E-Waste and the Things We Leave Behind

I have a few old electronic things at home that I hardly use anymore. There is an old charger, some cables, a pair of earphones and probably a few other things I have forgotten about. They are not really useful to me now, but I have never seriously thought about throwing them away either.

When we get a new phone, we transfer our photos, contacts and other important things. After that, the old phone usually gets pushed into a drawer or kept somewhere “just in case”. The same thing happens with chargers, earphones, keyboards and other electronics. We stop using them, but we do not always stop to think about what happens to them next.
That is what e-waste is about.

E-waste means electrical and electronic equipment that has been discarded. For most of us, the examples are not difficult to find. Old phones, laptops, chargers, cables, earphones, printers and televisions can all become e-waste. Larger household appliances can become e-waste too and not everything becomes waste because it is completely broken.

A phone may still work but have a weak battery. A laptop may be old but usable. Someone might replace a pair of earphones because a newer model has more features. I understand that. I like technology too. I enjoy using computers and trying new things. The problem, in my opinion, is not technology itself. It is how quickly we sometimes move from one device to the next without thinking about the old one. There is a lot that we do not see when we look at a phone or laptop.

Before it reaches us, materials have to be extracted and processed. The device has to be manufactured and transported. All of this requires resources and energy. When we use a device for a long time, we get more use from what went into making it. When we replace it quickly, another device has to take its place.

This is where e-waste becomes connected to the environment and climate change.
Electronic products are not the only source of environmental damage, of course. But their production has an environmental cost. If useful materials from old electronics can be recovered and used again, that can reduce the need for some new raw materials. If those materials are simply lost in waste, we lose something that took resources and energy to produce in the first place.

There is also something else that makes e-waste different from ordinary rubbish. Some electronic products contain heavy metals and other substances that can be harmful when the waste is handled or recovered in unsafe ways. The Central Pollution Control Board has pointed out these risks. So putting an old electronic device into a normal garbage bin is not a decision I would take lightly. India has rules for managing this waste. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022 came into force on 1 April 2023. They cover manufacturers, producers, refurbishes, dismantlers and recyclers, and include Extended Producer Responsibility for producers. The rules have also been amended since they were introduced.

Knowing the rules exist is useful, but most people are not going to read government notifications before deciding what to do with an old charger. What matters at home is much simpler. If something still works, perhaps it does not need to be replaced immediately. If it can be repaired, repair may be worth considering. An old phone might be useful to another family member. A laptop might be good enough for basic work even if it is not the newest model. Of course, there are times when a device really has reached the end of its life. That happens. When it does, the next step should be proper e-waste collection and recycling rather than putting it together with regular household waste. The people who handle this waste are part of the story too.

Once we hand something over as waste, we usually stop thinking about it. Someone else has to collect, sort, dismantle or process it. If electronic waste is handled without proper safety measures, workers can be exposed to harmful substances. That makes e-waste a human issue as well as an environmental one. I think schools could do more to make students aware of this.

We already use technology for almost everything in school. We use computers for projects, phones for communication and the internet for learning. Yet we rarely discuss what happens when these devices are no longer useful. A school collection drive, an awareness project or even a discussion about where e-waste goes could make the subject feel much more real.

Companies have a part to play before the customer even buys the product. I would like to see more electronics that are built to last and are easier to repair. If one small part stops working and the whole product becomes difficult to repair, replacing it may seem like the only option. Designing products with repair and recycling in mind could make a difference.
Because I am interested in computer science, I have also wondered whether technology could help us manage e-waste better.

For example, data could help organisations understand where electronic waste is being collected and where more collection points might be needed. Software could help keep track of devices as they move through recycling systems. AI could possibly help identify or sort certain types of waste. But I would not put all our hopes on AI. A computer cannot collect a phone from someone’s drawer. It cannot replace a recycling facility that does not exist. Technology can help people organise and improve a system, but the system itself still has to work.

Recently, I recycled my old clothes through Bombay Recycling Concern.
That was not an e-waste recycling experience, and I know that clothes and electronics need different recycling processes. Still, it made me think about something I had not really considered before. We use the word “waste” very easily. Once something is no longer useful to us, we tend to stop thinking about it.

Maybe that is the part we need to change.
I am not saying that we should stop buying technology. I would be the last person to say that. Technology is useful to me every day, and I am interested in building things with it in the future. But using technology should also mean understanding its less convenient side.
An old phone is still made of materials that came from somewhere. An old charger does not simply disappear because we no longer need it. There is a journey after the moment we stop using something.

As students, we cannot control every part of that journey. We cannot decide how every company designs its products or how recycling systems operate across the country. But we can decide whether we keep using a device, repair it, give it another use or send it to the right place when it becomes e-waste.

I still have those old cables and earphones at home.
Maybe the next time I look at them, I will not just see a few useless things taking up space.
I will see a question that is much bigger than the drawer they are sitting in.
What happens to the things we leave behind?

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