Citizen Social Responsibility: What to do with e-waste

Would you believe: The average home has 24 electronic products! Do you ever think about what happens to these gadgets when you are done with them? When you stop using them and are ready to dispose of these products, they are sometimes known as electronic waste, or “e-waste.”

Many old electronic goods gather dust in storage. When thrown away, they end up in landfills or incinerators. We have also found a growing e-waste trade problem in India. 25,000 workers are employed at scrap yards in Delhi alone, where 10-20,000 tonnes of e-waste is handled each year, 25% of this being computers. Other e-waste scrap yards have been found in Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Municipal commissioner Ramaswamy N stressed on recycling the increasing e-waste while attending the first International E-waste Day at Sadhu Vaswani International School in Sanpada, located in Navi Mumbai. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation plans to take the lead in tackling e-waste with Swachh Park at Kopar Khairane. An audio-visual room will house project models to show how to convert waste into various products, and to recycle it. Here’s how you can tackle it personally.

What to do with old gadgets

1. Don’t trash them. Never throw e-waste in the dustbin. Even the small stuff like phones or batteries shouldn’t go in the trash. There are toxic chemicals in these products. It’s bad for our environment.

2. Pass them on for reuse.  Give the gadget to someone else who can keep using it. If you don’t find a family member or friend who wants it, donate it to a charity.

3. Recycle them. You probably already recycle newspapers or bottles from your house. Electronics can be recycled, too. There are companies that will accept our old electronics, take them apart, and separate and recycle the materials inside – like plastic, glass, and metals.  Many of these materials can then be used to make new products.

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