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Context: International E-Waste Day is held on October 14 every year as an opportunity to reflect on the impacts of e-waste. This year’s slogan is ‘Recycle it all, no matter how small!’. 

 

Details:

• Hoarding of small, unused, dead or broken plug-in and battery-operated products is the focus of this year’s 5th annual International E-Waste Day. 
• One out of every six electronic products in an average European household is hoarded, a survey has found.
• Roughly 5.3 billion mobile/smartphones will drop out of use this year, according to non-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum, which started the day in 2018.
• The electronics would reach a height of around 50,000 km if stacked flat and on top of each other. That’s an eighth of the distance to the moon. 
• WEEE Forum is an international association of 46 e-waste producer responsibility organisations.
• A majority of these phones will disappear into drawers, closets, cupboards or garages, or be tossed into waste bins bound for landfills or incineration, the body said. Mobile phones/ smartphones have valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium and other recyclable components. 
• The top five hoarded small electronic products were (in order): small electronics and accessories (eg, headphones, remotes), small equipment (eg, clocks, irons), small IT equipment (eg, hard drives, routers, keyboards, mice), mobile and smartphones, small food preparation appliances (eg, toasters, grills). 
• Small EEE items such as cell phones, electric toothbrushes, toasters and cameras produced worldwide will weigh an estimated total of 24.5 million tonnes — four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

 

E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016:

• E-Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011 were notified in 2011and had come into force on 1^st May 2012. To ensure effective implementation of E-Waste Rules and to delineate the role of producers in EPR, the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the Government of India in supersession of E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 has notified the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016.
• These rules apply to every producer, consumer or bulk consumer, collection centre, dismantler and recycler of e-waste involved in the manufacture, sale, and purchase and processing of electrical and electronic equipment or components specified in Schedule – I of these Rules.
• Two categoriesof electrical and electronic equipment namely (i) IT and Telecommunication Equipment and (ii.) Consumer Electricals and Electronics such as TVs, Washing Machines, Refrigerators Air Conditioners including fluorescent and other mercury-containing lamps are covered under these Rules. The main feature, of these rules, is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
• Target-based approachfor implementation of EPR has been adopted in the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, which stipulate phase-wise collection target to producers for the collection of e-waste, either in number or weight, which shall be 30% of the estimated quantity of waste generated during first two years of implementation of rules followed by 40% during third and fourth years, 50% during fifth and sixth years and 70% during seventh year onwards.
• The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 mandate CPCB to prepare guidelineson the implementation of E-Waste Rules, which include specific guidelines for extended producer responsibility, channelisation, collection centres, storage, transportation, environmentally sound dismantling and recycling, refurbishment, and random sampling of EEE for testing of RoHS parameters.

Ranking 3^rd in terms of e-waste generation is a cause of concern for a country like India. Hence, the major problem here is not manufacturing but the management of electronic waste.

How big this problem is?

• The problem of e-waste is global. In the Indian context, due to the big market, the problem magnifies in many different ways.
  • For example, as per the ASSOCHAM-EY report, India produces 5 million tonnes of e-waste and less than 1 million tonnes are being recovered or recycled by the formal sector.
• The above example highlights two main issues; the first is the management of e-waste and the second is the informality in the management of e-waste. The gap between the generation and recovery of e-waste is a cause of concern.
• The problem of e-waste is huge in Indiafor several reasons:
  • First, the amount of e-waste India produce is an estimationwhich means that the actual number might be higher.
  • Second, the management, only a small portion of the total waste generation goes into the formal sectorwhere there can be proper recovery and recycling.
  • Third, a large amount of e-waste either never gets collected or in essence just lies as waste in households.
  • Fourth, the sizeable and the biggest chunk of waste goes to the informal sectorwhich is not being treated or stored appropriately. The metals and chemicals thus pollute the environment.
  • Fifth, with such a huge quantity, India still lacks the technical know-howto reuse e-waste as a source of material.

 

What’s the ground situation concerning e-waste in India?

• Apart from being hazardous, e-waste is also a huge source of precious and semi-precious metalsthat has a huge value that can be extracted.
• Even though the lack of infrastructure for collecting e-waste in India, the number of private e-waste collectors has increased by 3 timesin the last five years. This shows that this is an emerging sector which has shown huge potential in India.
• The formal e-waste recycling concept came to India only after 2013-14. Before this, e-waste was managed by the informal sector only. Now, India wants to incorporate them into the collection network just to collect such waste from door-to-door and bring it to the authorised recycler. This has been the most suggested and sustainable model.
• The government is planning to come up with norms to have common chargers for electronic devices like mobile phones.

In terms of the challenges posed by electronic waste a lot needs to be done

• Out of the total e-waste generated not even 10% of it gets recycled.
• Many Indians are not awarethat the generated e-waste can be recycled rather Indians give such e-waste like laptops to either ‘kabadiwala’ or someone from the e:conomically weaker section. They may sell it to the informal sector or recycle it in a crude way, which is the worst possible way because there are so many hazardous materials which will come out of such wastes.
• Another point here to discuss is extended producer responsibility. Many mobile companies in India won’t upgrade their phone and which force consumers to buy or look for a new phone. This generates more e-waste and companies are not taking this responsibility.
• Hence, other than reform in extended producer responsibility, the government should work towards upskilling the informal sector. The collection and segregation can be done by the informal sector and metal extraction and recycling should be done by the organised sector.

 

Must read:

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/e-waste-13

 

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/waste/international-e-waste-day-over-5-billion-phones-will-become-waste-this-year-85475