Sorting waste is the ‘A’ of Waste Management

Have you ever wondered about the ease with which you dispose your waste? The process is amazingly simple: collect your daily waste in any container and dispose it off at a local community bins or through a local collector (kacharawala/ raddiwala). If on any day either was not been possible then just dump it anywhere you feel plausible.

Such a process should have won India some International accolades for its simplicity and flexibility. However, in reality, our system is pre-historic compared to that in the developed world. According to me, for a country with population statistics such as ours, we have one of the weakest waste disposal mechanism and policy in the world.

Multiply the urban/rural population by the high risk of a local epidemic or inability of our government to effectively control/ respond to a global epidemic or the effect on the local bio-diversity due to poaching of landmass by waste landfills etc. All this can translate into an unprecedented effect on our social welfare – worse than any war – imagine as if we were waging a biological war against ourselves.

And the risk can be substantially reduced if we become more “aware” of our own duties.

Let me explain through a simple comparison:

The population density of Tokyo, Japan is 6,027.2/km² (source: Wikipedia) is comparable to the population density of New Delhi at 5,854.7/km² (source: Wikipedia).

In mid 1960’s, the waste collection system of Tokyo was modernized, just before the Olympics. This modernization hinged on ‘sorting of waste’, i.e. segregation of the waste into various categories at the source of waste. At present, the waste is sorted at the source/ point of generation into various categories mentioned in the depiction below, into designated collection bags available at a local supermarket. The municipal collection of waste has been systematically drawn out into a category wise fixed schedule.

Over the years, the number of waste categories for sorting has increased. In some cities in Japan, the number of categories are as high as 44. Though the process is complicated, it works remarkably well in reducing overall waste collection, reducing usage of incinerators, increasing recycling and also in reducing the need for expanding landfills. This further, helps the government impose the producer’s responsibility to aid the society in disposing the waste created through consumption of their products.

However, having said this, there have been some baby steps towards streamlining the sorting paradox. I recently noticed at the Delhi airport twin-bins for segregating the recyclable waste from non-recyclable. In addition, the Delhi government in 2010 launched an e-waste disposal system by proposing to install e-waste bins at various places across the city. However, I am yet to see any such bin.

Thus, it is “winning” to sort. Instead of waiting for the government to respond to the dire need of managing waste more efficiently, we must take it on ourselves to educate each other of the perils and the expectation going forward towards social welfare.

We at Afterelife can help you understand the sorting paradigm further. Mail us or just leave a comment to this blog.

6 steps towards responsible E-waste disposal

E-waste : “That waste comes from discarded computers, cell-phones, DVD players, toasters, refrigerators, clock radios, medical devices— most everything powered by electricity. Every engineer in the room was now being required to rethink the ingredients that enable their complex networks of circuits and chips to work. The Europeans have banned six of those substances —mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium, and two chemical flame retardants called polybrominated biphenyl flame retardants—from all electrically powered devices." Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power.

E-waste is becoming a burning issue due to consumerism. E-waste inventory based on the obsolescence rate and installed base in India for the year 2005 has been estimated to be 146180 tonnes. This is expected to exceed 8L tonnes by 2012. On top of that India actually imports 50,0000 tonnes of E-waste every year. Out of the total E-waste that is recycled (11%), only 5%-7% undergoes safe recycling through formal sector.  Primary reason unsafe recycling is lack of awareness and no easy channel for reverse logistics. Every bit of the remaining waste ends up in ground or water without treatment or incinerated to generate toxic fumes or in the local landfill. This paper is our sincere effort to offer a solution to this chronic situation.

There is an exponential growth of E waste in rapidly developing countries like India and China. Therefore bulk consumers like large organisations must streamline its processes for responsible E-waste management: I am sharing with you the 6 easy steps for responsible recycling of E-waste:

1.       Whose is responsible for E-waste within the organisation?

Identifying departments which will be responsible is very important. Typically within large corporates E-waste like computers monitors and telecommunication will be generated and will come under the IT department’s responsibility. These assets will be tagged and inventory available with IT department. Other types of electrical and universal wastes like fans, coffee machines, and printer cartridges could come under the jurisdiction of facilities. Universal wastes like CFL and batteries would also come under the jurisdiction of facilities. It is necessary to identify the departments who will deal with E-waste. As in the example shared there may be more than one department responsible for different types of E-waste. Clear responsibilities with respect to E-waste disposal assigned to each department. Person with defined roles and responsibilities must be identified for each department.

2.       What do we track?

Understanding the types of E-waste that the organization will generate is the key to the inventory. Inventory is a list of all the items that could be classified as E-waste. Inventory will have information of source of waste, the type of waste and the quantity of waste. Inventory of E-waste and tracking from purchase – use – disposal is vital step for managing E-waste. Organizations departments and business enable functions may sometimes be confused what is classified under E-waste. Therefore all the responsible departments will need to have a complete list of all types of e-waste product generated in the organization. Suitable software could ensure a complete tracking of the material and identification of material which reaches its end of life. This software will help in maintaining the status of each item. Items which are bonded should be identified through pasting of an appropriate sticker with relevant details in terms of date and number.

3.       Where do we store the E-waste?

A suitable storage space is required which is sufficiently large to store all the e-waste safely. Storage norms are required for each category of e-waste. For example CFLs and fluorescent lamps which are fragile should be safely placed in drums or put in the original packing. Likewise a dedicated bin is required for printer cartridges. This storage space should be separate from space allocated for other scrap including old chairs and other metal scrap

4.       What permissions are to be sought? Registration with the Local Pollution Control Board.

Companies who have independent facilities and are registered under the Air and Water Act have to apply to the Pollution Control Board(PCB) for a form 1 registration which allows them to store hazardous waste (e-waste). Other companies do not need to register under form 1. Typically individual companies who are part of Tech-Park do not need such a registration since the Tech Park would have already obtained the relevant registration completed.

5.       How to dispose? Safe disposal through authorized recycler

The company must identify a suitable e-waste recycler who is authorized to recycle e-waste. The organization must enter into a MOU with this recycler. Companies located in a tech-park with the common collection center can use this facility to dispose their non bonded e-waste products.

i.                     Alternative options available for safe disposal and some options such as donation of equipment (bonded and non-bonded) to charitable institutions and schools could be considered. This is a good way in which equipment can first be reused before recycling. However, companies must ensure that this equipment comes back into the clean e-waste channel for safe recycling.

ii.                   Remanufacturing of Printer Cartridges: Used printer cartridges can be handed over to recyclingcartridge.org for remanufacturing. This ensures that the entire shell of the cartridge which is made up of plastic is used again instead of being crushed and recycled.

6.       Documentation

The e-waste collected is documented through a form 9 which will be handed over to the company by the recycler. A copy of this document is then also handed over by the recycler to the Pollution Control Board

The referred forms and list of all types of E-waste as categorised by government of India are available in the E-waste management rules. List of registered recyclers are available at the CPCB website.

For successful E-waste management it is necessary that each organization not just understands what types of wastes it generates but also streamlines the processes for its safe disposal or reuse or recycling. Hopefully these steps will nudge organizations to grapple with the challenge of responsible e-waste disposal.

Fully recyclable laptop

Do you know that your laptop will have to be discarded in the next 4 or 5 years? At the end of its useful life your laptop will start having issues. It may be with the battery, with the fan, with the screen or with the power supply unit. It is not easy to repair an old laptop. You may even attempt to repair it by visiting your nearest store to check if anything can be done to salvage your laptop. However, when you enter the store, the newer models entice you. Invariably a feeling of owning a lovely faster newer laptop takes control of your mind. The feeling is so overwhelming that you may resist it for a while till it is so over powering that the new laptop soon makes it to your home.

What did you do with your old laptop? You may have traded in your older laptop in place of the new one. However do you know that your old laptop is almost not recyclable. Laptops contain PCB boards which contain precious metals like gold that are of value to the recyclers. However given the closed system laptops that we have it is not easily to pry out the recyclable components from the laptop. Majority of laptops of the world end up in third world E-waste dismantling hubs. These hubs rip apart the components by resorting to burning,emersing in acid baths, physical hammering to get to the components. This causes release of very toxic materials into our environment. These toxins are heavy metals which enter the human body through the air we breath and the water we drink or even the food which is grown on contaminated land. The menace of unorganised E-waste dismantling contaminates and permeates our environment. There are direct linkages of improper recycling with harmful impacts on the human health and toxicity persisting in our environment to generations to come.

So this brings me to design of laptop which is completely recyclable. This design weaves the concept of extented producer responsibilty so well into the design. http://inhabitat.com/stanford-students-design-a-fully-recyclable-laptop/. Designed by students of Stanford this fully recyclable laptop is the future of laptop design. This design I believe will promote a deeper and extended relationship between your product and you. Way to go I must say towards better design!

Homegrown E-waste

One of the prime goals of Afterelife is to spread awareness of electronic waste amongst sections of society who are consumers of electronic goods. Apart from big organisations, corporates, IT firms who are bulk consumers of electronic goods, a huge amount of electronic goods are consumed by upwardly mobile group of the society. With increasing buying power this section of the society comprises of people who work for the above stated firms. Exposure of technology and travel leave them hankering for white goods and electronic goods as soon as they are launched. What remains to be seen is what happens at the end of life of gadgets/goods that we surround ourselves with. This is, what is, increasingly being referred to as 'homegrown' E-waste.

A small calculation will help us understand this problem better. Take an example of a upper middle class family of 4 today living in any urban area in this world.

Take a walk through a typical urban home will reveal the following list:

Year 2006 -

1. Laptop - 1

2. Desktop - 1

3. TVs -1

5. DVD player

6. Mobile Phone (2 numbers - 1 each and if the children are old enough add 2 more)

7. Digital camera -1 or 2 (depending on passion for photography)

Year 2011

1. Laptops 2 new 

2. Desktop 2 new(Assuming children have grown up and need to access the PC for school work)

3. TVs - LED or LCD - 2

4. Ipod - 2

5.DVD players 2(1 for home 1 for car)

6.Mobile  4(1 each for each family member)

7. Tab or Ipad

So you see the list goes on. All the goods in 2006 would be either traded in, resold(especially old TVs can be sold off) or given off to people who need it or disposed of via kabadiwala channel or the unorganised sector or retained at home as historic E-waste.

With increasing space shortage in our homes we will run out of space to hold such items at home and they will either find its way to the landfill through the municipal solid waste route or to kabadiwalas who will selll it to units that extract metals from E-waste.

This is a good time to reflect how much E-waste have you generated over a period of say 5 years. With this note we leave you now to ruminate on this. Will come back soon with a post on why you should be bothered about this waste stream.

The E-waste-Age

We are standing at the helm of a new age - the e-waste-'age’. While some would say that this period began a long time ago even before the invention of floppy disks and the microprocessor, but it is only now that the proportion of the dark side of moore's law can be widely seen, felt and for now only pondered upon.

For the uninitiated, Mr. Moore in the 1960's predicted the pace of innovation (in terms of processing speed, memory capacity etc.) in the computing industry to double every 2 years. No-no sir/ madame, he was not an astrologer but a co-founder at Intel. To his credit the law still holds steam and some still swear by it as the biggest driving force behind all technological changes.

Fifty years since and one can't help but notice the ensuing social changes due to Moore’s law/ accelerated technological innovations in the tech industry. There has been a sea of change in the social reliance tech firms (for their financial muscle), the social expectations from consumer electronics (for the convenience and comfort), the social addiction to online networking and the social intertwining through the flat world economics.

But, as is with any socio-economic overdependence, i.e. whether on subprime loans or technology or nicotine or weaponry etc., the counteracting factor loops back on the society in form of unperceived ill-effects. Hence, no different is the result of our over dependence on technology, or as I call it e-ddiction, that is adding 1000s of tonnes of electronic waste daily to the already existing heap on the face of the earth (and the orbit).

Well, yes there was a pun intended in my first statement.

Think about it.

Probably you don’t know the exact repercussions of e-waste but that’s what we are here for. Keep logging back but in the meantime bounce your thoughts of us on the ‘After-e-Life’ facebook page or just leave us a comment below.

The Redemption

The redemption

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk, quoted Thomas A Edison. All he needed was a piece of equipment and he could innovate and make something out of it. The cult of recyclers today seem to have a similar demand. Ironically, we aren’t responsible enough to give them one. Are we putting a spanner in a wheel?

We are in a growth phase in the economic cycle, obviously coupled by a spur in demand. This is a phase where companies want to innovate and intoduce latest technologies. The hind sight of this is a higher rate of obsolescence. And what do I do with the “outdated” stuff that I have lying at my house? A research says that a mobile phone company outdats it’s own piece of latest handset in a matter of 2-3 months. When steve jobs introduces a newer iTouch, there is a wave of anticipation in the masses. But there are happier faces of businessman, namely, recyclers, who see a gush of inward flow of thrown away gadgets. The innovation has no limits. The prudence is in managing the waste. The culture of recycling is a need of the hour. Especially in developing countries like India. The group of developing countries are fast outpacing the others in e-waste generation. Are we ready to be a stakeholders in this?

Swank is one such tech savvy businessman I know in electronics design, who loves to keep himself updated with the gadgets. In the business capital of India and with the huge runing business he deserves to be so. He is a responsible user. Being a part of our bikers’ group, thoughts are shared. Recently, he had a bunch of 15 computers being replaced and the dead inventory lying in his garage. He had option to sell it off in second’s market, junk market or donate. First thought is to go for lucrative option. He had a regular dealer to whom he sold his business waste. He had his own doubts but he had nobody to advise him on this. He did his part of research but with very less of outcome. How was he supposed to now the right channel or to reduce the waste itself in the process? Are we missing a link here?

It is as much a producer’s responsibility as it is of the users, to manage the waste generated.  But do the businesses have a motivation to do so?  Government is the stakeholder who can help in this. Countries have tax benefits, aids for the recycling. The e-waste guidelines are designed by the authority. The directives are elaborate, but beauty is in enforcement. Companies like Nokia, sony erricson run a campaign to take back the products. Companies like Dell offer take back and recycling at no cost. They save a lot of natural resources. What is the business motivation to do this?  Swank would like to know if we have any such initiatives in India, for hoard of white goods and e-goods he wants to dispose.  

If you have similar questions about your E-waste this is the right channel for asking questions and coming to us for your recycling queries. We would like to hear from you about what you do with your white goods and E-waste.