by Anita Singh(98100 27974)
The problem with progress is; that for each step forward; we create one mighty long step backwards. Aah! You correct me. Not create, Dear, take. Mais non-MaCherie. It’s an act of cre-ation. I mean, who heard of E-Waste a decade ago? It’s a creation of the international demand for all things Electronic. And electric!
Lesson number 1. Those Gawd awful thick, black cables left behind by the cable provider of the yesteryears, which I couldn’t get the Raddi-waala to take; because they have no retrievable value and is also e-waste. So are old telephone wires. And internet cables. And all-electric articles. Anything that can be plugged in is e-waste. So E-Waste Collectors will even take away stuff your Raddiwaala won’t.
Lesson no. 2. There’s Good Waste, and there’s Bad Waste. Newspaper, loha, brass, in fact, all the stuff we used to give the Raddiwaala years ago, is normally Good Waste. It is easy to recycle and contributes marginally to the problem. Bad Waste is the stuff that the Raddiwaala does not have the wherewithal to dispose of, profitably. The tough bit is that the Good Waste and the Bad Waste are part of the same TV, or AC that you gave to your local guy. Did you know? The average laptop has about 6$ of extractable gold. ACs contain copper, gold and platinum.
Lesson number 3: one of the things that made it easier for me, and, I’m sure, many of you, to sleep at night, is the fact that we have a long pecking order. So hand-me-downs go from junior siblings to the maids’ kiddos, and finally to do that never-ending round of ponchcha. Per capita waste in India is at .2kg, whereas its 2kg in the USA. The downside is, that, with a population of 1.3 Billion and adding; in absolute terms, the total waste is just as much. Things are only going to get worse, as progress predicates more electronics; and, inevitably more waste.
Lesson number 4: So what’s with E-Waste? Horrendous, hazardous chemicals. Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Chrome, Cobalt, Copper, Lead, Liquid Crystal, Lithium, Mercury, Nickel, PCB {polychlorinated biphenyls}, Selenium, Silver and Zinc. An A to Zee of all the stuff designed to make Mother Earth into a poisonous wasteland. The danger is to underground water, soil, and their subsequent absorption into the food we eat, and the air we breathe ensures that healthy, bodies turn into cancerous, diseased organisms.
Lesson Number 5: Why not the raddiwaala? after all, it means taking away the employment of a whole category of people. Not at all. Do continue to give the usual paper, loha, to your local guy. But not the stuff that needs complex degradation. Informal methods of retrieval are mostly burning or the use of acid and other chemicals. Both are known to be major polluting processes.
After retrieval, disposal in landfills, enable the contamination of soil and water. So save those products for authorized recyclers and dismantlers.
Finally, take a bit less: Authorized recyclers pay a bit less. But is because they need to pay for the process. but it ensures you are not making a profit by scavenging off the land. Call 18002031460 0r to write to info@cleantogreen .in to schedule a free pick-up from your place.
