E-Waste

Subject: Environment

New e-waste rules threaten jobs, collection network

Electronic waste, or electronic goods that are past their shelf life, is largely handled by India’s vast informal sector.
The environment ministry brought the E waste (Management) Rules, 2016, that introduced a system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compelling makers of electronic goods to ensure a proportion of the goods they sold every year was recycled.
They are expected to maintain records annually demonstrating this. Most companies however didn’t maintain an in-house unit in charge of recycling and this gave rise to network of government-registered companies, called Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO) who acted as an intermediary between manufacturers of electronic goods and formal recycling units, that were technologically equipped to safely and efficiently recycle end-of-life electronic goods.

Draft Notification for Electronic Waste Management

This May, the Environment Ministry issued a draft notification that does away with PRO and dismantlers and vests all responsibility of recycling with authorised recyclers, only a handful of whom exist in India.
Recyclers will source a quantity of waste, recycle them and generate electronic certificates.
Companies can buy these certificates equivalent to their annual committed target and thus do not have to be involved with engaging PROs and dismantlers.
Recyclers will likely establish their own supply chains and companies will no longer bear any responsibility for ensuring that their produce is recycled.
The new rules would rely on an electronic management system that would track the material that went in for recycling with the output claimed by a recycler when they claimed GST (Goods and Services Tax) input credit.
The rules bring into effect a system of trading in certificates, akin to carbon credits, that will allow companies to temporarily bridge shortfalls.
Consumer goods companies and makers of electronics goods have to ensure at least 60% of their electronic waste is collected and recycled by 2023 with targets to increase them to 70% and 80% in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Companies that don’t meet their annual targets will have to pay a fine or an ‘environmental compensation’.
The CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) will oversee the overall implementation of these regulations.