Relevance: GS-3 : Environmental Pollution & Degradation.

Key phrases: E-waste, informal sector, e-waste rule 2016, EPR, Deposit Refund scheme, recycling centres.

Why in News?

• Smartphones contribute to 12% of global e-waste, and it will continue to rise unless measures are taken to counter it, according to research report by Counterpoint.

What is E-waste?

• Electronic waste or e-waste is generated when electronic and electrical equipment become unfit for their originally intended use or have crossed the expiry date. Computers, servers, mainframes, monitors, TVs, iPods, medical apparatus, washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners are examples of e-waste (when unfit for use).
• E-waste typically consists of metals, plastics, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), printed circuit boards, cables, and so on. Valuable metals such as copper, silver, gold, and platinum could be recovered from e-wastes, if they are scientifically processed.
• The presence of toxic substances such as liquid crystal, lithium, mercury, nickel, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), selenium, arsenic, barium, brominated flame retardants, cadmium, chrome, cobalt, copper, and lead, makes it very hazardous, if e-waste is dismantled and processed in a crude manner with rudimentary techniques.

The Scenario of E-waste management in India:

• According to a report by the United Nations published in the year 2017, a total of around 44/ion metric tonnes (MMt) of e-wastes was generated, by different countries of the world in the year 2016, out of which only about 20% has been properly recycled. Out of this 44.7 MMt of e-wastes generated, India alone accounts for around 2MMt.
• According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generated more than 10 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2019-20, an increase from 7 lakh tonnes in 2017-18. Against this, the e-waste dismantling capacity has not been increased from 7.82 lakh tonnes since 2017-18.
• E-wastes may include diverse forms of components out of which some may be hazardous and others non-hazardous. Components made of iron and steel comprise about 50% of these wastes while the rest consists of plastics (around 21 %), non-ferrous metals (around 13% ) and other constituents. Thus on the one hand the components may include precious metals like gold, silver, palladium etc. and on the other hand it may also include toxic elements like lead, mercury, arsenic etc, which are extremely harmful to the environment.
• India is ranked amongst the top e-waste generators of the world, which includes developed economies like USA, China, Japan, Germany etc. India also has a very poor recycling capacity of less than 2% of the huge amount of e-wastes it produces annually.

Challenges for E-waste Management in India

E-waste recycles in India is predominantly an informal sector activity. There are thousands of poor households eking a living from scavenging materials from waste dumps. The heavy reliance on an informal sector for e-waste recycling gives rise to these key challenges, as mention below:

• The attempt to impose financial penalties on non-compliance or violation of e-waste handling and processing rules is ineffective.
• Broader public knowledge regarding market prices and health safety costs of e-waste recycling is less because less paid workers who do this work do not have proper training.
• Despite the massive increase in the volume of e-waste generated every year, there is very little investment by large-scale industrial infrastructure for recovery and recycling.
• Lack of Awareness and Financial Incentives.
• Inadequate Regulatory Design and Enforcement.

Measure for Improving E-waste Management in India:

There are various ways of improving e-waste management in India. It is discussed as below:

• Providing Market Information about E-waste Prices: It is a well-established market for e-waste within and between informal and formal sector operators.
• Incentivizing Formal E-waste Recycling.
• The ERCs can be piloted over a 3 to 5 years period to assess the efficacy and to fine-tune for further implementation.
• The Indian government can also expand formal e-waste recycling capacity by co-funding infrastructure upgrades and processing systems at existing government-approved recycling centres.
• Training and Up skilling Informal Sector Players
• Deploying Readily Available and Mature Recycling Technologies
• There is an urgent need for deploying mature recycling technologies alongside existing manual techniques to improve the recycling efficiency of the large volumes of e-waste management in India.
• The Indian government must promote joint ventures between international and domestic companies for setting up large industrial e-waste recovery plants. These ventures can be funded by a combination of private and public investment.
• Developing Innovative Methods & Technologies for Processing New Forms of E-waste
• Policy Instruments under EPR: The government needs to rethink the policy instruments under the EPR approach. In a presence of the informal sector, it requires strengths in collection logistics. A mandatory take back with collection targets cannot be the ideal instrument. Producer responsibility comes in many varieties other than mandatory take-back

Way Forward:

• E-waste management in India is a great challenge for governments of many developing countries. It is becoming a huge public health issue and is exponentially increasing by the day. It has to be collected separately, treated effectively, and disposed of e-waste. It is also a diversion from conventional landfills and open burning. It is essential to integrate an informal sector with the formal sector. The competent authorities in developing countries like India need to establish mechanisms for handling and treating e-waste safely and sustainable manner.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. The E-waste generation is on increasing trend in India but its recycling is not increasing despite the various imitative of Government, analyse the statement. What measures need in current regulatory environment to effective management of E-waste?