E-waste growing 10% a year in India

India's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research released a study this week that says e-waste is growing at a rate of 10 percent a year in India, with 95 percent headed to urban slums for segregating, dismantling and recycling in potentially hazardous conditions.

India is expected to receive 434,000 metric tons this year of e-waste, or electronics waste, such as televisions, computers, phones and appliances.

About 25,000 people in India's urban slums are employed in a makeshift e-waste recycling industry, which has little-to-no oversight for the health and safety of workers. Only about 5 percent of the e-waste is handled through the organized recycling industry.

The report noted that there were no rules or laws in place for e-waste management, or recycling facilities designed to protect workers and the environment.

Similar concerns prompted the western Indian state of Maharashtra to say in December it planned to crack down on e-waste by penning new regulations to address the massive problem in cities such as Mumbai and Pune (see Maharashtra starts to regulate cities' e-waste).

Mumbai generates 23,000 metric tons (25,350 tons) of e-waste a year, while Pune is responsible for about 5,000 metric tons annually.

Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) said in 2007 that Mumbai's lack of a management system means much of the e-waste goes to dumping grounds. TERI said that just two cities in the country—Delhi and Bangalore—have effective e-waste management systems in place.

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