DIGC 102 DOSSIER

TOPIC: Future predictions of the quality of life if e-waste recycling trends

continue in India and China.

Abstract:
There is a trend in e-waste recycling to bury or hide the problem. The problem being
what to do with the obsolete and/or broken products of e-waste. E-waste includes
electronic goods, such as computers and printers, as well as household whitegoods,
such as washing machines. These products normally end up in developing countries
such as India or China, where there is no strong policy, or limited opposition against
the dumping of such goods. Although e-waste imports into these countries provide
jobs for those who would otherwise be unemployed, e-waste products contain many
hazardous materials. These materials are harming those who are employed to
dissassemble them. There is rarely any policy regarding human health and safety,
and as a result those involved grow ill, the effects of which are being passed down
into the next generation. So what we will be finding out is what could happen to the
people in China and India involved in the dismantling of e-waste if these trends
continue.

Introduction:
E-waste (electronic waste) is the term given to obsolete and/or broken electronic
goods such as laptops, printers and iPods, and household whitegoods such as
refrigerators and washing machines. E-waste disposal is a problem in that most e-
waste recycling occurs in developing countries such as India and China. People in
those countries involved in dismantling e-waste are exposed to high levels of toxic
substances that are released from products of e-waste. Methods such as acid
burning release harmful chemicals including lead, mercury and cadmium into the
environment which have devastating health effects on those people (Sterne,2007
p26).
This report will attempt to deduce some future predictions of the quality of life for
these people if current trends of e-waste recycling continues. The focus will be on
India and China. We intend to use methods of visualisation to analyse data on the
effects of e-waste on health factors in India and China. This will help us make
projections about future implications on life expectancy for both countries. We will
also incorporate the use of an online participant observation focus for a general
overview of how people are looking at the topic. Finally, we intend to interview a
health science expert and an environmental expert from UOW on their opinions and
views of the impacts of e-waste in both countries.

Results:
Data Visualisation
Data vidualisations were used to give a more statistical understanding to the e-
waste problem. by using this veiw of things it can be made clearer the numbers of
death and life expectancy drops as a result of e-waste in india and China. showing
numbers and graphs also allows for the a viewer to compare information easier to
other countries and to difrent results of e-waste.
China
the results were not as catastrophic as expected however showed that the e-waste is
increasing to cause a lot of deaths and problems. based of the models released in
2007, china is expected to have an E-Waste increase of 400% by 2020. This amount
has its variables as these numbers are based of the idea of no intervention from
other countries or no sudden increase in E-Waste importation.
The current life expectancy of china is 73 years, were as in Australia it stands at 81.
this is a massive diffrence in life expectancy between countries, and helps to point
out the major diffrence in quality of life. these status were found on a few e-waste
sites and i used google population to find things like life expectancy and population.
google population was a great help as it used a graph to display its data, this was
helpful as it showed a clear cut way of comparing data and finding important
statistical information

this chart compares the population of china and india, when the E-Waste is put into
account we can determine how the population will drop. from this chart we can
gather future status of population and also find how the two will compare in future
years.

India
I used various websites to find status on India. most of these came from the world
bank website which accuratly give the population and stats regarding E-Waste .
E-Waste in india is a growing concern as more and more is comming into the country
and the population is growing at the same time. based of 2007 status, by 2020 E-
Watse will have an increase of up to 500%. this excessive amount of E-Waste will
cause a great problem to and increasing amount of people. finding this infromation
was hard as it was dificulte to be accurate in my findings. The world bank was the
site i relied on the most as there findings on populations became the most
dependable.

The major problem with these stats is that there are to many variables to consider to
find sufficient information, we can only base what we think will be the outcome for
the future of current stats, without accounting fully for things like, public intervention,
sudden population or e-waste decrease or a change/agreement signed by nations.

Participant Observation
Participant observation methodology is the critical observation of everyday practices
in a culture or society (Crang and Cook, 2007, p37). To be a participant means that a
researcher must immerse themselves into a culture and to be a part of the everyday
goings on. The first step in participant observation is to be considered a part of the
culture or society whose activities will be observed (Vidich, 1969 p80). In the case of
online participant observation which I undertook, admittance into the culture was not
an issue. The first problem was to become accustomed to the cultural references
inherent in the culture, which in this case is the social sourcing website Reddit.com.

Reddit.com is an internet forum where users (known as 'redditors') upload links and
stories. Reddit.com (a pun on “read it”) refers to itself a ‘source for what’s new and
popular on the internet’ (reddit.com, 2010). It has a specific peer-review system
whereby users upvote or downvote the source, and are free to comment. Reddit.com
consists of ‘subreddits’. These are specific user-created forums where users
subscribe and post to. Examples include pics, politics, worldnews, funny, and
environment. To post, a user can ask a question, post a link or share a story.

My personal experience of Reddit.com began at the beginning of 2010, the website

having been recommended to me by my brother who has been a user for a number
of years. After lurking for three or four months, I registered as a redditor. The
decision to become a member of the community was to pursue participant
observation on the group topic of e-waste and health. My aim was to discover what
redditors know about e-waste and health, and ultimately gain an insight into the
Reddit.com community.

The major problem I encountered was exactly how to integrate myself into such a
well-established community, and to extract responses needed to answer my
question. I posted over 20 links (Appendix 1), but ultimately, the results produced a
negative hypothesis. I was expecting to analyse comments made by redditors,
however, I received more upvotes and downvotes than comments. Fig 1 is an
example of the results of a post:
 Fig 1

One reason for this is that the topic of e-waste does not rate very high on reddit.com.
This was discovered using a simple search engine on the website (Fig 2). The
highest comment rate was 12, and the highest upvotes for any single e-waste link
was 40, in comparison to the front page comments (Fig 3) and upvotes which can
often run into the thousands.
 Fig 2

Fig 3

Interview
An interview, as defined by Kvale (2006) is an inter change of views between two
people conversing about a theme of mutual interest. I intended to gain the views of
two experts on health and the environment, so as to draw some valid and educated
conclusions on the future of health for India and China regarding E-waste.

I conducted two semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with two members of the

University of Wollongong (UOW) staff. I used a microphone to record the entire
interview, which began with my prepared questions (Appendix 2) and integrated
some spontaneous follow up questions. When contacting the two members, I
outlined what our focus and purpose was, as well as what we would be using the
information for, to ensure ethical practice.

The first interview conducted was with the Environment Service Manager of the
Environment and Sustainability Initiatives Unit of UOW, Mr. David Low. A deed poll
needed to be signed prior to this interview for confidentiality reasons. Questions put
to Mr Low asked for his opinion on the current recycling system of electronic waste,
as well as his predictions for the future. Overall he claimed the situation was likely to
improve, although very gradually. As more awareness is raised about the issue and
severe health risks of improper recycling procedures in India and China, producers
as well as consumers are likely to push for some change.
The second interview was with Health science, toxicology and hazardous chemical
expert Professor Brian Davies of the Health Science department of UOW. The
questions posed to Prof. Davies began similarly to Mr Low's questions. I referred to a
table from Green Citizen (Fig 4) which outlines the toxic components in E-waste, and
asked specifically about health problems a person would incur with exposure to
these.

*Green citizen table of toxic components found in E-waste* (Fig 4)

Paraphrasing, Prof. Davies said that the chemicals listed, such as lead, mercury and
cadium are no doubt toxic, however, it is the amount and type of exposure which is
important when looking at health risks, and as such this table can not give an
indication of possible health risks. Short of surveying and testing every single
recycling in India and China, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint health problems, such
as brain damage from lead exposure, as resulting directly from e-waste recycling.
Prof Davies also made the point that there are much greater health problems in
countries such as India and China, and hence those posed by improper e-waste
recycling are not likely to be worked on, or solved in the near future.

Reflecting on both interviews, Mr Low has the idea that the problems of electronic
recycling for human health and the environment are likely to become more of a focus
in the future, and producers will be pushed to enforced proper recycling techniques,
leading to an improvement in health, or at least not a decline in health from improper
recycling techniques. However, Prof Davies presented a more pessimistic view,
saying electronic recycling in these countries is not doubt dangerous and not
conducted safely, but to be able to make future health predictions based on the
effects of electronic recycling is near impossible. Further to that, it is not likely to be a
prominent issue in the near future, as these countries are yet to solve mass poverty,
malnutrition and other more pressing health concerns.

Both of these interviews proved helpful in our research. The major problem was the
technical difficulties we had with the microphone. It stopped recording in some
crucial moments of the interview, and once lost, it is impossible to obtain that exact
answer again. However, the recorder was helpful in that we did not have to scribe,
and thus were free to engage fully, and think of some strong follow up questions.
Although I did not get the answers i expected, they provided an answer to our
question. More research is needed.

Conclusion

Participant observation of reddit.com is not a useful tool. It is a website that is

seemingly random as you cannot predict your post will generate the kind of
conversation and participation you are after. While I attempted to make my post titles
interesting and catchy, I found the problem lies in the fact that no posts about e-
waste were ultimately successful. It is not a subject that seems to rate high for
redditors, and therefore could reflect society’s view of e-waste. Perhaps when e-
waste becomes a household name reddit.com could be a good candidate for another
participant observation.

As the participant observation showed the lack of interest towards E-waste in the
general public, It would seem Prof. Davies point is reiterated, as there are just more
pressing problems in these countries. The interviews were a great way of getting an
educated opinion to combine with the participant obseravation of the general public.

The largest roadblock we encountered was the overall lack of awareness of the
issue of health and e-waste. This was especially evident with our data visualisations
and Reddit.com participant observation. What is needed is further research into this
topic; it is difficult to predict future trends of this issue when the data is incomplete or
a guess in itself!

Appendix
Appendix 1
 Appendix 2

Questions for Professor Brian Davies, Health Science expert

- Are you familiar with the term E-waste?

The toxins in E-waste are; Barium, Cadmium, lead, lithium, mercury, nickel,
Palladium, Rhodium, Silver;

- With your experience in hazardous substances, are you able to tell us the damage
these could do if exposed to a human on a daily basis?
- Would these health implications effect unborn children of the workers?
- Is it likely the health implications will wear off, or subside if exposure stops?
- Unfortunately, there is evidence of children working in these recycling yards,
would the children be at a higher risk of severe health implications than adults?
- As many of the toxins come not only in direct contact with the recyclers, but are
also present in the soil, air and water, do you think indirect contact with these toxins
could also be problematic to the peoples health?
- If the recycling process continues in this way, How do you expect the life
expectancy to change?
- After learning of the nature of E-waste recycling in developing countries such as
India and China, how do you think this will impact on the future of health standards.
- If the recycling stopped, would the effects of the toxins in the soil, air and water
still be present? How long would you predict?
- You also specialize in occupational health, in your opinion, who do you think
should take responsibility for this unsafe and hazardous recycling currenly operating?
The countries which export it, the Government of the countries in which it is
happening, or a wider body such as UN?

Questions for Mr David Low of the ESI Unit

- What does your position as Environmental Services Manager consist of?

- As an environmental activist and expert, what do you know of the term ‘E-
waste’?
- How do you think the current recycling procedures affect the environment?
- How do you think the current electronic recycling procedures could be
improved?
- Were you aware that developed countries ie USA, Aus, often export their E-
waste to developing countries such as india and china where people are willing to go
through the hazardous deconstruction process? What are your thoughts on this?
- What are your thoughts on the future of E-waste?
- Do you think E-waste recycling is likely to improve and become a sustainable
process in future?
- What do you think could be some future implications of E-waste recycling if not
handled correctly?
References

Crang, M & Cook, I, 2007, Doing Ethnographies, SAGE Publications, London, UK.

Kvale, S 2006, 'An Introduction to Qualitative research interviewing' SAGE

Publications, California, USA

Sterne, J 2007, 'Out with the trash: on the future of new media', in CR Acland (ed.),
Residual Media, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minn, pp16-31.

Vidich, A.J., 1969, 'Participant Observation and the Collection and Interpretation of
Data', in GJ McCall & JL Simmons (eds.), Issues in Participant Observation: A Text
and Reader, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts,
pp78-86.

Google population 2008, India and China Population accessed may 20th 2010,
www.google.com/publicdata

Tree hugger 2010, E-waste in India to Rise 500% by 2020, acessed 20th may 2010,
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/e-waste-in-india-to-rise-500-by-2020.php

Google life expectancy 2008, India and China Life expectancy, accessed 20th may
2010, http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-
wdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:AUS&dl=en&hl=en&q=life+expectancy#met=sp_dyn_le00