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Follow UsRecently, the draft of
(Management and Handling) Rules, 2010 was made public and put in
the public domain as a part of the government process of rule making.
These shall remain in the pubic domain with the view of receiving
comments from the public and stakeholders for a period of two months.
The stage has now been set rolling for the public to express their
opinion but what do some of the learned people on the matter have to
say about the rules. On this occasion, we try to gather the viewpoint
of Abhishek Pratap, Campaigner, Greenpeace India, who says, Greenpeace
welcomes the notification of e-waste rule. This is a progressive and
landmark environment legislation in India. India is the first
developing country who made such law for management of e-waste which
puts responsibility and liability on the electronic manufacturers for
environmentally safe disposal and recycling of discarded electronic
products.
Seconding his views, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT, said, The
recently announced new set of rules for environmentally sound
management of e-waste is the need of the hour. Currently, an estimated
three lakh eighty thousand metric tonnes of e-waste is generated
annually in India.
Initial steps
Recollecting the initial stages, he recollects that since the last
three years Greenpeace has been working on the legal framework for
e-waste management in India. The process for law making started in
April-2008, when Greenpeace called for a meeting of all major
electronic manufacturers (international and Indians) in Banaglore. In
that meeting all major electronic brands along with other stakeholders
agreed on an e-waste law for ensuring level playing field in the sector
for
electronic production and take-back and recycling of end of the life
electronic products.
After that Greenpeace along with MAIT, GTZ and Toxicslink started
framing the e-waste rule based on Individual Producer Responsibility
(IPR) principle. Wide range of consultations were carried across the
country to seek opinion and suggestions of all stakeholders. Finally,
the draft e-waste rule (a joint recommendation of industry and civil
society) was submitted to the government in June last year. The
government accepted this draft rule on a positive note and formed an
expert committee to review the draft. The expert committee came out
with their recommendations and finally the government notified E-waste
Rules on 28th April this year. The notified e-waste rule is largely
based on the recommendations given by Greenpeace, MAIT, GTZ and
Toxicslink.
E-waste treatment
E-waste can be described as a post-consumer kind of waste, which
requires special regulation for its collection, transportation,
treatment and disposal because its characteristics are different from
other wastes like factory or manufacturing wastes. Pratap remarks,
Finally, this legislation will drive for green electronic product
manufacturing as there is a clear clause in the rule for reduction of
hazardous substances like lead, mercury and polyvinyl chloride in
electronic products. However, there is also some legal ambiguity in the
rule on producer responsibility which needs to be cleared out before
the final notification for implementation.
Finer nuances
The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has proposed in the
draft that
and dealers of electrical and electronic products be made
accountable for the end-of-life disposal of the goods once they
become obsolete or are ready to be recycled. Pratap feels that the
financial responsibility of every manufacturer for meeting the cost of
treatment and disposal of e-waste generated from their end of the life
product is not clear.
He further explains, Whether the manufacturers at individual level or
at collective level, are responsible for meeting this cost. We believe
that every manufacturer should be held individually responsible for
managing their own end of the life products because this will enable
and enable reduction of hazardous chemicals in products and lead to
green products in the market. However, the present rule provides
options to manufacturers of either choosing between individual or
collective scheme for meeting this responsibility. But this will not be
good for either the industry or consumers as the level of toxicity in
the products will not reduce and so, the impact of e-waste will
continue on the environment and public health.
Manufacturers will not only be responsible to set up collection centres
to oversee the process, but will also have to ensure that the hazardous
products are handled by registered dismantlers or
to control possible damage to the environment and human health.
Apart from that the environment ministry has also broadened the
definition of e-waste to include items like remote controlled toys,
gaming consoles, household appliances and smoke detectors besides
computers, television sets, fax machines, mobile phones and medical
equipment.
Grabbing the pulse
What is the road ahead? What is the response that it will receive from
the industry? Will this law prove to be a success and how can its
success be ensured? All these questions encircle along with the process
being set in motion for the e-waste rules. The draft policy on e-waste
focuses on bulk consumers. banks, MNCs, and other big companies which
will now have to deposit e-waste at authorised collection centres.
While environmental agencies have hailed the move as a step in the
right direction, activists feel that the policy should be
notified in its entirety.
This is first time that the responsibilities and liabilities of all in
the value chain has been defined in any environmental regulation and it
will prove helpful in good implementation of the rule. If there are
clear liabilities on everybody including manufactures and consumers,
there is no point that it will not prove to be successful. However,
there is a need of increased awareness at the consumer level so that
discarded electronic/electrical products reach the collection points.
In order to create awareness among the consumers an awareness campaign
must be led by manufacturer's.
Talking on the success of the policy, Pratap feels, We expect that
this rule without any legal ambiguity on
responsibility will set a new trend of waste management in the
country and will create a precedent that the industry can be held
accountable in clear sense for any adverse impact of their business on
environment. Further, it will also create new production processes
which will not be based on use of hazardous/toxic chemicals.
There is one more angle of concern called RoHS too. RoHS has been
mentioned in the rule and if it is clearly implemented it will
significantly reduce the use of hazardous chemicals in the
electronic/electrical products. This will in turn lead to more and more
green products entering the market. Airing his views on this aspect,
Pratap says that there is also some legal ambiguity. He futher adds,
The government has chosen Indian standards rather than EU standards,
which is considered as a global standard for electronic product
manufacturing. Failure to adhere to EU standards will prove detrimental
for the growth of Indian companies as they won't be able to sell their
products in the European market based on Indian standards and Indian
companies (for sake any companies) can't afford follow two lines of
production - one for the Indian market and another for the European
market. There is no need of reinventing the wheel as far as standard
for use of hazardous chemicals are concerned.
Even if the MoEFs proposals become the law, environmentalists say that
the governments task wont be easy in the face of stiff resistance
from the industry. Officials admitted that the efficacy of the
proposals will depend on a proactive approach from the industry.
Extended producer responsibility is yet to become a reality in India.
So far very few companies are actively involved in collecting e-waste
from their consumers. Apart from this even the dealers will also have
to collect e-waste by providing consumers with a bin or a demarcated
area to deposit used goods.
Recycler's angle
This rule will immensely help recyclers to get materials as now there
is clear responsibility fixed on everybody including bulk and
individual consumers for giving the discarded products only to
authorised channels of collection. So, in the future a lot more waste
will find its way to authorised collection channels and from there to
authorised recyclers.
However, at the same time authorised recyclers also need to think of
innovative business models to ensure that consumers engage in the
process of waste disposal through them. They need to incentivise
consumers to use authorised channels for disposal. Further, these
authorised recyclers need to identify what level of value addition they
are making in e-waste management by improving their waste treatment
facility. Currently, they are competing with the informal sector for
the same waste and not looking at the other areas where they can
increase collection and also how they can mainstream informal sector
with them for collection and disposal of waste. Above all, this
reflects the need for authorised recyclers to think beyond existing
practices to obtain raw material.
Road ahead
The rule is just for setting direction and broader principle for
effective e-waste management. After the notification of
rule for implementation, new guidelines for e-waste should be
prepared which will give a finer direction and tool to implement this
rule in the right spirit. Also there is a need to fix a target for
e-waste collection by every manufacturer based on their sale of the
products for every year, opines Pratap.
On a final note, Pratap further says, There is one thing missing in
the E-waste Rules namely our recommendation that all annual returns
should be electronically filed in order to enable reduction of
cumbersome process of paper filling and also reduce usage of paper.
However, the government will still stick to the age-old practice of
paper filling, which needs to change as this as is related to new age
sector like the electronic industry.
E-waste Rules: A Success Story?
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