Maro Kouri - Photography and Journalism

India: E-waste backstage
	E-waste has become the fastest growing waste stream in the world and has emerged as a lucrative business. The UN Environment Developed nations dump e-waste in “developing” Asian countries (India , Bangladesh , China and Pakistan ) through illegal trade routes. India receives as much e-waste as it generates internally, approximately 400,000 tons each year. Almost all of it is being recycled in poor urban locations, exposing people and environment to hazardous heavy metals and deadly toxins such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and BFR (Brominated Flame Retardants). E-waste needs to be handled safely so that it does not jeopardize either the workers involved in recycling or the environment. Almost all electronic and electrical appliances, like computers, mobile phones, iPods, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions etc, constitute e-waste after being discarded. These products are stripped down to yield valuable metals like platinum, gold and copper. Up to 30,000 people in Delhi, among them 6,000 children, live on this activity. Ι was in Shastri Park neighborhood, where monitors and towers are dismantled by fathers, mothers and kids. I had to wait some days for the green light, in order to enter to the restricted recycling-ghetto of Mandoli. There, workers specialize in bathing the motherboards with acid to obtain metals by euro to the day. Photographs and article by Maro Kouri

India