E-waste Management -- A Study in Perspective of Pilani

Abstract

E-waste management is an emerging issue, driven by the rapidly increasing quantities of complex end-of-life electronic equipments. E-waste contains large amount of both toxic and valuable substances. The international regulations, mainly under Basel convention, enforce a global ban on trans-border movements of E-waste but implementation of the same has its own difficulty due to lack of convergence in definition of E-waste followed by different governments, agencies and stake holders. Most E-waste in India ends up with slum based scrap dealers, who, in dangerous and hazardous working conditions take away resalable parts from this waste. The rest goes into landfills without proper treatment, posing serious ecological threat. Previous studies have shown region wise variation in E-waste handling pattern in India. Under this study, a comprehensive survey is carried out with scrap dealers in and around Pilani town of Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan to gather information about time state of art. In the backdrop, comparison with the best practices in world is made to understand what is lacking in Pilani vis-à-vis India