Background

In recent years, India has been viewed as an emerging innovator of technology. With more than half of the country’s population below the age of 30 years, people in India are adept at adopting and adapting to new technologies in their personal and professional lives. Technological advancements in the country have impacted the population in myriad ways, whether in the form of accessible educational resources available online or the spread of cutting-edge devices employed in healthcare settings. Alongside these positive changes, however, comes the issue of digital waste. Unfortunately, India has been one of the leading producers of e-waste in the world for the past decade. Moreover, unlike Western countries that have the infrastructure to utilize proper recycling and disposing systems for e-waste, e-waste in India usually gets burned off or dumped into landfills.

The rapid increase in generation of electronic waste in India has several negative effects on not only our environment, but our society as well. Individuals from lower-income societies face the brunt of this as they are often responsible for collecting and discarding e-waste. Having no large-scale programs or government infrastructure for proper waste management, trash pickers resort to saving the scrap metal for further use and discarding or burning the other electronic elements. This ineffective disposal of devices such as monitors, cables, phones, laptops and more is extremely harmful to health and the environment. Landfill disposal of devices causes contamination of soil and water, and burning releases dangerous chemical fumes into the air. This causes problems within the natural ecosystem, infiltrates the agricultural food system,  and of course, leads to long-term health issues for those people who come in contact with the contaminated elements. 

Furthermore, this ties into a larger conversation about sustainability. Why should we discard any item when it can be of use to someone else? Today, people with disposable income often want to upgrade their phones and laptops regularly, or might not have the time or experience to have faulty devices repaired. However, many of these old electronics can be put to good use. Developing a comprehensive solution to the e-waste problem will involve not only raising awareness on waste management and the necessity of proper waste disposal, but also finding ways to use this so-called ‘waste’ to expand access to digital technologies through education programs.