Rickshaws were originally small carts men pulled behind them as if they were horses. Yep, that sounds crude but it was their only source of income in some Asian cities at the time. Nowadays of course they have internal combustion engines. Except for 150,000 dirty green e-rickshaws in Delhi that is, that are our topic for today.
A Government Subsidy for Dirty Green E-Rickshaws
On the face of it, a subsidy makes a good deal of sense. Take internal combustion engines out of the rickshaws and replace them with electric motors and batteries. This will help reduce city smog and therefore the cost of government health care.
But there’s a catch because each of those dirty green e-rickshaws has four lead-acid batteries and these wear out after six months. That’s over 10 million lead-acid batteries entering the recycling chain annually. The problem, according to Times of India is there is no safe way of recovering the materials locally. That’s not a problem in North America of course, where we recycle 95% of lead acid batteries.
E-Rickshaw Batteries End Up Being Recycled in Slums Instead
NGO Toxics Link reports almost 90% of old rickshaw batteries end up in an informal sector that has no proper system for recycling. There, laborers dissemble them and recover the lead at illegal smelters. This pollutes the air they breathe, and the soil and water that produce their crops.
Sweat shop laborers discharge electrolyte from the dirty green e-rickshaw batteries into gutters before reducing the cases and separators to plastic pellets. The Times of India has seen women covered in lead dust extracting lead ingots from their molds. Their lead exposure is eight times greater than people in surrounding areas.
A doctor at a local nursing home says, “They come to us with acute abdominal pain, vomiting and constipation”. Their blood lead level is 100 µg/dL or 20 times above normal, partly thanks to old batteries from dirty green e-rickshaws.
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Preview Image: Any Color E-Rickshaw You Want
