The Environment Ministry has proposed to relax the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) plan by reducing the e-waste collection targets for industries.
With 1.7 million tonnes of e-waste generated annually (2014 record), India is the fifth largest generator of e-waste globally with an unorganised market of about 95 per cent dealing with e-waste.
As per the current E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, firms concerned are supposed to ensure collection of 30 per cent of generated e-waste during the first two years of the implementation of the rules (2016-17 and 2017-18), and 40 per cent during 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The new proposed rules (E-Waste(Management) Amendment Rules, 2017), according to the draft gazette notification, put up on the Ministry's website, relax the existing norms to make industry liable to collect only 10 per cent of e-waste during 2017-18, 20 per cent during 2018-19, 30 per cent during 2019-20 and 40 per cent during 2020-21 and so on.
The 70 per cent collection target by 2023 has however been retained.
According to experts, the proposed amendments could be a result of issues raised by the electronic giants, who despite management rules in 2016 and fixed targets were largely unable to comply.
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"Right now, there is nothing in place. About 95 per cent of the market dealing with e-waste is informal. People already are clueless as to where to dump their e-waste and find it more beneficial to give it to a scrap dealer rather than the company that produced it," Swati Singh, a waste management expert at Centre for Science and Environment, told IANS.
Earlier, over 200 manufacturers of electronic goods, including some e-giants, were served notices by the Central Pollution Control Board for not complying with e-waste procurement norms.
The CPCB, which is responsible for implementing the rules, informed the National Green Tribunal in May that several illegal industries were dumping e-waste into tributaries of the Ganga river. The tribunal ordered for Rs 1 lakh fine for such dumpings.
--IANS
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