Shocking Conditions In India
The world produces 50 million tons of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) per year, as per a recent UN report, however, just 20% is officially recycled. A great part of the rest ends up in landfills or is recycled casually in developing countries.
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India generates more than 2,000,000 tons of e-waste every year and furthermore imports undisclosed measures of e-waste from other countries from around the world – including Australia. E-waste Disposal Companies In India
We visited India to examine these conditions ourselves, and reveal some of the devastating effects e-waste recycling has on workers' health and the environment.
Indian e-waste
More than 95% of India's e-waste is processed by a widely distributed network of casual workers of waste pickers. They are often referred to as "kabadiwalas" or "radicals" who collect, dismantle and recycle it and operate illegally outside of any regulated or formal authoritative system. Little has changed since India introduced e-waste management legislation in 2016.
We visited e-waste dismantlers on Delhi's edges. Along the tight and congested alleyways in Seelampur we encountered hundreds of people, including children, taking care of different types of electronic waste including discarded televisions, forced air systems, computers, phones, and batteries.
Crouching outside shop units they were occupied with destroying these items and arranging circuit sheets, capacitors, metals, and other components (without proper instruments, gloves, face covers, or suitable footwear) to be sold on to other traders for further recycling. E-waste Disposal Companies In India
Neighborhood people said the waste comes here from everywhere India. "You ought to have come here early morning when the trucks arrive with all the waste," a trolley driver let us know.
Seelampur is the largest e-waste destroying market in India. Each day e-waste is dumped by the truckload for a large number of workers utilizing crude methods to extract reusable components and precious metals, for example, copper, tin, silver, gold, titanium, and palladium. The process involves corrosive consuming and open incineration, creating poisonous gases with severe health and environmental consequences.
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Workers come to Seelampur desperate for work. We learned that workers can earn between 200 and 800 rupees (A$4-16) per day. Women and children are paid the least; men who are involved with the extraction of metals and corrosive leeching are paid more.
Income is linked to how much workers dismantle and the nature of what is extracted. They work 8-10 hours per day, with no apparent regard for their own well-being. We were told by a neighborhood government representative that respiratory problems are reportedly normal among those working in these messy smoke-filled conditions.
Delhi has critical air and water contamination problems that authorities struggle to mitigate. We were surprised to learn that the recycling network does not like to talk about "contamination", so as not to raise concerns that could result in a police attack. When we asked about the consumption of e-waste, they denied it takes place. Local people were reluctant to converse with us in any detail. They live in fear that their trade will be closed down during one of the regular police watches trying to check Delhi's basic air and water problems.
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As a result of this fear, e-waste consuming and corrosive washing are often hidden from view in the edges of Delhi and the neighboring states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, or done around evening time when there is less danger of a police assault. E-waste Disposal Companies In India.
Incidentally, while moving around Seelampur we were shocked to see children playing in channels clogged with dumped waste. During the drier months, channels can burst into flames, often deliberately lit to reduce waste collection.
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