Submitted by,
B.SATHYAPAL SHAJEE
G.JEGADEESWARAN

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Being in an era of technology, it is a well known fact that every one(either technical or non-technical people)tries to learn about technological developments, the operation of technological products & their applications. Further most of the engineers & research people concentrate on further developing existing technology. Everyone seems to be in a singing mood about technology.
But be alert, every technological development has its other side where it has certain hazardous impacts on environment, society & the living beings. If we take a note on this unknown side, we find many sorrowful facts about hazardious effects on surroundings. But unfortunately, there are little who care or turns their attention towards this sorrowful side of technology.
Here we are investigating on one such sorrowful face of electronics world called
“ELECTRONICS WASTAGES – A POISONOUS SOUP OF 21ST CENTURY”
with searching for following aims,
 What are electronic wastages & what they impacts are?
 Can’t we reduce the impact of hazardious electronic wastages on environment?
 Whatare people’s(both technical &technical)point of view(or)attention towards it?
 What are the future impacts it can develop on the environment?
 How can we control this impacts?
A SORROWFUL SURVEY LETS US TO SELECT THIS TOPIC-E-WASTE:
Once we had seen a small article about E-Waste in a magazine “SCIENCE REPORTER” from CSIR, New Delhi. The article is fully about sorrowful impacts of E-Waste in Asia(particularly the subcontinental area). The article further focused on the facts about
 Careless actions by people(both technical & non technical)on recycling of E-Waste .They simply dump them under the soil, throws them in seas etc. Unfortunately, this careless actions was becoming a “KILLER FOR ENVIRONMENT &NATURE”.
 Export of E-Waste from US & other developing countries to subcontinent. It focuses that even after getting freedom from British & European countries, the sub-continent remains slave to developed countries. The developed countries use sub-continent as their
“DUMP-SLAVE”
This sorrowful article made us to ask to people(both technical & Nontechnical) about E-Waste & its impacts. But unfortunately no single person (including technical people) were aware about E-Waste. They were totally unaware about,
 Exporing of E-Waste to Asia by developed countries &
 Impacts of dangerous VIRUS called “E-WASTE”
Being an engineering student, this sorrowful impacts made us to investigate on this topic & possibly create some sort of awareness to us & people surrounding us.
In this paper, we are concentrating on two parts,
 Effects of E-Waste &
 Ways to control the effects of E-Waste.
We have started with a general introductory view on E-Waste & followed by constituent & impact of E-Waste on environment. After that we have presented a deadly report on “EXPORT OF E-WASTE TO ASIA FROM AMERICA & OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES”. This report is very sorrowful to read. Then we had transferred our attention towards “IMPROPER RECYCLING” Done in china. It consists of improper recycling of printer toners,PCB & Acid strippers.
Finally without wasting anytime, we transferred our attention to the ways to control this E_Waste by the following ways.
 takeback compaign
 manufacturer should take the maximum burden.
 Replacing ways for lead as it is highly dangerous used metal in electronics.
 Awareness-a unique compulsory step.
Atlast we ended our paper with finding the feasibility of the solutions &arriving at the best possible solution. We ends with a motto,
“BE ALERT, BE AWARE & BE SAFE"
INTRODUCTION:
Looking to the technological world today ,normal people pays attention only to the growth of the unimaginary powerful, costless technology. But in the other hand,this fast growing rate of technology develops many hazardious impacts on the living beings and the nature which goes unnoticed most of the time.The people are either unaware or are not interested in paying attention to this things.But it’s the duty of the people in the technological field to take care of this impacts.
Being an engineering students,we are paying our attention to one of the most dangerous problem of the 21st century which will increase as time passes if not cared properly named,
"ELECTRONICS WASTAGES-A POISONOUS SOUP OF 21ST CENTURY"
Nowadays Discarded computers and other consumer electronics (so called e-waste) are the fastest growing portion of our waste stream - growing almost 3 times faster than our overall municipal waste stream.These are toxic hazardous wastes containing heavy metals like lead,cadmium,mercury etc causing poisoning of groundwater and damages the nervous and reproductive systems.
E-WASTE - A TOXIC SOUP:
E-waste consists of mainly lead which is high in following electronic goods,
• Pb Acid storage batteries 64%
• CRTs (TVs & monitors) 29%
• Other electronics 1%
• Glass & ceramics products 3%
• Plastics 1%
• Other products
E-waste also comprises of other risky elements like,
• Beryllium
• Cadmium
• Barium
• PVC
• Mercury
• PCBs
• Brominated Flame Retardants
Most domestic recyclers cannot avoid export. They have no recycling options for electronic components domestically so they end up exporting it to Asia via container ships for recycling. In fact, 80 percent of e-waste from America finds its way to Asia..No one had ever bothered to go to Asia and look at what recycling there looked like.
When the video cuts to China it shows you the wide spread destruction of Asia attributed to e-waste and ignorance.We are presenting a report on this exports & its impact in this paper.
Circuit boards, burnt plastics, videotapes, printer cartridges, toner cartridges, Cathode Ray Tubes and such litter are part of the export.We will also have a detailed discussion regarding the improper recycling of this products & its impact.
EFFECTS OF THE TOXIC SOUP-E-WASTE HURTS THE ENVIRONMENT:
impacts of lead:
• Persistent, bio-accumulative, toxic (PBT) chemical
• Adverse affects on children’s brain development is proven
• Damages human nervous system, kidneys, blood, and reproductive systems
impacts of other toxic elements:
• Mercury - impairs learning and intelligence in children and increases the rates of neurodevelopment disabilities, including autism,effects kidneys, fetus and travels easily in the food chain (PBT).
• Cadmium - damages kidneys (PBT)
• Chromium VI - damages DNA
• Toners - carbon black - respiratory problems;
• The combination of toxics found in e-waste is also suspected of causing cancer clusters, birth defects,
• miscarriages, and high levels of dangerous chemicals have been detected in the blood of computer recycling employees.
• Cathode Ray Tubes, the picture tubes in computers and televisions, contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead per unit, posing a hazardous legacy for current and future generations. Consumer electronics already constitute 40% of lead and about 70% of the heavy metals (including mercury and cadmium) found in landfills.
EXPORTING HARM TO ASIA -A REPORT:
Large quantities of e-waste collected for recycling in the United States are finding new markets in China, Pakistan and India. This tremendous amount of imported [electronic] waste material and process residues is not recycled but is simply dumped in open fields, along riverbanks, ponds, wetlands, in rivers and in irrigation ditches. Findings from a new study show e-waste disposal in third world countries harms both public health and the environment.
A report “Exporting Harm: The High Tech Trashing of Asia” says,
that in a cluster of villages & towns like guiya along the Lianjiang River in southeastern China, some 200,000 men, women and children labor to recycle obsolete electronic equipment imported from North America. The work continues despite a ban on the import of toxic materials by the Chinese government.
The whole villages made their living burning wires from the inside of a computer.These small short wires are ripped out in the town in massive quantities and collected in bags, delivered to villages outside of town where they are sorted by day and burned at night producing “CANCER-CAUSING DIOXINS” and kids are playing in the ash like it was a sandbox.
The workers operating under primitive conditions melting and burning toxic soldered circuit boards and cracking and dumping toxic lead laden cathode ray tubes. Many tons of e-waste are routinely thrown in open fields and irrigation canals in the rice growing area. The water has become undrinkable. And, except for providing rubber gloves and boots, no attempt has been made to protect the workers.
Nobody seemed to be aware that these were problems. They didn’t know the toxicity [of the water or the chemicals] especially the cancer-causing problems. Similar activities are also happening in Pakistan and India too.
In a new report by a coalition of environment groups –recommends that the United states ratify the Basal Convention, a global treaty that limits export of hazardous electronic waste. The United States is the only developed nation that has not ratified the treaty or the subsequent amendment that would ban the export of e_waste.
So U.S. ratification is the most important of several steps that could put a stop to the toxic waste trade.
IMPACT OF THIS E-WASTE EXPORT :
Six years ago Guiyu was a peaceful rice village but when e-waste started arriving by the truckload life there changed.
• Both well water and surface water has been undrinkable in Guiyu for 5 years because of it being so polluted. It has to be trucked in from a town 30 Kilometers away.
• People in Guiyu use the polluted water to wash their dinner plates and wash their clothes with. Many get sick from it, even children.
• The methods they are using to recycle poison the air they breath and of course, the water.
• E-waste will always run down hill on the economic path of least resistance towards the poorest people. In China, environmental standards are lax and labor is cheap. Workers usually get paid $1.50 a day to recycle e-waste using primitive methods.
In picture in the last page, you see workers disassembling electronic equipment with hammers and other tools. After taking the most valuable parts most discard the unwanted material in ditches or along side roadways.It is not uncommon to see charred circuit boards, burnt plastics and other electronic equipment dumped any where they can find a place for it.
“Landfills of the world reflect a people who would rather destroy themselves intellectually and later destroy the environment they live in rather then realize knowledge and live in harmony with nature.”
"We now have a very ugly scenario where the United States on one hand, is doing everything it can to prevent the contamination of its own soil by the dumping of e-waste into its landfills. On the other hand they are actively promoting the wholesale exporting of this waste to Asia where it ends up in rice patties and irrigation ditches . This has gone unnoticed until now.So in the politics of e-waste developed countries like USA,Japan etc. are using developing nations to save their soil.
So we all (asia’s developing countries) should form a unity & say to developed countries
“ASIA IS NOT YOUR WASTE DUMP!”