E-waste: A Growing Problem
The country s e-waste generation increased 43 per cent between FY18 and FY20. The pandemic-induced consumption of electronic devices is set to add to the problem in future
Photograph by Yasir Iqbal
Little has changed over the years in the narrow bylanes of Seelampur in the national capital, India s largest unorganised e-waste recycling hub, as hundreds of establishments, big and small, salvage computer peripherals, laptops, mobile phones and other electronic waste in the most unscientific way. Government regulations on e-waste management have had little impact here.
If Seelampur represents how India has decided to handle one of modernity s biggest problems - e-waste - things are hardly better in other parts of the country. India is now officially the world s third-biggest e-waste generator, producing over 3.23 million metric tonnes of e-waste per year, behind the US and China. While hardly anything ends up in a landfill, the big worry is that 95 per ce