A scrap trader dealing in discarded cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors takes a nap in Mustafabad, Delhi. While reusable monitors sell for Rs 500, unusable ones are dismantled for glass, plastic, copper and circuit boards. The glass is often used as a base to prepare ovens in bakeries as the high lead content helps heat retention.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
The unorganized circuit board processing units in Moradabad, UP, employs children between the ages of eight to fifteen. Traders estimate that about half of all circuit boards used in electrical appliances end up in Moradabad, once famed as the petal nagri or the brass city.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
A monitor cover serves as the wicket for cricket playing kids in Seelampur, Delhi.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
A monitor crusher at a formal recycling unit inside the Noida special economic zone (SEZ) in Uttar Pradesh. Imports often find their way into formal units; for a waste trader in the US or Europe it costs $20 to process an old computer while it can sell the same piece to traders in a country like India and earn $10 instead! Old computers are also exported to India as charitable donations and as illegal shipments; according to official estimates India imports more than 15,000 tonnes of e waste every year, illegally.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Laborers working in Seelampur, Delhi, dismantle computer scrap to segregate metals, circuit boards and plastic. The segregated parts are then sent to different places either to be reused or recycled.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Old CRT monitors are refurbished as cheap color televisions. Mustafabad, Delhi.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Circuit boards dry in the terrace alongside clothes. Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
According to traders in electronic scrap it is most profitable to recycle circuit boards. Computer motherboards sell for Rs 230 a kg from which copper and gold are extracted. The extraction is hazardous and is done in small towns like Moradabad, barely 150 kilometers from Delhi. In the photograph, circuit boards are washed in the Ramganga river in Moradabad after extraction of copper and gold. After the final wash in this tributary of the holy Ganges the boards will be sold to plastic recyclers for Rs 2 per kg.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
With the government regulations set to target informal units for their risky and polluting ways, thousands await an uncertain future. Informal scrap dealers unit, Shastri Park, Delhi.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
15-year-old Shanu extracts copper from dismantled UPS fans in Shastri Park, Delhi. The copper sells for Rs 330 per kg fetching his employer handsome returns on a good day when as much as 10 kilograms can be extracted. Shanu, however never earns beyond Rs 200 a day.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Auctions are regularly held across the country to dispose scrap by the private companies and government departments. Impending government regulations, though, will bar informal scrap dealers from participating in such auctions. At an auction by the Department of Ayurveda, Government of India, parliament street, Delhi.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Under a blazing summer sun, gas torches help remove metal parts from circuit boards. Working under hazardous conditions a typical laborer earns not more than Rs 100 a day. Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Circuit boards are dipped in acid and burnt to segregate plastic from precious metals in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. Hydrochloric and sulphuric acid is commonly used. The fumes contain chlorine and sulpher di-oxide which cause respiratory problems. The acids are corrosive to the eyes and skin.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
In the by-lanes of New Seelampur, Delhi, extracting copper and PVC from discarded wires is a household industry.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
A 10,000 sq. feet formal recycling unit in Noida with a capacity to process 500 tonnes annually. Since 2005 the unit has processed only 200 tonnes due to lack of collection mechanisms. Formal recyclers admit to tough competition from the unorganized sector and expect government patronage to further their margins.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
10-year-old Asif washes motherboards ripped of gold and silver in the banks of Ramganga river in Moradabad, Uttarpradesh. He will sell it as plastic scrap for Rs. 2 per kg.
What happens to computers and printers and fax machines no longer in use? What is reused and what is scrapped? Is recycling of e-waste toxic? Find out more on the economy of electronic waste run by the informal sector and how organized recyclers are vying for a share of the pie.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Recycling motherboards is like a cottage industry in Moradabad, UP. A family of four typically earns Rs. 300 per day plus the attendant health hazards. For example, the mercury released can harm infants through the mother’s milk.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
The segregation process also releases an array of hazardous chemicals like lead, chromium and mercury. While lead affects kidneys and the reproductive system, inhaling chromium leads to damaged liver and kidneys and bronchial maladies including lung cancer. Mercury released during breaking and burning of circuit boards can damage brain, kidneys and impair fetus growth.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
If the electric and computer wires are in good condition a knife is used to extract copper. Otherwise, they are burnt; burning PVC in the plastic releases hazardous dioxins. New Seelampur, Delhi.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Formal recyclers like Attero’s Nitin Gupta complain about the polluting and hazardous nature of informal recycling units. Attero in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, was the first recycler in the country to be allowed to import and to use chemical processes to extract precious metals from motherboards. But in the face of unused capacity, the company rampantly sells old computers to informal traders from Moradabad, Down To Earth, found.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth
Seelampur in the north eastern fringe of Delhi receives electronic waste from across north India. More than 400,000 tonnes of e-waste is generated in India every year of which 90 percent ends up in the unorganized market.
Photographs by - Sayantan Bera/Down To Earth