E-waste may now include your kid’s toys and household goods

MoEF Broadens Hazardous Waste Category In Draft Policy

Mumbai: Be warned. Your child’s seemingly innocent remote-controlled car that you would normally sell to the local raddiwallah could soon be categorised as ewaste. That is if the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF) draft on the disposal of hazardous e-waste is notified and made into a law. The MoEF has broadened the definition of e-waste to include gaming consoles, household appliances, smoke detectors, etc.
    Besides toys, products will fall under nine main categories — large and small household appliances, electrical and electronic goods, medical equipment, control instruments like smoke detectors, automatic dispensers, IT and telecommunication goods like fax machines, and consumer electronic products such as computers.
    “While drafting the rules we looked at items that have some kind of electronic, electrical and digital circuits and equipment that run on batteries,’’ an MoEF official said. He added that the influx of cheap imported toys and videogames in the market are a major component of the increasing the e-waste tonnage across the country. “They are not being disposed properly. Toys and batteries are being dumped along with regular garbage leading to heavy lead and cadmium contamination in ground water,’’ the official said. For instance, the paint in some toys contains cadmium, which if not disposed off properly can be toxic and carcinogenic. It can also harm aquatic life.
    Dr Hasnanin Patel, who is a consultant clinical metal toxicologist with Saifee Hospital in south Mumbai, said the lack of a system to dispose e-waste is detrimental to the health of citizens. “We still throw used batteries into garbage bins. From there, they reach the dumping ground and enter the land fill, polluting ground water. Most of these hazardous elements in the e-waste category today end up in godowns or in the hands of raddiwallahs,’’ he said.
    The onus rests not only on the shoulders of manufacturers and dealers, but also on individual consumers. Public awareness, say activists who have been lobby i n g f o r the draft policy to be notified, is the key. “People still think that plastic is the only garbage that can pose a grave risk to one’s health. No one realises that metal poisoning can also cause irreversible damage to the body,’’ said Patel. Many experts point out that while the MoEF’s draft policy looks good on paper, implementation will depend on how strict the government is with manufacturers who violate the law. “This is assuming that the policy will be notified,’’ said Abhishek Pratap of Greenpeace. “ In countries like the US and Europe, citizens cannot simply throw away obsolete goods and e-waste. They have to submit them to authorised collection centres.’’
Products covered under e-waste category
    Large household appliances | Includes refrigerators and freezers, washing machines, microwave ovens, fans and heating appliances, etc
    Small household appliances | Includes vacuum cleaners, toasters, grinders, coffee machines, digital clocks, watches etc
    Toys, sport equipment and video game consoles
    Medical tools | Includes radiotherapy equipment, cardiology, dialysis and lab equipment, etc
    Consumer electronic goods | Includes computers, radio sets, TVs, cameras, musical instruments, fax machines, calculators, etc