The Hindu Business Line : Drowning in e-waste

When we read media reports that Britain tops the European league in building mountains of waste from consumer products used and thrown when they are still serviceable, is it time to ask ourselves whether it is all too irrelevant for us. All we need is to look around one's household to see the potential for WEEE (waste electronic, electrical equipment) or more elegantly, e-waste, which has already assumed alarming proportions in prosperous cities such as Bangalore. As with everything else modern, India will get there double fast.

The credit boom

Our impending contribution is huge: Refrigerators, air-conditioners, music systems, mobile phones, computers and peripherals, and car accessories. The usual response is that we always have a ready-made second-hand market in India's rural areas and among the lower-income classes. This is a fallacy. We are assuming that the poorer sections will be forever happy to own the hand-me-downs. They will soon grow out of them. And in at least the ICT world, the peculiar economics works in their favour, because the longer you wait, the cheaper it is to own anything new. High-performance models of anything will soon be available at lower prices.

As for the initial outlay, the rampant growth of consumer credit will take care of that — something worth Rs 30,000 and more can generally be bought for about Rs 4000 or less, cash down, and paid for over a three-year period. All this will serve to increase the hunger in the Indian market for newer and newer models.

A source of joy

The market for cars, motorcycles, computers and mobile phones in India is growing at rates undreamt of in the West or in Japan, home to the major brand owners. No wonder they flock to India in droves, both to set up businesses here and to produce for the rest of the world. Some find it easier even to send their waste here for recycling or disposal, as Indian laws are notoriously lax and inefficiently administered. India's rapidly growing consumer durables market, a source of joy for marketers and economists, is also a growing nightmare — for three good reasons.

First is a general attitude of benign neglect in India towards any ecology-related recommendation. We feel that it is very well for the West to preach to us now, but we should not for any reason moderate growth in consumption or production.

Second, there is little widespread awareness of safe methods of recycling the e-waste or safe disposal, other than burning, which releases toxic chemicals containing lead, mercury and other poisons, or burying them in a hole in the ground. Germany and Scandinavia have, on the whole, been much better behaved in this respect; and it is time we started following their example.

Third, the continuing export of recyclable and potentially toxic material from the affluent societies to the less well-off ones is a major hazard.

The European Commission, in a 2005 survey in 17 European seaports, examined 140 waste shipments, half of which turned out to be totally illegal.

There is no evidence of any major prosecutions although the UN convention, designed to prevent the export of hazardous waste to developing nations, has been in existence for 15 years.

Active participation

However, there are some good examples to follow too. Some NGOs in the UK advertise for people to donate their old appliances, some of which can be repaired and reused in other countries, or safely recycled. Companies, by law, have to undertake to take back and re-use some of their output.

A Google search will lead one to many such agencies. What is far more essential, however, is the active participation of the consumer of the appliances, who typically belongs to the enlightened and educated sections of society.

S. Ramachander

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