The deadline for the enforcement of new electronic waste (e-waste) management norms is just a month or so away. And yet, most of the sector’s stakeholders seem quite unprepared. The E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, notified almost a year ago as coming into effect from May 1 this year, require producers of electronic and white goods to take back their products at the end of their working life and arrange for their safe disposal or recycling. Going a step further, these mandatory rules, issued under the Environment Protection Act, also fix the responsibilities of other players in this field, including dealers, consumers and recyclers, in ensuring appropriate destruction of these items, which usually contain several hazardous substances. Manufacturers will now be obliged to send periodic progress reports to state pollution control boards.
However, most companies have shown no sign of taking the deadline seriously, barring a few bigger ones. Nor have they moved to put in place the required infrastructure and facilities. The government, too, has done little to create the necessary awareness about the need for these new rules, or even their existence. Given that the country’s metropolitan cities alone generate over 400,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, which is anticipated to grow by 15 to 20 per cent a year, the potential perils from a lack of action are great. Discarded computers, telephone and mobile handsets, television sets, air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines contain many potentially harmful elements — lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, brominated flame retardants, barium and arsenic. Plastics, too, can degrade the ecosystem and pose risks to human and animal health. Some of these substances emit radioactive rays and poisonous gases which, besides vitiating the environment, can affect the human immune system and damage the brain, lungs or kidneys.
Yet, currently, much of this waste gets passed on through garbage collectors to informal-sector recyclers for dismantling in the most rudimentary and hazardous manner. Worse, many of these items end up along with other garbage at landfill sites, and subsequently pollute the environment through gaseous emission, or contaminate groundwater through leaching. The sad truth, however, is that even if the government somehow manages to make the organised sector observe the new rules, the ultimate objective is less likely to be met without roping in the unorganised sector, which assembles, sells and maintains a sizeable proportion of electronic hardware. Apart from that, getting the consumers to hand the equipment back to the producers at the end of its useful life, too, will be hard; they find it far more convenient to give it to easily accessible scrap collectors. It will, therefore, be prudent to somehow include garbage collectors and informal recyclers in the e-waste management chain. Otherwise, there is every danger of the new rules remaining largely on paper.
