India's e-Waste Mountain

A study by the Indian government has found that the amount of electronic waste in the country is growing 10 per cent every year, and 95 per cent of it will end up in urban slums – some 434,000 metric tons.

The research by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research estimates that 25,000 people in India's slums are employed in an unregulated e-waste recycling industry, with just five per cent of waste going through official channels.

Much of the waste is generated domestically by India's booming IT sector, but the recycling industry is yet to catch up.

Waste is often dumped in landfill, where it is dismantled for precious materials.

The report says there are no rules or laws in place for e-waste management, nor recycling facilities designed to protect workers and the environment.

The Indian state of Maharashtra said in December it planned to crack down on e-waste by penning new regulations to address the problem in cities such as Mumbai and Pune, which produce some 28,000 metric tons of electronic waste annually.

According to a study in 2007 by Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute, only two cities in the country - Delhi and Bangalore - have effective e-waste management systems in place.

Electronics Industry Association secretary general Rajoo Goel said: "The industry needs advanced e-waste recycling facilities which do not pose a threat to both workers and to the environment. This can be made possible with enactment of existing e-waste guidelines into legislation."

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