(Lightly edited for readability)
Speakers: Nandan Mall, Anwesha Borthakur, Sandeep Chatterjee, Subhra Priyadarshini
00:02 Support announcement: This episode is produced with support from DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance.
00:06 Subhra Priyadarshini: Hello, I'm your host Subhra Priyadarshini and you are tuned into the Nature India podcast.
Welcome to this podcast series 'Our mobile world' where over the last many episodes we have been talking about how the mobile phone is changing the way researchers and scientists work. These little gadgets have indeed revolutionized communication, connecting people across the globe and providing access to information, to education and healthcare, especially in remote areas. These are some of the things we have navigated through in our past episodes. Mobile phones offer a wide range of functionalities beyond communication, beyond talking to one another, including navigation, photography, entertainment, and productivity tools which make our lives a little more convenient and efficient.
With so many pluses, there is, however, one flip side the world is grappling with — electronic waste, or e-waste. Constant technological advancements and growing consumer demands for the latest features in mobile phones actually mean that mobile technology and mobile devices need rapid upgrades. This means a mountain of e-waste from discarded phones.
In this episode, we deal with this question of e-waste. We dig into the research and process of how India handles its massive amounts of e-waste. But first, the founder CEO of Hulladek Recycling Nandan Mall tells us that India with its recycling culture may not be contributing to the literal high mountain of e-waste that you might be visualizing in your mind right now. Not from mobile phones, at least, he says.
02:24 Nandan Mall: So mobile phones essentially are one of the highest refurbished electronics or reuse electronics in our country. So, mobile phones have a positive impact on E waste recycling in the sense that they are one of the largest refurbished and reused electronics in India.
02:43 Subhra Priyadarshini: Really? That is not what common perception might say though.
02:47 Nandan Mall: On an average a smartphone is used by three unique users before it becomes e-waste in our country leading to higher refurbishing and reusing rates. However, the sad part is that a lot of mobile phones are not really manufactured in India, almost 90% plus are imported from outside and even though the material is produced outside India, the disposal responsibility lies with the country because it is eventually being disposed off as e-waste here.
03:20 Subhra Priyadarshini: And India has regulations in place to make sure that this doesn’t continue to be the case?
03:26 Nandan Mall: Recently, there was a law passed, wherein the imports of some essential IT equipment such as laptops, tablets, and mobile phones was restricted in the country primarily done to solve this issue of sort of dumping of e-waste. So, overall as a device, it has a positive impact, but because of the international laws and the way electronics are not manufactured in India and they are sold here and then they become e-waste here, it does have a detrimental impact.
03:58 Subhra Priyadarshini: This impact is also huge as the rate at which the phones are discarded is increasing every year. Anwesha Borthakur, a researcher at Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, shares some data she collected in her research around this problem.
04:16 Anwesha Borthakur: There is this forum called Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Forum and International Association. It estimated that in the year 2022 alone, 5.3 billion mobile phones were discarded in a single year. So, you can see that mobile phone is, in fact, a major contributor to the electronic waste scene globally. We in India, have one of the largest mobile network in the world. the lifespan of mobile phones are getting shorter and shorter. During my study in Bengaluru, actually, nobody said that they use their mobile phones for more than four years. When I conducted my study in Delhi, most of the people there said that they buy a new mobile phone every one to three years, almost 50% of them said said that they change their mobile phone very frequently. And I believe that the amount will go on increasing substantially in the coming years. So, yes, mobile phone is indeed a very important component of the overall e-waste stream.
05:25 Subhra Priyadarshini: Right. Nandan also gave us some whopping numbers.
05:29 Nandan Mall: India is moving about 300 million devices every year in terms of smartphones and tablets into e-waste. So that's quite a big number. This does not consider the feature phones or the keypad phones. Barely 5% of all e-waste generated in our country gets recycled on an average. However, because of its higher refurbish ability rate, mobile phones have a much higher recycling rate close to 20-30% because they enter the e-waste stream only after it has completely been knocked down or completely cannot be repaired or reused anymore.
06:12 Subhra Priyadarshini: So once these unused, old waste mobile phones are collected, what happens to them next?
06:19 Nandan Mall: Broadly speaking, electronic waste goes through five stages of recycling collection and storage. It is brought to a warehouse, where it is segregated. It is shipped to the recycling unit, where the devices are broken down into raw components, then enter the recycling line and get converted into four different items — metals such as ferrous and non ferrous metals like iron, steel, copper, aluminium —, various kinds of plastics such as LD, HD, PET etc., glass. And the fourth component, which is the crucial part, is the hazardous element that makes e-waste a nuisance — for example, lead found in an old CRT TV or a CRT monitor, or let's say, lithium batteries found inside a mobile phone. They need to be recycled properly, so as to ensure that it does not cause any harm to the environment as well as to the people who are dealing with it. So then the hazardous substance is removed from the electronic it is stored separately, and it is sent for treatment separately, so as to cause no harm to the environment and also to the people who are involved in the process.
07:38 Subhra Priyadarshini: Anwesha tells us more about an interesting but troublesome aspect of e-waste — its burden on resources in the global south.
07:48 Anwesha Borthakur: Mobile phones actually also provide a very good example of the minerals or the metals that are present in electrical and electronic equipment. Gold, silver, palladium, copper, most of them are actually extracted from the global south. For instance, copper or, or for instance, lithium, Chile is one of the world's largest producers of these minerals. Cobalt, which is again a component of our mobile phones, largest supplier is the Republic of Congo. 80% of world's manganese actually comes from South Africa. India is also a supplier of manganese. And if we can really extract these metals from the heap of mobile phones then we can actually reduce the burden in the natural ores.
We must also remember, 7% of the world's gold is currently sitting inside our broken or unwanted electronic devices. For instance, only two to five grams of gold per tonne could be extracted from the natural ores whereas around 300 grams of gold per tonne of mobile phones could be extracted from the urban mines. So, if we can really mine the minerals that are present in our mobile phones, we will be able to reduce the environmental burden of our natural ores.
09:13 Subhra Priyadarshini: Interesting. So how can we better handle this e-waste?
09:17 Nandan Mall: So, research is primarily on two fronts. First, of course, is how to increase the reusability of electronics. And second also is how to standardize the production of manufacturing so that when we are recycling the electronic, the things are of similar nature. Let's say, if I am dismantling three different mobile phones made by Samsung, LG and Lenovo, all three will have a different battery, a different set of screws, a different make or type of screen. And therefore, it makes recycling very difficult. So maybe there can be discussion on the line of standardizing productions.
Another good step that was taken by manufacturers was that after 2028 all charges will be shifted to a single slot for mobile phones, which is a type C charger. So all major manufacturers of the world have agreed to this. So this will reduce e-waste considerably and will lead to a lot of prevention of manufacturing of unnecessary devices which can be used otherwise through older make applications as well.
Second, of course, is that how electronics life can be extended. Secondhand or refurbished as a market is really growing strongly in the country, and there's a lot of government support on it as well. So a lot of refurbishing centers are setting up, a lot of secondhand brands are coming up which are selling secondhand. Even the big guys like Amazon etc. have seconds on their website where the are selling, you know, used or pre-used, what we call 'pre loved' electronics. 11:00 Subhra Priyadarshini: We also spoke to Sandip Chatterjee, a Senior Director and scientist in India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology about the regulations around e-waste. Here’s what we learnt.
11:13 Sandip Chatterjee: Waste management, including the electronic waste, comes under the Environmental Protection Act 1984. EPA. Before 2011, this was part of hazardous management rule. First of March 2023, we'll have a third version of the rulemandating the manufacturer as a producer of electronic product responsible for its safe disposal and recycling.
Mobile phone has replaced different types of devices, you may not require laptop or ipad or camera. India is a third largest electronic waste manufacturer, 3.2 million metric tons per year in 2019. We are growing 18% year on year. So, if that was 3.2 million metric ton I should say that around point 8 million metric tons will be contributed by mobile phones. We have created some cost effective technology around e-waste, here you may not require automated equipment for handling e-waste. So, we have started with dismantling safely in a manual way, the smartphone sprinter circuit board is the most costliest and it has almost 69 elements from the periodic table. So, our ministry has started a project which is dismantling this product manually, then the printed circuit board, pulverized and then segregation through magnetic separator.
12:44 Subhra Priyadarshini: Okay, so with all this research and development work, has there been a noticeable change in consumer behavior towards e waste recycling?
12:54 Nandan Mall: Absolutely. I think we as an industry have successfully managed, at least to penetrate the tier one cities, and explain to them why recycling is important, what the hazards associated with it are, and why they should choose an authorized recycler as compared to a local scrap dealer, or a kabadi waala. We do a lot of collection drives, donation drives, in residential complexes, in schools, in colleges, where a lot of citizens very openly participate and dispose of their electronic waste absolutely free of cost with us, so that it does not harm the environment and does not cause any trouble to anyone in the future.
I think the age group of 14 or 15 to 35, is really, really aware. And I think globalization has really helped in this because they do hear about recycling practices in other parts of the world. The youth has been the real change maker as far as changing consumer behaviour towards habits of recycling is concerned.
13:58 Subhra Priyadarshini: Right. So mobile phones basically live parallel lives, as extensions of our hands in these times. From a brand new phone bought at an e-store that lives its life and ends up as e-waste, they deserve a responsible disposal.
14:15 Nandan Mall: Even our electronics deserve a proper farewell. So if you are done with them, give it to an authorized recycler, because keeping it in your drawer is not really helping anyone. Also another thing that you need to be aware of before disposing of your mobile phone is data destruction. We hear a lot about phishing. And we hear a lot about, you know, mobile phone based scams that happen in our country. That is primarily because when you are disposing of your electronic or you are exchanging it, you may not be getting rid of the data properly. So please ensure that your data is completely wiped off as a factory setting on your phone. Get in touch with people like us who actually help in data sanitization and data destruction services.14:56 Subhra Priyadarshini: In summary then, mobile phones undoubtedly add to the e-waste problem, but with recycling efforts, and proper disposal their impact on the environment can be minimised, as everyone looks for sustainable approaches to technology consumption.
We'll be back soon with another episode on science in India in Hindi and English. In the meantime, make sure to check out our archives and share it with your friends and colleagues. I'm Subhra Priyadarshini and this is the Nature India podcast.
15:36 Support announcement: Thanks to the DBT Wellcome Trust India alliance for their support in producing this episode.
Listen to other episodes in this series:
मोबाइल की दुनिया: विज्ञान शिक्षा और संचार हुआ आसान
Our mobile worrld: Enabling intelligent transport systems
Our mobile world: Enabling precision agriculture
Our mobile world: Tracking biodiversity
Our mobile world: How mobile phones are helping save the planet
Our mobile world: Healthcare on the go
Our mobile world: How the cell phone is changing science and research
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