India generated 3.3 lakh tones of e-waste in 2007 as dumping from developed countries and informal recycling added to environmental degradation.
BANGALORE: India generated 3.3 lakh tones of e-waste in 2007 as dumping from developed countries and informal recycling added to environmental degradation, a new study released revealed on Thursday.
E-waste is expected to touch 4.7 lakh tonnes in India by 2011, according to the study unveiled by MAIT together with GTZ, the German Technical Cooperation Agency.
MAIT is the apex body representing India's IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors.
Electronic waste or "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment" (WEEE), according to the WEEE directive of the European Commission, is defined as waste material consisting of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliances. However, the MAIT-GTZ assessment study focussed only on the waste stream of computers, televisions and mobile handsets.
The study, said to be a first-of-its kind to inventories e-waste in the country, revealed a total of 3.3 lakh tonnes of e-waste is generated annually in India, while an additional 50,000 tonnes is illegally imported into the country.
However, only 19,000 tonnes of this is recycled due to high refurbishing and reuse of electronics products in the country and also due to poor recycling infrastructure.
Currently, e-waste recycling, especially processing, remains concentrated in the informal sector, which due to poor processing technologies and very small capacities, contributes significantly to pollution and environmental degradation.
The e-waste assessment study, conducted by the e-Technology group of IMRB International, a leading market research firm in the country, is a survey of over 200 corporate houses and close to 400 households to map their e-waste management practices.
It was observed that 94 per cent of the organizations studied did not have any policy on disposal of obsolete IT products/e-waste. Further, while a lot of organisations were aware about e-waste, the depth of knowledge was lacking.
GTZ Director J Bischoff said significant growth in consumption of electronics items in the last few years, accompanied by a very high rate of obsolescence of these products was leading to generation of e-waste in the country.
"In addition to the e-waste generated in the domestic market, dumping by developed countries has further compounded the problem in India," Bischoff said. "All stakeholders should cooperate and take corrective action".
Although the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) of India does not permit the import of electronic waste, it, however, finds its way through 'mis-declaration'. Of the total e-waste, only about 40 per cent finds its way into the recycling stream while the rest 60 per cent remains in warehouses/storehouses due to poor/inefficient collection system, the study found.
A significant proportion of the waste that finds its way into the recycling stream, especially televisions and mobile handsets, is refurbished and resold. Only 19,000 tonnes, representing just five per cent of the total e-waste, is processed in the country.
Of the total e-waste generated in the country, western India accounts for the largest proportion at 35 per cent, followed by the south at 30 per cent. North and East account for 21 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
While north India is not a leading generator, it happens to be the leading processing centre of e-waste in the country.
Elaborating on the measures identified in the study to manage e-waste in an environmentally conducive manner, MAIT Executive Director Vinnie Mehta said the situation could assume alarming proportions and therefore "it is high time, we pay serious attention to the issue of e-waste and take corrective actions to contain this problem".
"As the first principle of recycling is re-use, it is essential that the electronics industry encourages re-use of obsolete electronics items before suitably refurbishing them and by providing them necessary service support", Mehta said.
Further, he said, institutional users must mandatorily put in place a policy on e-waste management and for disposal of obsolete electronic equipment.
Calling for stringent measures to be adopted by the government, Mehta said it should develop an inclusive model by explicitly identifying and defining the roles of each stakeholder including the vendors, the users, the recyclers and the regulator for environmentally friendly recycling.
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