A Community-based cross-sectional study for assessment of the e-waste disposal practices amongst people living in Wardha district, India

Background

The electronics industry is currently among the most rapidly expanding and largest in the entire globe. It has seen amazing growth over the past 25 years, which has created a sharp rise in outmoded electronics and, in succession, a considerable increase in the production of electronic waste in developed nations. The production of e-waste is projected to rise to 74.7 million tons by 2030 which will impact our environment and our health wholly. Only about 40% of the 64.5 metric tons of e-waste produced worldwide each year are adequately handled.¹ By 2025, it is anticipated that India, one of the world’s major buyers of electronic goods, will move up to the fifth spot from 12th place in the purchase of electronic goods. E-waste is generated in India in amounts of about 800,000 tons per year, with 50,000 tons imported annually from other nations.² Because of the amenities supplied by IT and communication systems, the world feels small because of how filled it is now with everything related to electronics.³

22% of all the e-waste produced comes from individual houses. Even while individual households do not make a significant contribution to the garbage produced by computers, they consume a lot of consumer durables and could be considered prospective waste producers.⁴ E-waste, such as outdated televisions, mobile phones, monitors, and fax machines, may be improperly dumped, which might cause lead and other toxins to leak into the soil. These toxins can damage soil and groundwater as well as potentially evaporate into the atmosphere. Remainders from burning metals, plastics, and other air pollutants adhere to surfaces like crops and commercial goods. In metropolitan regions with efficient waste management systems, e-waste is discarded in landfills alongside regular trash. E-waste disposal releases toxic materials that get into aquifers and drinking water systems.¹ Soil contains 25% of the world’s biodiversity. Vertebrates, invertebrates, parasites, bacteria, and fungi all contribute to the planetary cycles that sustain all life in the ocean. These free natural interactions enhance water purification, animal and human health, food safety, and the prevention and adaptation to climate change.⁵ Around the world, the three leading causes of death in children under five years old are pneumonia, diarrhea, and hunger, because of water that is contaminated and causes disease in children and adults.⁶

According to statistics, every day, 8500 mobile phones, 5500 televisions, and 3500 personal computers are disassembled.⁷ E-waste is uncommon since the components of it are hazardous, harmful, and not biodegradable.⁸ Human health may be impacted by harmful substances and metals such polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cadmium, lead, and mercury. Lack of knowledge on how to treat waste can frequently have detrimental effects on public safety and have significant negative environmental impacts.⁹ Heavy metal pollution comes from industry’ widespread discharges of nickel, lead, chromium, zinc, copper, mercury, and cadmium, among others.¹⁰ According to research,¹ people who have burnt e-waste had raised blood lead levels. Humans who have been exposed to hazardous substances may experience learning disabilities, genitourinary diseases, immune system suppression, pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, hormone imbalances, immune system abnormalities, genetic defects, and dementia in later life. Women who are exposed to heavy metals often succumb to anaemia, hormonal problems, irregular menstrual cycles, autoimmune illnesses, and cancer of the reproductive system. Lead and mercury exposure in the first trimester of pregnancy has been associated to birth defects, low birth weight, spontaneous abortion, and problems with neurobehavioral development. Additionally connected to infertility is the burning of e-waste in open pits.¹

Proper e-waste management encompasses reuse, regulated recycling, recuperation of materials, burning, and landfilling.⁸ These items create health risks when they are burned or disposed of in landfills because they contain harmful materials.¹¹ There is widespread agreement that a clean environment is necessary.¹² Due to the quick development of new technology, electrical and electronic equipments (EEEs) have become obsolete quickly after purchase.¹³ India adopted laws under the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) that specifically address this issue. The e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules were passed by the Indian Federal Government through the MoEF in 2011 and went into effect in May 2012 as a result of intense advocacy and pressure from the civil society. The “Implementation of E-Waste Rules, 2011” bill, which was the first to specifically address the problem of e-waste, effectively mandated that producers, collecting facilities, dismantlers, and recyclers adhere to WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipments) policies. Additionally, these regulations offered recommendations for handling hazardous waste sustainably by both families and small enterprises. Understanding of this government policy and the risks of e-waste among the general people is essential for both vigorous involvement in management systems and the power to pressurize producers to comply.¹⁴

To safeguard, direct, and encourage safe e-waste management, India adopted a special electronic waste management policy, however plenty of its inhabitants have no comprehension of the regulations. As a result, there is a shockingly low degree of public awareness in India regarding the correct disposal of electronic devices and their adverse effects. Raising the general populace of the significance of e-waste reduction is the greatest way to fight the enormous rise in the sheer mass of e-waste in dumpsters and the harm it does to both the environment and human wellness by cause of the increasing market for electronic gadgets. Use of fewer toxic, readily recoverable, and recyclable materials needs to be paid more thought.¹

The three Rs—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle—are the guiding principles for all waste management practices.¹⁵ Similar to solid trash, proper management of e-waste necessitates active consumer participation, which results from their awareness of numerous e-waste-related issues. This would result in the proper accumulation and scrapping of e-waste at the point of usage. When district authorities develop appropriate disposal mechanisms and consumer knowledge, it is possible to handle e-waste in a formal, structured, and environmentally advantageous way. The goals of the current proposal were to evaluate consumer knowledge, awareness, and habits about numerous facets of managing e-waste and to identify the numerous socioeconomic factors connected to that knowledge.²

Rationale

It is now difficult to survive without a cell phone or other electronic devices due to recent advances in science and technology. From institutional users to families, the usage of electrical and technological equipment has significantly expanded. Every person generates electronic waste because it is uncommon for a household to be without a television or other electronic appliances.

Because the government, health professionals and others constantly educating and informing the public about its effects, people are familiar with the term “biomedical waste,” yet the determinacy of e-waste and its ramifications remain a riddle. While some people are aware of the negative health effects of lead, a general understanding of how lead and mercury are mostly used in electronic equipment is still lacking.¹⁶ As a result, the study’s primary goal is to determine how well the general population understands e-waste and its effects.

Those who carelessly dispose of their electronic waste will find this study to be helpful. This study is for everyone who are unaware of the fundamentals of e-waste and its enormous influence on people’s lives. By identifying the attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions surrounding e-waste and assessing how it affects peoples’ lives in the long run, the relevance of the study may be ascertained.

The study is required in order to:

Aims and objectives

The aim of this research is to document the level of awareness that consumers and owners of electronic stores have regarding the disposal of their e-waste while also evaluating their general awareness and e-waste management procedures.

The primary objective is to gauge the knowledge and awareness level of consumers and electronic shopkeepers about various aspects of e-waste and how is it crucial to dispose our electronic waste in a safe and standardized manner.

The secondary objectives are to determine the numerous aspects, such as socio-demographic parameters, which are related to awareness of e-waste disposal, and to assess whether levels of education impact the knowledge related to our general environment.

Study design

The study is a community based cross sectional study among the consumers and electronic shopkeepers of electronic equipment (EE) in Wardha city, Maharashtra, India.

Study settings/place

The study will be conducted to assess the e-waste practices of people living in Wardha district which is a part of central India. District Wardha is located in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha area. The districts of Amravati, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, and Nagpur are located on the west, north, south, and east, respectively, of the district. A total of 6310 square kilometers make up the district. It is home to 1,391,890 inhabitants. Exposure and data collection using the questionnaire will start from August 2023. The district was selected for both convenience and the fact that both authors live there.

Participants

The study participants will be young adults aged 18 or above who are consumers and electronic shopkeepers aged 20 to 50 years. This is because adults over the age of 18 frequently and vigorously use their phones and change them without thinking about where to dispose of them, and because electronic shop owners receive a significant amount of daily e-waste. We will be able to more properly understand their knowledge, attitude, and practices. The study will be conducted using simple random sampling. A total of five localities of Wardha will be randomly chosen. We shall travel to the locality’s centre or any nearby intersection after selecting those five localities. By spinning a pencil, a random direction from the neighborhood’s centre will be chosen. We will move in the first direction that the pencil’s tip points. For the study’s purposes, we are focusing on the four directions of north, south, east, and west. For the data collection, the first household will be selected randomly and six households from each of the four directions will be selected providing 24 samples from a single locality. This will be used with all the remaining localities giving us a sample of 120 households. The choice of the young adults was made for two reasons: first, younger generations use EE more frequently than older generations,² and second, their expertise will influence how e-waste is disposed of in the near future. For the objective of learning more about their methods and knowledge about the disposal and management of e-waste, a sample of electronic shopkeepers, numbering roughly 15–18 participants, will be chosen by consecutive sampling.

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

All e-consumers who are 18 years of age or above and electronic shopkeepers of age 20 to 50 years will be eligible for participation in the study. We defined “e-consumer” for the study as any individual who uses, repairs, or offers for sale electrical and electronic products such portable devices, cooling systems, televisions, fridges, mobile phones, computers, and other residential equipment.

Exclusion criteria

Data sources

Variables

The study variables will include:

The secondary goal of the study is to determine whether sociodemographic background has an impact on people’s awareness, attitudes, and practices. As such, the criteria for selecting the variable were based on this fact. Language has also been regarded as a significant factor because India is a country where people utilise a variety of languages in daily life.

The research tool consists of a structured, pre-tested, pre-designed online questionnaire for gathering quantitative data on e-waste awareness, perceptions, and practices to gather information on sociodemographic factors, as well as understanding of e-waste, its forms, disposal, and practices.²⁰

The questionnaire²⁰ will include three sections:

Section A: Questionnaire pertaining to sociodemographic information about the e-consumer, such as age, gender, family type, marital status, occupation, socioeconomic status, and educational background (according to Kuppu swami categorization) features of the people.

Section B: Questions on dealing with e-waste awareness and management, including e-waste information, health impacts, legal requirements, and usage/disposal options like hazards of improper e-waste disposal or methods for reducing the problem of e-waste.

Section C: Questions on community-wide e-waste management practices for disposal and handling like ‘According to you (the participant), what is the best way to discard your old mobile phone batteries or have you ever heard of your neighbours taking their e-waste to a recycling facility?’

Table 1 mentions the various data sources that will used.

Measurements

Data analysis plan

Microsoft Excel (Version 2305) will be used to enter the data, and SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) (Version 22) will be used to analyse the responses. For categorical data, frequencies and percentages will be computed, while the mean and standard deviation will be presented for quantitative variables. The data analyzed will thus be presented in the form of tables and graphs. Figure 1 provides a flowchart depicting the plan of work.

Figure 1. Flowchart depicting plan of work.

Bias

The study might be subjected to participant bias or response bias. Since the study will choose 24 households from a single locality, and because of the close-proximity, respondents may occasionally misinterpret what an investigator is looking for, they may alter their responses or actions in different ways or ask around the neighborhood what the researcher is after which can lead to bias. To address the bias, we will provide them with multiple options, or we will ask one question at a time and do not confuse them.

Sample size

The following equation was used to determine sample size²:

Z(0.05) = 1.96

n = required sample size

p (prevalence rate of disposal of e-waste) = 10%

q = 100p = 90

L = least permissible error (absolute precision) = 5%

Desired confidence interval = 95%

Hence sample size

In order to gather information on sociodemographic factors and understanding of e-waste, its forms, disposal and practices, a sample size of 138 participants will be employed.

Statistical methods

A Microsoft Excel version 2305 file will contain the responses that were provided in response to the questionnaires used. The following step will involve encoding, entering, and processing the data using SPSS version 22 (RRID:SCR_002865). Descriptive data in the form of percentage and frequencies will be calculated.

Ethical considerations

There are certain ethical considerations that need to be taken into account. In the first instance, the institutional ethics committee (IEC) approval has been obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee of Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education, Wardha. Ethical approval of this study (DMIHER (DU)/IEC/2023/645) was provided on 11^th February 2023. The participants will be treated with respect. A strategy of “verbal consent” will be adopted, with the aim and method of the research being made clear to all the participants before interviewing them. Along with the verbal consent, the participants will also receive two written informed consent forms—one in English and one in Marathi—that outline the study’s specifics and request their consent. Once they have signed, we’ll move on. The participants, since they are young, we will ensure that they feel comfortable. The data recorded will be confidential. There will not be any identifying features in the final presentation of our results. If our study proves fulfilling, the following anonymized information will be used to generalize the basic information and knowledge related to e-waste and its management.

Expected outcomes/results

Through our study, we expect to assess the following:

Study status

Study is yet to be started. We expect to start it from August 2023.

Scope and implications

The present study will help in assessing the current awareness, knowledge about e-waste and its growing impact on our environment and the current e-waste disposal patterns of young consumers and shopkeepers. The study will assist the authors in figuring out how to properly dispose of our electronic garbage. It will be useful to learn more about the risks associated with inappropriate e-waste disposal to offer ways to lessen the issue of e-waste and determining the benefits of proper e-waste disposal.

Limitations

The research might be subjected to participant bias or response bias which could be considered a crucial factor of limitation.

Dissemination

The results will be published in indexed journals or data will be disseminated through index conference.