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Ever wondered what happens to the morning newspaper that starts your day with a cup of tea? It gets lost among a pile of many others of its tribe to later find existence at a nearby raddiwallas shop, and is then packed-off for recycling. That is the story of birth, death, and re-birth of papera cyclic process indeed. But ever pondered about the computer that has made life much easier and on a larger scale also reduced the wastage of paper. If not, then put your thoughts together because electronic materials too have a shelf-life.

Need to Recycle
Approximately 20-50 mn tonnes of electronic products are discarded globally every year. Due to lack of government legislations on e-waste, standards for disposal, proper handling mechanisms, this e-waste mostly ends up in landfills, or its partly recycled in unhygienic conditions and partly thrown into waste streams. At present, Bengaluru alone generates about 8,000 tonnes of computer waste annually, and in the absence of proper disposal, it usually finds its way to scrap dealers.

Elaborating on the need to treat this waste properly, Dr Lakshmi Raghupathy, advisor to MAIT says, At present, e-waste is categorized as hazardous waste. This is not correct as e-waste is not hazardous per se, rather the processing of e-waste for extraction of various materials is hazardous. Its not surprising to know that approximately 95% of e-waste can be recycled, which is good. Many parts, such as plastics, glass, metals, etc, can be recovered. Hence, e-waste has high recycle potential and cannot be termed as hazardous waste.

Current Scenario
Describing the current status of e-waste management in the industry, Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT explains, After the e-waste management study, conducted in 2007, many big companies like Nokia and HP aggressively started pursuing the issue. But on the whole, the effort has not been able to translate into a larger movement as the efforts made are fragmented. What inflates the effort is the lack of awareness at the end consumer level, where consumers still dump the product at the roadside scrap dealers shop. Basically, what needs to be done is to create awareness among consumers, because if there is apathy for the issue at the foundation of the pyramid, then the entire process will fail.

Seconding Mehtas stand is Satish Sinha, associate director, Toxics Link, who informs, There is no one way in which IT companies are handling waste management issues. Whereas, companies handling recycling of e-waste can be described at a very premature stage where they need to develop to create a mark of their own as theirs is a totally new initiative. The right technology and correct methods together will help these companies to produce polished products that are in lieu with international standards.

Echoing their views Dr Raghupathy, who says, Many companies are involved to a large extent for the cause of recycling due to the producer responsibility clause and their commitment for corporate social responsibility (CSR). So, from the industry point of view, the e-waste management perspective is taken care of. One main thing that needs to be borne in mind is that in Indian manufacturing units are growing manifolds and would require raw material which are recoverable from e-waste. In every initiative of the government in e-waste management, the manufacturing companies should be involved at every stage, as this will benefit them only in the long-run as much of the e-waste could find usage in their manufacturing plants.

Basically, what needs to be done is to create awareness among consumers, because if there is apathy for the issue at the foundation of the pyramid, then the entire process will fail Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT

Further, highlighting the approach that India can take, Raghupathy adds, One model that could be adopted, especially for India, is to charge buyers a small fraction as refundable recyclable costs, which could be returned to him when he returns the product. One, it will ensure money flow and two, it will ensure that the product will be directed to the right channel for recycling purposes. Even the restriction of use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) compliance needs to be made mandatory through the e-waste regulations to make it a universal phenomenon.

The Regulation Mode
Recently, major Indian stakeholders in e-waste management came together to draft a set of rules for good management of e-waste, which have been submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Announcing of good times to come, Mehta says, The government is considering the review that GTZ, Greenhouse, and MAIT had jointly sent forth to them enumerating draft rules for the e-waste regulation. Once these rules see daylight, it will become mandatory for companies to handle e-waste in a proper manner.

Survival Instinct
Experts believe that in order to prevent a regulation from being a mere paper-work, the government along with the support of various agencies will have to strengthen it time and again.

Commenting on the regulation, Raghupathy says, Once the regulation sees daylight, the government will have to provide the mechanism for its effective implementation. It will have to ensure that people at the consumer and recycler level are involved more in the activity. The government will also have to formulate a collection system and facilitate the consumer to deposit their e-waste for recycling. The government should boost the system through investment, establishment of collection centers, so that e-waste is channelized to registered recyclers who recycle in an environmentally sound manner. There must be a bigger turn taken to accommodate new activities, slot creation, and provide viable solutions.

Taking a stock of the future, Sinha enumerates, The passing of this regulation will set forth challenges like establishment of an infrastructure, setting up of mechanisms and drivers, setting up of various business verticals for recycling, refurbishment, and ensuring that international standards are followed. The success of this regulation depends mainly on two factorsnamely the success of the business model and the effective tackling of every environmental issue thrown into the ring. In other words, the basic underlying principle of this regulation is to ensure sustainable development.

Support Strategy
An array of government initiatives like review of the trade policy and exim classification codes to plug loopholes, fostering partnership with manufacturers and retailers for recycling services, announcing incentives for growth of e-waste disposal agencies, enforcing labeling of all computer monitors, etc, will help work wonders.

Even public supportthrough measures like buying necessary products only, requesting electronics take-back programs from the manufacturer at the time of purchase, requesting computer manufacturer to take steps to phase out hazardous materials, etcwill also serve the purpose.

Speaking about the support mechanism Raghupathy says, Inclusion of recycling units into mainstream activities will enable them to carry out basic door-to-door collection and manual dismantling jobs, and then hand over processed waste to bigger companies for recycling to recover nonferrous and precious metals. This will ensure a chain of activities between the two segments and a good synchronization on a higher scale can ensure that the small initiative of recycling e-waste becomes a huge success.

So, rules can make it mandatory for companies to recycle e-waste but the failure or success of it will depend on how the regulation is implemented after it steps out of the curtains.

Shilpa Shanbhag
shilpas@cybermedia.co.in

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