Risky Rubbish: E-waste collectors, handlers at risk due to lack of safety practices

Representative image of e-waste. Image source: Shutterstock

Santosh Yadav, 27, dismantles solar waste, such as damaged and degraded photovoltaic  (PV) modules, with his hands at an informal e-waste disposal unit in Pune’s Juna Bazaar. He doesn’t wear any safety gear: no gloves, helmet, boots, or goggles. A migrant from Uttar Pradesh, he has not received any training on how to dismantle and segregate solar waste, just picked up some tips from his co-workers.

“My hands regularly get cut and bleed while dismantling solar waste,” says Yadav. “But I have to continue working to earn wages.”

Mohsin Shaikh, an e-waste scrap dealer, says there are many informal units dealing with solar waste in the Juna Bazar, Kudalwadi and Moshi.

“People prefer to sell us solar waste, or for that matter all scrap, as we pay more,” says Shaikh. “If they give it to waste-pickers, they don’t get money.”

India’s solar capacity has increased from 3 MW in 2009 to 61 GW in 2022, per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The lifespan of a PV module is 30 years, and batteries can last up to seven years. By 2020, nearly 6,500 tonnes of waste from PV modules had been generated, much of it due to damage during installation or bad weather. According to a report titled ‘PV Waste Management in India’ by the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI),  34,600 tonnes of waste will be generated by 2030.

PV modules and batteries contain many reusable metals, such as silicon, aluminium, copper, nickel, iron, and rare metals like cobalt and lithium. However, without proper guidelines on how to retract those metals from waste material, handling these can cause health problems for workers, as per a report by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW).

As India transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy, 95 percent of the e-waste is recycled through the informal sector, per the CEEW report.

“We receive PV modules once or twice a month,” says Shaikh. “Sometimes, we get it in bulk. We take out copper sheets, aluminium, and glass and sell to recycling units. We have received lithium batteries used in electric vehicles a couple of times.”

Training

Prabhavati Khandale, 51, segregates waste at the Baner Garbage Depot. She has been trained by SWaCH, a cooperative of self-employed waste collectors who go home to home collecting garbage, including solar waste. SWaCH works with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on how to segregate e-waste.

Asked why she was not wearing any safety gear, Khandale said she had received gloves and soap, but not helmet and boots.

“There is a gap in the informal sector’s comprehension of its safety needs. Waste material like solar panels, batteries, and electronic waste can harm waste-pickers and sorters due to incorrect handling. Likewise for workers further along the recycling chain, who could be exposed to hazardous chemicals and toxic emissions while recycling or dismantling,” said Harshad Barde, Director, SWaCH. Barde says that workers are not aware that they should use safety gear.

“PMC does not treat solar waste differently from e-waste and hence has no data on how much solar waste is collected per month,” says Ketaki Ghatge, an official of PMC’s Solid Waste Management Department.

The government of India has included solar waste within E-waste in the gazette published in December 2022. However, it has not published rules and regulations on how to dispose of and recycle solar waste, such as solar PV modules, panels, cells, etc.

PMC, through the Poornam Ecovision Foundation, collects e-waste, including solar waste, and hands it over to Mahalaxmi E Recyclers.

“We get almost 100 tonnes of solar battery waste per year,” says Manoj Mehta, who runs Mahalaxmi E-Recyclers in Pune’s Ramtekadi Industrial area. “We get mostly batteries,’’ he adds.

The number of units, both informal and formal, that recycle PV modules, glass, and aluminium is not known, says A Laxminarayan Rao, CEO, Exigo Recycling, which has 40 units across India. He confirms that collection and handling of waste is unregulated.

According to Mehta, waste collectors, handlers, and scrap dealers don't give any importance to safety gear, nor are there any reports on how handling such materials without safety gear can adversely impact health.

“Manufacturers and governments must invest in training informal waste-pickers and waste recycling workers to improve their occupational health and safety,” says Barde.

“Majority of solar waste / renewable recycling is done by the informal sector. Labour codes in India are not as strict as laws abroad, when it comes to worker safety,” says Leo Saldhana, social activist.

(This report was written and produced as part of a media skills development program by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.)