353 tonnes, made up of computers, TV sets, and similar hi-tech equipment.

The growing addition of unusable, obsolete models with each year's advances in technology is mind-boggling, as revealed by statistical data of the National Safety Council.

According to its findings, of about 170 million computers distributed throughout the US, nearly 50 per cent have reached obsolescence.

From these, awaiting rejection, only 24 million were actually discarded to the garbage dump, while 3.5 million were scrupulously sent over for recycling.

The rest of the lot, probably sequestered to remote corners of garages or basements and lying quiescent now, may suddenly erupt like volcanoes when they find their way to the garbage heap.

The problem, indeed, is too monstrous to be easily gauged at the present moment. Cathode ray tubes (CRT) in TVs and computer monitors form a sizable proportion of the waste that harbours toxic substances. Switches, relays, batteries, dry cells, wiring boards and a variety of minor components that are part of state-of-the-art gadgetry in modern homes and offices, are extremely dangerous items, seen often in trash piles. Their toxic ingredients can cause disorders in the voluntary and involuntary systems of the human anatomy, and some of them are highly carcinogenic. Of late, compact fluorescent bulbs and tubes are becoming popular, partly due to the manufacturers' aggressive marketing strategy but mainly because of the energy saved by using them.

While this positive aspect is commendable, the changeover, in fact, is fraught with multidimensional difficulties in the matter of disposal of the used CFLs.

Large-scale operations are involved in setting aside glass for recycling, metal parts for re-melting and in the separation of the harmful mercury coating for safe cleaning and reuse. All such unwanted hi-tech equipment, cast away into garbage bins, ultimately reach the city's dumpsite along with a swelling mass of organic waste, paper, cardboard, pet litter, car tyres, and disposable items of biodegradable standard.

Detailed studies by the State Department of Environmental Quality have made possible the release of a break-up of the harmful chemicals contained in computer scrap and other related electronic waste.

It has been found that 175 million sets of computers junked over the past two decades could have yielded toxic substances such as like lead to the extent of 650 million lbs, cadmium 975,000 lbs, mercury 225,000 lbs and recyclable plastics to 2 billion lbs.

Lead is a much-dreaded source of ailments of nervous and circulatory systems, and it can also severely affect the kidneys. The coating surface of CRTs is where this highly toxic material is concentrated. Mercury is also responsible for several health problems, such as affliction to mental faculties, vision, speech, hearing ability and co-ordination functions.

Excess dosages of the poison creeping in through animal or plant food contaminated with the element can cause serious damage to the brain, kidney and lungs. Cases of fatality are also not uncommon. Cadmium, as is widely known, is linked to a number of cancerous diseases and among the worst affected organs is the kidney.

All these extremely dangerous contents, latent in electronic scrap, are released steadily with time and get washed with rainwater or other flowing liquids to leach forcefully into the soil or be carried to a river or stream close by. Ill effects begin to surface as they dissolve in the ground water, aquifer or river, which might be the source of water supply to the city.

The state of Massachusetts has been foremost in banning CRTs in landfills and many other states are following in the trail. By 2005, nearly 400 million computers will become out of date and await disposal. How many of these will be spotted later in dumpsites is not possible to guess now, but certainly, the very thought of the burgeoning volume of hi-tech waste would be worrying for city planners.

Lessons for India: Though neither computers nor CRTs are likely to settle down in the garbage dumps of Indian cities, there is surely an abundance of fluorescent lamp debris. Thrown away carelessly, whole or in pieces, fluorescent bulbs and tubes are generally seen mixed with refuse from homes and public places.

There is a total absence of awareness regarding the health hazard among the public and it is not surprising that the corporation authorities remain blissfully unconcerned. The US experience should serve to generate ideas for a workable action plan to avert the disastrous effects from mercury poisoning.

(The author is a US-based freelance writer.)

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