GTZ, the German Technical Cooperation Agency, together with Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) and Greenpeace, has recently drafted a policy proposal on the regulation on E-waste that calls on the IT industry for take-back policy and setting up collection centres. The Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) is expected to announce a set of rules in 2010. “The Government is currently in the process of developing a dedicated set of Rules which would govern the management and handling of electronic waste,” said Dr Saroj, Director, Ministry of Environment & Forests.
“These will be put in the public domain for comments by March 2010. The said draft rules were jointly proposed and submitted to the Government by the MAIT, GTZ, Greenpeace and Toxics Link in September 2009. An Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests is currently reviewing the draft,” said Dr Saroj.
“A new set of rules for environmentally sound management of e-waste is the need of the hour. E-waste is one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams and with increased consumption of IT and electronics products, India will soon be faced with the challenges of managing the same,” was the message of A. Raja, Union Minister for Communications & IT, for the stakeholders of e-waste. E-waste, the end-of-life electrical and electronics equipments, is characterized by two main attributes: it is hazardous while processing, due to its content of toxic substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). On the other hand, it has a value proposition due to the content of precious metals, such as gold, silver, palladium and copper.
E-waste recycling by the informal sector with little or no access to capital and technology, using highly hazardous and polluting techniques is a reality in some of the densely populated regions of India. India today does not have a dedicated legislation for environmentally sound management of e-waste. “Most IT brands have taken proactive measures for controlling and managing e-waste resulting from their products. All IT products being offered in the market today are RoHS (Restrictions on Hazardous Substances) compliant. Further, leading brands today have set up their own take-back and collections systems,” said Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT.
