E-WASTE MANAGEMENT - ENVIRONMENT
News: Unpacking
the new set of e-waste rules
What's in the news?
● The
burgeoning problem of managing e-waste is a cross cutting and persisting
challenge in an era of rapid urbanization, digitalization and population
growth. also introduced in these rules.
Key takeaways:
1.
The first set of e-waste Rules was
notified in 2011 and came into effect in 2012. An important component of
the Rules (2011) was the introduction of
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
● Under
EPR compliance, ‘producers’ are responsible for the safe disposal of electronic
and electric products once the consumer discards them.
2.
E-waste rules 2016, which were
amended in 2018, were comprehensive and included provisions to promote ‘authorization’
and ‘product stewardship’. Other categories of stakeholders such ‘Producer
Responsibility Organizations (PRO) were.
3.
In November 2022, the Ministry of
Environment and Forests further notified a new set of e-waste rules, which
will come into force from April 1, 2023.
Electronic waste:
● Electronic
waste, or e-waste, is a term for electronic products that have become unwanted,
obsolete, and have reached the end of their useful life.
● It
refers to all items of electrical and
electronic equipment and its parts that have been discarded by its owner as
waste without the intent of re-use.
Issues related to E-waste:
1. Health Risks:
● E-waste
when dismantled and shredded, releases dust or large particles into the
immediate environment and affects the respiratory
health of workers.
● Further,
unregulated burning of e-waste releases
toxins, such as dioxins which are potent and damaging to both humans
(neurological disease and impact on immune system) and animal health.
2. Water pollution:
● Water
is contaminated by e-waste in landfills that are not properly designed to
contain e-waste and due to improper recycling and subsequent disposal of e-waste.
● Groundwater is polluted
by e-waste as heavy metals and other persistent chemicals leach from landfills
and illegal dump sites into ground water tables.
3. Soil pollution:
● Soil
is contaminated by e-waste through direct contact with contaminants from
e-waste or the by-products of e-waste recycling and disposal and indirectly
through irrigation through contaminated water.
● Contaminated soils have
adverse impact on microbes and plants and the
pollutants pass to higher animals and humans along the food chain.
4. Air pollution:
● Most
of the discarded products are set into open fire, which melts and releases
harmful elements to the atmosphere.
● Carcinogens
and neurotoxins when released into the air pollute and create smog which is
very obnoxious.
E-waste Regulations in India:
1. E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016:
a. Extended Producer Responsibility:
● The
Rules adopt a collection-based approach to include collection center,
collection point, take back system etc. for collection of e-waste by Producers
under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
b. Deposit Refund Scheme:
● Deposit
Refund Scheme has been introduced as an additional economic instrument wherein
the producer charges an additional amount as a deposit at the time of sale of
the electrical and electronic equipment and returns it to the consumer along
with interest when the end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment is
returned.
c. Liability for damages:
● Liability
for damages caused to the environment or third party due to improper management
of e–waste including has been introduced.
● The
Rules also provide for provision of financial penalty in case of violation of
rules.
d. State and Urban Local Bodies:
● State
should ensure effective implementation of the rules. Urban Local Bodies have
been assigned the duty to collect and channelize the e-wastes to authorized
dismantlers or recyclers.
2. Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management) Rules, 2016:
● The
rules seek to ensure management, trans-boundary movement, resource recovery and
disposal of hazardous waste in an environmentally sustainable manner.
● Under
the rules, waste electrical and electronic assemblies scrap are prohibited for
import.
3. E-waste (Management) Rules, 2022:
a. Applicable to all:
● The
rules made every manufacturer, producer, refurbisher, dismantler and recycler
accountable.
b. Online Portal:
● All
the manufacturers, producers, refurbishers and recyclers are required to
register on a portal developed by CPCB.
c. Compulsory Registration:
● No
entity shall carry out any business without registration and also not deal with
any unregistered entity.
● Authorization
has now been replaced by Registration through online portal and only manufacturer,
producer, refurbisher and recycler require Registration.
● Schedule
I expanded and now 106 EEE has been included under EPR regime.
d. Fixed Targets:
● Producers
of notified EEE, have been given annual E-Waste Recycling targets based on the
generation from the previously sold EEE or based on sales of EEE as the case
may be.
● Target
may be made stable for 2 years and starting from 60% for the year 2023-2024 and
2024-25; 70% for the year 2025-26 and 2026-27 and 80% for the year 2027-28 and
2028-29 and onwards.
e. Addition of New Sectors:
● Management
of solar PV modules /panels/ cells added in new rules.
● Increased
the range of electronic goods covered e.g., laptops, mobile, cameras etc.
f. Extended Producer Responsibility Certificates
(similar to carbon credit mechanism):
● This
will allow the offsetting of e-waste responsibility to a third party.
g. Verification and Audit:
● Provisions
for environment compensation and verification & audit have been introduced.
● The
quantity recycled will be computed on the basis of end products, so as to avoid
any false claim.
h. Restricted the use of hazardous substances:
● The
use of hazardous substances (such as lead, mercury, and cadmium) in
manufacturing electrical and electronic equipment that have an adverse impact
on human health and the environment has been restricted.
i. Penalty:
● Environmental
compensation to be provided by the companies that don’t meet their target.
j. Role of State Governments:
● They
will earmark industrial space for e-waste dismantling and recycling facilities,
undertake industrial skill development and establish measures for protecting
the health and safety of workers engaged in the dismantling and recycling
facilities for e-waste.
● Provision
for constitution of Steering Committee to oversee the overall implementation of
these rules.
k. Role of manufacturers:
● Make
the end product recyclable.
● A
component made by different manufacturers can be compatible with each other.
l. Role of Central Pollution Control Board:
● It
shall conduct random sampling of electrical and electronic equipment placed on
the market to monitor and verify the compliance of reduction of hazardous
substances provisions.
4. Program on Environmental Hazards of Electronic
Waste:
● The
project initiated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
aims to provide training, tools and films aimed at creating awareness and
reducing the impact of e-waste on the environment and health.
● Creation
of Management Structure for Hazardous Substances: The programme seeks to raise
awareness among people about the 2016 Rules and its implementation.
● Swachh
Digital Bharat: The programme seeks to create awareness among the public about
the hazards of e-waste recycling by the unorganized sector, and to educate them
about alternate methods of disposing of their e-waste.
WAY FORWARD:
1. Legal framework:
● There
is a need to strengthen the domestic legal framework to address the issue of unregulated
imports of e-waste.
2. Formalization:
● Steps
should be taken to formalize the informal sector by integrating it with the
formal sector.
● Government
should introduce vocational training programs to rightly skill the current
unorganized sector employees to ensure their smoother transition to working
with the organized sector.
3. Research and Development:
● Governments
must encourage research into the development of better
environmentally-sustainable e-waste recycling techniques.
4. Assessment:
● There
is an urgent need for a detailed assessment of the E-waste including
quantification, characteristics, existing disposal practices, environmental
impacts.
5. Recycling infrastructure:
● There
is a need for more recycling facilities and development of infrastructure to
handle e-waste effectively.
● The
government should encourage Public-Private Partnership for establishment of
e-waste collection, exchange and recycling centers.
6. Awareness:
● Mass
awareness programmes should be initiated to encourage consumers to reuse/
recycle electronic products and also educate them about the environmental and
health hazards of e-waste.
E-waste
management is a great challenge for
governments of many developing countries such as India. This is becoming a huge public health issue and is
exponentially increasing by the day. In order to separately collect,
effectively treat, it is essential to
integrate the informal sector with the formal sector. The competent
authorities need to establish mechanisms for handling and treatment of e-waste
in a safe and sustainable manner.