Environmental impact of IT industry

HYDERABAD: With rapid growth of IT industry globally in recent years, a need has been strongly been felt to consider the consequent environmental implications. An effect of IT revolution is generation of e-waste, a popular informal name for electronic products, which have become obsolete or have reached their end of useful life.

Sources and characteristics of e-waste

e-waste encompasses ever growing range of obsolete electronic devices such as desktops, laptops, servers, TVs and other display devices, cellular phones, pagers, printers, scanners, DVDs, CDs and other storage devices which have been disposed off by their original users. The major sectors generating e-waste include individuals, small businesses, large businesses, institutions, governments and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Due to the new technologies, the rate of obsolescence is very high. Often hazards arise due to the improper recycling and disposal processes used. As new technologies enter the market, e-waste is a mounting concern. The estimate is that 20 million devices become obsolete with many kilos of toxins in each year.

Environmental implications

Over the years, e-waste leads to chemical and metal leaching finally resulting in groundwater contamination. Mercury, for example, will leach when certain electronic devices such as circuit breakers are destroyed. Lead has been found to leach from broken lead-containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes from TV’s and monitors. When brominated flame retarded plastics or plastics containing cadmium are landfilled, both PBDE and cadmium may leach in to soil and ground water. Landfills are also prone to uncontrolled fires, which release toxic fumes.

Disposal practices

Disposal of e-wastes is a particular problem faced in many regions across the globe. Landfilling e-waste is the most widely used method of disposal. Incineration is also being practiced for some parts of the computer, especially cables. About 3-5 per cent of the computers that have been discarded by their users are re-used. Re-use involves direct second-hand use or use after slight modifications of the original functioning equipment like memory upgrades, etc. Though recycling is gaining popularity, rates of recycling are still very low.

Indian scenario

In India, most of the recyclers currently engaged in recycling activities do not have this expensive technology to handle the waste. Computer scrap is managed through various management alternatives such as product reuse, conventional disposal in landfills, incineration and recycling. However, the disposal and recycling of computer waste in the country has become a serious problem since the methods of disposal are very rudimentary and pose grave environmental and health hazards. India now also has to manage the waste being dumped by other countries. Over the years, Toxics Links has regularly been claiming that large quantities of e-wastes are being dumped on to Indian shores in the name of recycling.

Remedial action

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on 12th July, 2006, which requires the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the use of energy-efficient servers that can reduce the power demand of data centers packed with equipment. In India, the National Energy Labeling program was officially launched on 18th May, 2006, for the first time by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). It has been made mandatory for many electronic products to get certified by BEE. The certification of PC’s, Laptop’s and servers are yet to be made mandatory under this program. Improvements in datacenter energy efficiency can yield great savings. They reduce direct energy consumed by IT equipment and also reduce indirect costs by reducing the need for increased floor space and more cooling equipment to dissipate server-generated heat. Energy efficient servers are currently available and perform as well as, or better than, less efficient counterparts. IEEE has come out with a Standard 1680 with the support of EPA in which it mentions that all desktops have to have a "Energy Star" label to as a certification of energy efficiency. An example of a successful international voluntary initiative is that all applicable products of Sun Microsystems comply with requirements of "Energy Star".

For government policy

Government should play a vital role by revisiting the proportion of time and funds spent by governments on increasing the supply of energy at the expense of efforts to decrease the demand. It should also establish tax incentives and government procurement guidelines that motivate purchase of energy efficient servers and other data centre components. The government should also foster voluntary industry efforts to develop energy efficient computing products and engage in public private partnership.

Recommendations

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has emphasized the need for recycling and re-use of end-of-life electronic equipment. Appropriate legislation and its enforcement are absolutely essential to tackle this problem. There are different options available for computers besides just throwing them away (or storing them). Many computers are built in a way that allows them to be repaired or upgraded, which means they can be reused. The other viable option is recycling. The government rules should make it mandatory for the OEMs to buy back their products at the end of the life. Thus the OEMs have to be equipped with recycle and disposal facilities of the rejected IT hardware. Some leading computer manufacturing companies strictly comply to the environmental friendly requirements. For example, Sun Microsystems avoids the use of hazardous substances where possible. The company has a unique product “take back” and reuse programme, which recycles, reclaims and reuses both components and entire systems to the benefit of its customers and the environment. In fact less than 1 per cent enters the waste stream.

Conclusion

The continued and expanded use of electronic information and communication technologies is likely to be a key to achieve global sustainability. However, with the current industrial technology and infrastructure, the electronic products have unacceptably high social and environmental impacts. Therefore, while acquiring electronic products one must consider that the items are made up of fewer toxic components and are recyclable, energy efficient, designed for easy upgradation or disassembly, environmentally preferable and have take back options. Finally, it is the responsibility of every individual to work for a cleaner environment.

(This article is based on a study “Energy Implication and e -Waste Generation: Environmental Impact of IT Industry”, by Anuradha Sen, Jaijit Bhattacharya of Sun Microsystems (India), Amit Shrivastava, M.G. Dastidar Centre for Energy Studies Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and T.R SreeKrishnan Department of Biochemical Engg. & Biotechnology Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi)