Electrical and Electronic Waste Management – Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among medical students from South India

Abstract

Background: Electronic waste, or e-waste generated in India is about 2 million tonnes per annum – over 95% of which is managed by the unorganised sector, rag pickers and scrap dealers, which leads to improper and illegal dumping/ disposal of the hazardous substances. Knowledge, Attitude and Practise of adolescents and those in early adult life – major producers of e-waste – regarding e-waste, its management and existing laws is the key to effective source segregation and e-waste management practices. Methods: This was a descriptive institution based cross sectional quantitative study – among all the Under Graduates, Interns/CRRIs and Postgraduates – resulting in a sample of 524 participants. Results: Among personal electronic items, cell phones (99.6%), followed by headphones (90.5%) were the most used electronic items, whereas among household electronic items television (93.9%) and refrigerator were commonly used. Almost 10% had more than 20 electrical and/or electronic appliance in their household. Of the 524 participants, 62.2% had good knowledge, 47.1% had favourable attitude and only 8% had good e-waste management related practices. The common reasons to purchase a new gadget over the existing one was latest technology and better functionality, loss of function/life of gadget and peer pressure. The electronics no longer used were given/sold to personal contacts (17.4%), kept in home (56.7%), sold to formal system (8.2%), sold to informal system/rag pickers (5.2%) or put in trash (12.6%). Conclusion: Efforts should be directed right from minimizing the use of electrical/electronic equipment to improved, effective collection and management system for e-wastes; for which consumer awareness through health education campaigns and legislative mandates is a means to have a new responsible kind of consumerism.