The Myth of ‘Environmentally Sound’ Management of E-waste

The growing volumes of obsolete electronic product, or e-waste, have posed serious concerns on landfill spaces and the urgent need to recycling hazardous components in both developed and developing countries. The illegal shipment of e-waste from developed countries to developing countries has been often reported. In India, the growing stream of e-waste imported and domestically disposed, particularly computer waste has aggregated the environmental health problems at the bottom part of the informal recycling chain, while generating economic benefit and clean environment for the particular group of people. Hence the major focus of my study is to understand the structure of this disproportionate distribution of economic benefits and environmental health costs in the computer recycling chain in India. This paper initially characterizes the generation of and the flow of computer waste in and between developed and developing countries and examines specifically the flow into the formal and informal recycling chains in India. Then the paper analyzes the distribution of economic benefits and environmental health costs in the informal recycling chain in Delhi with a focus on power relations among socially and economically differentiated actors. Finally the paper attempts to investigate policy implementation on the uneven distribution of benefits and costs.