Suggestions To The E-Waste stakeholder's:
Recommended Action Plan:
Why is “Action” required?
1) Inaction against the e-Waste industry can lead to serious hazards to the environment.
2) Hazardous materials, if not encapsulated or disposed-off in properly-maintained landfills can leach into groundwater.
3) Presence of organized recyclers who are handling only a minor proportion out of the total e-Waste being recycled is not going to curb this problem in the long terms as the quantity of e-Waste is increasing rapidly.
Therefore, involvement of various stakeholders is recommended to
handle the e-Waste in an environmentally friendly fashion.
To handle the e-Waste generated in India, it is necessary that, other than the formal recyclers, following stakeholders are involved
– Manufacturers of electronic products
– Government
– End Users
Not only at the level of recycling, but involvement at the Generation and Disposal Stages shall be necessary so that the problem can be addressed at the very initial stages.
A proposed action suggested for the various stakeholders at different stages of e-Waste value-chain is presented as follows:-
Role of Manufacturers:
1) At the Selling Stage:
•Spread Awareness among End-Users (by distributing brochures along with the products)
=> Mentioning the concept of e-waste
=> Describing the presence of hazardous material in the product
•Make an offer for the buy-back of the product at the time of sale
ð This offer should clearly mention all the terms related to the price which will be offered in the buy back
ð Method of disposal by the end-users.
2) At the Disposal Stage:
•Should take care of the convenience of the end users for disposing off the products
ð Tie up with dealers/retailers for the Buy-back schemes
ð If possible, have some collection or dropping centers other than the dealer locations
ð Give the dealers or collection point addresses at the time of sale itself
3) At the Recycling Stage:
• Refurbishment or recycling business can become a profitable line of business for the manufacturers. Develop a vibrant market for second hand electronic products (in the line of automobile business)
• Develop repair and refurbish centers and refurbish the products for reselling or for their employees
• Tie up with the formal recyclers
=> To deposit the products collected in buy-backs for recycling
=> For development of recycling capability
• Submit an annual report to the government mentioning the efforts directed towards collection, buy backs, refurbishment and recycling.
Role of the Government and Institutional End Users:
In case of Computers, a significant amount of recycling is happening. Therefore, it is important that attention be paid to computer recycling, especially in the business segment as it contributes 75% to the overall market size for computers.
• Government should draft legislation for institutional users of Computers…
– All buyers of IT products must include method of disposal of computers in their IT policy Document.
– Making it compulsory for the institutional users to declare in an annual report their annual procurement and disposal of computers
– Submission of these reports to the relevant government authorities.
• Regulation of Imports
– Keep stricter checks on the containers entering Mumbai and Chennai ports
• Develop Recycling capabilities in India especially in Pune
– Support for having Smelting refinery in India, so that the precious metal Mixture is not sent out of India for extraction
• Investment for creating awareness
– Highlighting the possible hazards to the environment and human beings
• In the short term, develop an inclusive model where informal recyclers also have a stake so as to avoid confrontation
– Target to take away from the unorganized sector only those recycling processes which are harmful to the environment
– Develop capability for environmentally friendly recycling amongst informal recyclers through NGOs
• If Auctions of e-Waste happen from government offices, it should be made compulsory that
– Only recyclers possessing environmentally friendly recycling capability are allowed to buy from government auctions.
– Some government offices can pool their computers and aggregate the waste to be auctioned.
• Special Bins for disposal of small and fast moving electrical waste like batteries, remote controls, wires, CDs, etc. be set-up at strategic places.
