Assessment of electronic waste management systems in Dhaka City

Abstract

The changing lifestyle of people coupled with urbanization, rapid technological progress and decreasing lifespan of a single electronic device, has lead to increasing rates of consumption of electronic products. This has made electronic waste management a burning issue of environment and health concern. The direct study on Dhaka City shows that e-waste generation is 0.26 kg per capita in 2013. On the other hand from statistical analysis, per capita e-waste generation in urban areas of Bangladesh has been found 0.15, 0.016 and 0.65 kg per capita in 2013 from three different scenarios. Chankherpul is the largest secondary e-waste accumulation centers in the city. Besides e-wastes are also accumulated and dismantled in Elephant Road, Stadium market, Kodomtoli, Jinjira, Kamrangi chor, Segun Bagicha and Notun Bazar. Most of the elements of e-waste has its own recycling process such as plastic, PVC are recycled using local technique in Islambag. Metal, wire, glass etc. are recycled in industries near Becharamdauri Mredhabari and Kachpur. But some other elements like printed circuit board (PCB) and Cathode ray tube (CRT) which cannot be recycled are thrown to dustbin as procedure of extraction of valuable metals from PCB (Acid bath) is not exercised here. But there are few agents who export those to foreign Countries. Land filling one of the major processes of disposal of e-waste is not exercised here. Open burning to recover valuable metal from ewaste is exercised here in a small scale. According to the survey only 20% of the workers involved in e-waste dismantling sectors are aware of the toxicity of e-waste. About 80% people are agreed to spend few amount (1.5% of their average monthly salary) of their income to ensure safety (use of gas masks, goggles, boots, hand gloves etc) during working. Survey also shows that 40% people faced accidents during working. 20% people became seriously ill during working and they need to hospitalize. Test results of heavy metal content of water samples collected from the water body near to the e-waste hotspots (Chankherpul, Islambag and Waizghat) shows the existence of large amount of Iron, Lead, Cadmium, Copper and Chromium. Test results of soil samples also indicate significant existence of heavy metal content of the soil of e-waste hotspots.