For years India’s growing IT sector and income levels enabled people to splurge on electronic products. While people rush to buy personal computers, mobile phones and other gadgets, there is an increasing concern over the accumulating electronic waste.

India generates around $1.5 billion (Rs. 67.50 billion) worth of e-waste annually, says Manufacturers Association of Information Technology, the association representing hardware makers. It also said manufacturers and assemblers produce about 1050 tons of computer and allied products scrap each year.

The growing population of Personal Computer users in the country discards huge quantity of older generation computers. Around 2 million PCs are estimated to be obsolete now.

Effective disposal of e-waste is a cause of
serious concern across the country. It is estimated that by the end of 2005, 1 million cell phones will be discarded.

With the increase in electronic gadgets in the domestic environment and the Small Office Home Office market, e-waste is growing exponentially due to product obsolescence, which is growing at two percent per week.

50-80 percent of U.S. e-waste collected for recycling is sent to Asia-mainly to China, India, and Pakistan. It is 10 times cheaper to ship Cathod Ray Tube monitors to India than to recycle them domestically in the U.S, a report said.

According to the MAIT, e-waste recycling has become a lucrative business as electronic equipment’s consists of valuable materials like gold, copper, plastic and glass.
Due to some toxic materials present in the PC’s, e-waste if not re-cycled is hazardous to health. PCs contain toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury and plastic among others. The MAIT has urged the Indian government to set up a federal agency to handle the disposal of electronic waste.