A convenient dumping ground
INDIA has become a dumping ground of lead battery waste. Almost all the batteries at Siraspur and Mundka have foreign markings. According to the international environmental NGO, Greenpeace, about 346,000 kg of lead battery waste from Australia alone was brought into the country between January and September, 1993.
Of late there's been a spurt, because of the low prices of secondary lead in industrialised countries and the high regulatory costs of operating lead-battery recycling units. Greenpeace points out that lower wages and tardy enforcement of regulations have prompted the shifting of operation of such units to developing countries.
The import of lead waste is banned in the Philippines, but Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and USA shipped more than 16,000 tonnes of battery scrap to the country in the first half of 1993. Local residents and workers pay a heavy price in terms of lead poisoning from fumes and water contamination, the organisation contends.
It says that, in 1992, Australia exported more than 17,000 tonnes of lead-battery scrap to Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. Japan exports 30,000 tonnes of lead batteries to Asian Third World nations every year. In the first 9 months of 1993, USA exported 41,527 tons of lead scrap, of which 78 per cent went to Canada, where the norms are not as stringent. Most of the remaining lead scrap was exported to Brazil, South Korea, China and India.