Management Of E-waste

With the growing digitalisation, the world is getting shrunk, enabling the people from across diverse nationalities to know each other and share their views on the matters that directly impact their life. Information revolution has indeed brought unprecedented changes to personal, professional, social, economic and cultural life of the people. Perhaps there is no areas where the digital devices and their impacts have not reached. Connectivity and communication, facilitated by the internet, is taking place at a rapid speed. The transformative changes it has brought have eased the way people talk, work and view the societal issues. Now virtual reality has become a physical one, making people almost impossible to get detached from it. While all praise its mesmerising role for qualitative changes in the society, at the same time it also risks becoming a Frankenstein monster that terrifies its own creators. 

   Negative impacts arising from the abuse of social sites or excessive use of gadgets are known to many. But there is another detrimental side of digital equipment that is the production of e-waste.  The fast pace of digitalisation has also led to the speedy production, export and import of digital devices such as mobile phones, laptops and other supporting equipment. When people buy new electronic devices, the thrown-away devices turn into waste, which has potential to cause severe health and environmental problems. Mobile phone sets, laptops, CRT desktops, LCD desktops, batteries, plugs, CRT televisions, LCD televisions, refrigerators and washing machines generate the major e-waste items. They contain hazardous substances such as polyester and plastic-based compounds detrimental to human health. 

E-waste consists of metal ions out of which 2.7 per cent are toxic. Electronic items release various synthetic chemicals in environment, causing metabolic syndrome, skin diseases, hypertension, infertility, still-births, premature births and low birth weight and even cancer, depending on the level and duration of exposure. E-waste management and process remain equally challenging for the government and concerned agencies. An official data reveals that last year Nepal imported mobile phone sets worth Rs. 30.18 billion, television sets worth Rs. 2.49 billion, and computers worth Rs. 13.7 billion. Though there is no official statistics of e-waste, in 2018, the Kathmandu Valley alone generated more than 18,000 tonnes of e-waste while a Global E-waste Monitor 2020 stated the e-waste figure in Nepal stood at around 28,000 tonnes in 2019, according to a news report of this daily on Sunday. 

Scrap dealers collect and supply most of the unused and damaged devices to India for segregation and recycling as such facilities are not available here. What is worrying is the fact that the country doesn't have any statistics, policies and action plan in terms of e-waste generation, management, processing and control. It has become urgent to design e-waste management policy in line with the globally accepted principle "extended producers' responsibility" in terms of e-waste management. As the practice of buying older generation devices has also contributed to increasing amount of e-waste, the government agencies require purchasing the devices of the latest model that last long and do not pose economic burden and environmental hazards. |

The Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoFE) is mulling over formulating a separate standard to address e-waste issues. There should not be further delay in framing national policy and implementation strategies to manage e-waste. It needs to develop effective value chain from scrap collectors to segregators and recyclers, thereby protecting the people from its toxic exposure.