E-WASTE HOTSPOT: A scrap dealer dismantling a discarded computer monitor at the Moore Market in Chennai. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: This is the flip-side of the IT boom: Chennai is turning into a dumping ground for hazardous techno-trash, as a recent action by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board shows. Also, the city will soon become the site of the first-ever e-waste inventorying of the IT industry in the country.

In a show cause notice on May 23, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board pulled up software major Wipro for generating, storing and transporting e-waste without proper approval. The software major, in its reply, said most of the waste had been transported to an authorised scrap dealer in Chennai. Later, it turned out that the dealer had been illegally handling e-waste for three years before getting approval from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. Also, during an inspection of Wipro, the KSPCB officials found piles of unapproved e-waste kept for transportation to Tamil Nadu.

For the TNPCB, such inflows of e-waste into Chennai have highlighted the need for immediate intervention, especially with the IT corridor coming up. The Board has commissioned the Centre for Environmental Sciences, Anna University, to do an inventory of all facilities generating, importing, storing and recycling e-waste. The inventorying, to be completed in three months, will also suggest ways to manage the waste. "We do not have any e-waste database till now and the survey will redress this. Once the data comes in, management will become easier," a top TNPCB official said.

E-waste is classified as hazardous under the Basel Convention, which prohibits its trans-boundary movement. According to a study done in the United States, a 70 lb desktop computer contains 6.2% lead, 14% aluminium, 20.4% iron and 24% silica, apart from cobalt, antimony, chromium, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, most of which are carcinogenic. With entry-level prices for computers and peripherals dropping, obsolete models are being discarded rather than upgraded, studies show.

Till now, the only e-waste inventory in the city had been done by the NGO, Toxics Link, in 2004. The study had identified a cluster of e-waste hotspots: the electronics market in Richie Street, recycling units at Royapuram and Tiruvottiyur, the seconds-goods markets at New Moore Market, Chintadripet and Pudupet, the plastic-recycling belt of Mannadi, Kosapet and Otteri, the Madras Export Processing Zone, Purasawalkkam, Periamedu and Vepery. Chennai port was found to be deluged with e-waste import, mostly from the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, Belgium and the Middle East. Most of the imports had been wrongly named as "mixed metal scrap" or "mixed cable scrap," the import of which is not prohibited.

Within Chennai, government departments, private sector enterprises and scrap dealers were found to generate the hazardous waste.

If handled unscientifically during disbanding and breaking down, e-waste has the potential to pollute natural resources such as water, apart from endangering the health of the workers, who do not wear protective gear. "Some of the toxic trash also finds its way into municipal garbage dumps, especially in Alandur municipality. If the garbage is burned, the e-waste has the potential to disastrously explode,'' says K.R. Sudhakar who did the Toxics Link study.

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