India generates over two million tonnes of e-waste annually, and imports undisclosed amounts of e-waste from other countries around the world, including Australia.
We visited India to investigate these conditions ourselves and revealed some of the devastating effects that e-waste recycling has on the health and environment of workers.
Indian e-waste
More than 95% of India's e-waste is processed by a widely distributed network of waste pickers, informal workers. They are often referred to as "kabaddiwalas" or "radaliwalas", who collect, decompose and recycle it and operate illegally outside of any regulated or formal organizational system. Little has changed since the E-waste Management Companies in India law was introduced in 2016.
We visited the outskirts of Delhi for disposal of E-waste Management Companies in India. Along the narrow and congested street in Seelampur, we encountered hundreds of people, including children, dealing with different types of electronic waste, including discarded TVs, air-conditioners, computers, phones and Batteries are included.
Sitting outside the shop's units, they were busy destroying these products and the circuit board, capacitors, metal and other components (without the proper equipment, gloves, face masks or appropriate shoes) could be sold to other merchants for recycling. Was.
Local people said that this garbage comes from all over India. The trolley driver told us, "You should arrive early in the morning, when the trucks arrive with all the garbage."
Seelampur is India's largest e-waste decomposed market. Each day e-waste is dumped by trucks for thousands of workers using raw materials to extract reusable components and precious metals such as copper, tin, silver, gold, titanium, and palladium. This process involves acid burning and exposure, which creates toxic gases with serious health and environmental consequences.
Workers come to Seelampur for work. We learned that workers can earn 200 to 800 rupees (A $ 4-16) per day. Women and children are paid the least; Men are more paid than those involved with the extraction of metal and acid-leaching.
Income is associated with how many workers are disengaged and the quality of what is removed. They work for 8–10 hours per day, for their own good, without any apparent condition. We were told by a local government representative that respiratory problems are common among those working in these foggy conditions.
Delhi has significant air and water pollution problems, which officials struggled to mitigate. We were surprised to learn that the recycling community does not like to discuss "pollution", so that those concerns are not raised that could result in police raids. When we asked about the burning of e-waste, they denied it. The locals were hesitant to talk to us in any detail. They live in fear that their business will be shut down during regular police patrols in an attempt to curb Delhi's significant air and water problems.
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