Telecom equipment accounts for 12% of e-waste in India

India, which has the second largest mobile market with 1.03 billion subscribers, has emerged as the fifth largest producer of electronic waste (e-waste) in the world, discarding roughly 18.5 lakh metric tonnes of electronic waste each year with telecom equipment alone accounting for 12 per cent of the e-waste, according to an Assocham-KPMG joint study.
 
With more than 100 crore mobile phones in circulation, nearly 25 per cent end up in e-waste annually, said the study.
 
The phased manner for implementation of e-waste collection targets needs to be introduced. The steps should be taken to rationalise the various audits being conducted by various authorities, to ensure that same areas are not audited on a repeated basis. The guidelines should be issued by DoT with respect to locations of tower and clearance requirements should be adopted across states to smoothen tower set up process.
 
The unorganised sector in India is estimated to handle around 95 per cent of the e-waste produced in the country. Given the huge user base and vast reach of telecom in India, it is practically difficult and expensive for the handset manufacturers to achieve the targets prescribed in the rules from first year. It is suggested that e-waste collection targets are implemented in a phased manner with lower and practically achievable target limits. Also, the detailed implementation of procedures for collection of e-waste from the market needs to be followed.
 
While releasing the study, P Balaji, chairman, Assocham National Council on Telecommunications and director - regulatory, external affairs & CSR, Vodafone India, said, the telecommunication industry is committed to realise the government vision of Digital India. In the last 15 months alone operators have invested over 30 percent of the cumulative investment made in 20 years prior. Over 100 million handsets have been manufactured last year.”