Greetings from a post-apocalyptic corner of our world.
Is it Mad Max? Cyberpunk?
No, it is Delhi, a mere 8-hour flight from Warsaw.
Delhi – a city full of contradictions, which most often delights but also astonishes, occasionally bringing tears that, while running down your cheek, get mingled with the omnipresent particles of smog.
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It is unclear at what point and exactly when this city became Asia’s largest hub for processing electronic waste from all over the world. This is the place where smart phones, printers, smart watches and laptops come to an end.
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Working class struggles
The collection of electronic waste, international, national, and regional trade, disassembly, separation of components, repair, refurbishment, recovery, and recycling of metals are activities carried out in 90% of informal workshops. Most of these activities are performed manually, in a cottage industry, and in an unskilled manner, exposing the people involved to dangerous levels of hazardous pollution.
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Global responsibility
Europe and other ‘developed’ countries send obsolete technology to India, fully aware of the low labor costs and lack of regulation, and therefore the increased opportunity for profit. There are even cases where whole containers of equipment are sent to illegal centers for recycling, and then the same containers pick up only valuable resources to put back on the market. Washing their hands of the problem in the form of waste.
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If these procedures were carried out with respect for human rights and the environment, the profits from such transactions would be significantly lower.
Absence of workplace safety norms
Open dismantling of components such as switches, relays, old computers and flat screens can easily release mercury.
Exposure to mercury causes chronic brain, respiratory, skin, kidney, liver and spinal cord damage.
Pre-heating, open burning and acid bath for metal extraction have invariably been used for years to extract metals from circuit boards and cables. What do these types of procedures look like?
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Preheating: Mainboards are heated using a torch connected to a gas cylinder. PCBs, capacitors and other components are then removed by hand using a hammer or other simple tools.
Open burning: Once the small components have been separated, the boards are burnt in ovens to separate the copper and tin.
Acid bath: Alternatively, copper is removed by immersing the plates in acid, together with iron shavings for about 2 days. This process produces crystalline copper sulphate, which is then removed, dried and sieved..
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Inherited trauma and crisis of imagination
Today it is no surprise to anybody that children are involved in all these processes. Families migrating from the countryside to urban centres in search of work seek employment in places that do not require qualifications and experience. They are usually paid according to the result achieved, rather than the time spent on the task. To ensure survival, whole families are involved in work.
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As children grow up in places that do not stimulate their development, they are unable to imagine a different way of adult life. They don’t know what an alternative lifestyle might look like, and the mass media and the Internet encode mostly capitalist aspirations in their minds.
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Animals
Animals are also becoming victims of the whole situation, as they live on the street and are exposed to constant exposure to toxic waste, and drink water unknowingly from contaminated puddles.
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The environmental impact of dismantling electronics in a cottage industries
WEEE can contain up to 60 different elements that can be both highly valuable and hazardous. These include heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, barium, lead, lithium, mercury, nickel, zinc and other toxic substances.
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The manual dismantling, shredding, incineration, leaching and uncontrolled dumping of waste not only harms directly exposed workers, but also affects the environment through contamination of soil, ground and surface water and air pollution.
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Fast Forward 2040
What we see here are the escalating consequences of an unthinking delight in technological progress—the joy of what is new without looking at what we are leaving behind.
As a species, we are barely coping with plastic waste, and another wave of waste is on the horizon, this time far more toxic and complex to deal with.
If we don’t act, in a decade or so, this problem will spill out of India and become everyone’s challenge. By then, it may be too late, and the environmental damage irreversible.
Spread the message
A huge support to the whole mission will be to share the content contained here. The truth behind the glass screen of our smartphones should be revealed to everyone who uses the internet.
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