ABSTRACT
The term “electronic waste” is already at alarming stage not only for India, but for the whole world, especially for developed and developing countries. Electronic waste or e-waste has become an issue due to increasing demand and continuous technological advancement, which make a newly bought electronic item looking obsolete within half year. Almost every household store e-waste as technological advancement forces/tempts to buy new electronic items at a very fast pace. Purchase of new item is not the issue, but unproper treatment of obsolete/unused items is the issue. India alone generated approx. 1,014,961 tonnes of e-waste for the Fiscal Year 2019–2020, which is about 32% more as compared to the Fiscal Year 2018–2019. This issue is severe, because only 3.6% and 10% of such waste were handled/collected effectively for the Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019, respectively. India stands third in e-waste generation after China and United States, and second in Asia. The presented data is a matter of great concern due to toxic elements such as lead, mercury, lithium, cadmium, barium, and polybrominated flame retardants. Such toxic elements are present in electronic items such as cathode ray tubes, printers, LCDs, mobiles, etc. A detailed look is discussed in this chapter. The reason for such a large e-waste in India is also due to globalisation, which makes India open to world market. Mostly, Chinese electronic items have taken over India’s electronic market, and there rapidly changing technology is the biggest source of e-waste in India. This chapter focuses on problem severity for India and the world. A detailed discussion for the actions taken to tackle such problem within India, and other measures taken outside India, is presented.
