HYDERABAD: Wondering how to dispose of those old mobile chargers and computer keyboards or mouse that are no longer working? Many denizens chuck them off carelessly, not aware of the environmental consequences of this action. Selling it to the local kabadiwala too would mean that these e-products finally end up in incinerators, which does more harm than good.

With safe disposal of e-waste still in a nascent stage, people are getting exposed to dangerous chemicals, toxic gases and heavy metals, say experts working with e-waste management. About 95 per cent of e-waste recycling in the city still takes place in the informal sector that employs an army of dismantlers in places like Old City, Mallepally and Hyderguda to segregate metals from the wastes or through incineration.

In an effort to create an awareness of the dangers of improper disposal of e-waste and also recycle it in a safe manner, a World Bank funded project Clean E-initiative was launched in four cities including Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmadabad last year. Guide Foundation for Development, the implementing NGO in Hyderabad entrusted with Clean E-initiative, in collaboration with Attero, an electronic asset management company, has begun the herculean task of recycling e-waste.

Under the project, the NGO has so far collected 30 tonnes of e-waste through its five authorized collection centres at Kukatpally, Khairatabad, Hafeezpet, Jubilee Hills and Secunderabad. After packaging the e-waste, it is sent to Attero's facility in Roorkee for dismantling, segregation and recycling.

Thirty tonnes is a miniscule amount, as even by a conservative estimate, if it is assumed that each of the 25 lakh households in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits produces 5 kg e-waste annually, it would add up to 10,000 metric tonnes (MT) of e-waste in a year.

This should not be surprising as among the Indian cities, Hyderabad has been ranked as the 5th highest generator of e-waste in a study conducted by Hyderabad-based Environment Protection Training & Research Institute (EPTRI) in 2009. Based on a sample survey with 246 respondents, the report went on to predict that the annual turnover of e-waste in Hyderabad was 6743.87MT (in 2009) and would touch 1,07,886 MT in the next five years, i.e by 2013.

The shoddy manner of treating e-waste is of a grave concern. The electronic and electrical waste like discarded TV sets, monitors, printers, mobile phones, circuit boards and refrigerators contain chemicals and metals like lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, polyvinyl chlorides (PVC), brominated flame retardants, beryllium, antimony, arsenic, mercury, leachate, dioxin and phthalates, which either produce toxic gases when burnt or percolates down to the ground water when buried in landfills.

The EPTRI report adds that long-term exposure to these harmful elements could cause cancer, reproductive disorder or damage nervous systems, kidney, bones and endocrine systems.

"When everything including household garbage and e-waste from the city are being dumped together at Jawaharnagar dumping yard on the city outskirts, the day is not far when we slowly turn into another Chinese city of Guiyu, the e-waste capital of the world," said Lubna Sarwath, an environmentalist.

Rajan Shukla, associate professor at Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Hyderabad, said that though 70% of e-waste can be technically recycled by breaking them into their basic components, they are not being recycled in India as the returns from recycling is lower than the cost incurred. "But in order to scientifically establish a link between e-waste and health, there is a need to study the disease profile in Hyderabad by surveying areas where e-wastes are incinerated or buried in landfills," he said.

People can dial 18004193283 and 040-66812222, or visit http://www.attero.in/clean_india.php to sell discarded TV sets, refrigerators, laptops, printers, washing machines, desktops, mobiles and CPUs.