Hazardous container of e-waste from Brunei seized in Chennai

A CONTAINER loaded with old computer parts originating in Brunei has been seized in the southern Indian city of Chennai by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), who described the incident as a case of "e-waste dumping."

Officers from the DRI netted the consignment from Brunei marked for Venus Metals in the suburbs of Chennai. The shipment was marked "switch board scrap" but upon examination officials found the container contained 166 computer monitors, 89 control panels, circuit boards, loose electrical motor parts, broken computer printers and keyboards, The Times of India reported.

C Rajan, adjunct DRI director general, said the CPU and processors appeared to be in an unusable condition. A large number of the computer monitors were found to be more than 10 years old and intended for recycling, according to comments reported in The Hindu.

DRI officials said Chennai has become a dumping ground for e-waste (electronic products nearing the end of their useful life) from Australia, Korea, Canada and Brunei.

In the last two months, the DRI has seized 127 tonnes of e-waste that poses the risk of nickel, mercury and lead poisoning once the parts are broken up.

At present the import of electronic waste requires permission from the Indian Ministries of Environment and Health. A licence from the Director General of Foreign Trade is also required, the Brunei Times reported.

It noted that "many developed countries export their e-waste to developing countries, where it is sold to small industries which extract metals such as aluminium and gold and then dump the hazardous parts.
(Source:www.schednet.com)