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When companies flout norms and regulators look away - | Print View

E-WASTE MANAGEMENT
When companies flout norms and regulators look away
A recent report from environmental research group Toxics Link exposes how multinationals are flagrantly
violating the MoEF-notified rules on e-waste, even as the authorities empowered to enforce implementation
remain passive. Richa Malhotra details the key findings.

18 July 2014 National and multinational electronic and electrical companies in India are violating e-waste management
norms while regulatory authorities are failing to take action against them, says a report published on 24 June
2014 by Toxics Link, an environmental research and advocacy group based in New Delhi.
Currently, India produces a whopping 2.7 million tons of e-waste every year but there are a handful of 42 ewaste collection units and 55 recycling units registered in the entire country, says the report. A chunk of the ewaste generated is managed by the informal sector, which has been operating illegally, putting humans and
environment at great risk.
It was in light of the illegal operations and associated risks that the Ministry of Environment and Forests,
Government of India, notified the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules in 2011 and enforced these a
year later in May 2012. A years time between notification and enforcement of the rules was meant for
companies and regulators to implement the rules and set up an infrastructure for e-waste management.
The report titled Time to Reboot now looks at the status of the implementation of E-waste Rules (2011) as
revealed by information gathered over the period 20122013. We wanted to check how the two important
agencies the electronic [companies] and the State Pollution Control Boards / Committees are faring in
implementing the rules and how successful they have been [in managing e-waste], says Priti Mahesh, key
researcher of the report and senior programme coordinator at Toxics Link.

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Pic: Praveen P/Wikimedia

The report looked at 50 (19 national and 31 multinational) leading companies shortlisted from across the
telecom, information technology and consumer goods sectors. Under the E-waste Rules (2011),
manufacturers, assemblers and sellers of electronic and electrical products are mandated to set up systems to
take back the products from consumers after the products end of life, and recycle them in an environmentally
safe manner.
The report rated the companies based on their take-back systems, information available to consumers on
how to return the products and the number of collection centres in the country. It found that 17 out of 50
companies have taken no action to fulfil their responsibility under the Rules, a majority (11) among which
are primarily cell phone companies including Blackberry, HTC, Karbonn, Lemon, Maxx, Micromax India,
Olive, Xolo and Zen Mobile. Another 15 companies have done little to comply with the rules, the report says.

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Rating companies based on their consumer friendliness in taking back e-waste.

Pic: Toxics Link
Only seven companies a mix of national and multinational were found to have enough information about
e-waste management on their websites, a take-back strategy and centres for collecting obsolete products.
The remaining 11 stood somewhere in between. Only four companies out of the 50 considered Canon
India, Lenovo, Nokia and Onida had more than 100 physical collection points or drop-in centres across
the country; 31 companies had none.

The number of companies with collection points for taking back end of life products.
Pic: Toxics Link
Ineffectual Pollution Control Boards
The regulators State Pollution Control Boards and Committees have the right to cancel the authorisation
of companies for failing to handle e-waste. In effect, however, they have been toothless. No action has been
taken against the violators, Priti told India Together.
She and co-researchers pored over the websites of regulatory bodies and found that 13 of the 35 Pollution
Control Board and Committee websites had no information on e-waste. Only four of the remaining 22 had
in-depth information, including a list of recycling facilities, on their websites.
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We [also] sought information through the Right to Information (RTI) Act on what kind of monitoring systems
they had created and whether they had e-waste rules clearly specified. We asked them if inventories [of ewaste generated] had been done in their states, how many e-waste processing units there were and how
many producers they had [authorised].
No more than seven states had carried out a thorough analysis of e-waste generated. Of these, West Bengal
with 34,124 metric tons and Andhra Pradesh with 4268.42 metric tons were the chief e-waste producers
during 20112012.
Probably one of the highest e-waste generating states, Karnataka, whose capital city Bangalore is an
information technology hub, did not have information available on the amount of e-waste generated,
according to the report.

Progress made by States and Union Territories in estimating e-waste generated.

Pic: Toxics Link
Considering the dismal performance of the regulators, Priti says the E-waste (Management and Handling)
Rules (2011) could do with some changes. Mandating yearly targets for e-waste collection by companies is
necessary. The number of e-waste collection centres also needs to be defined for every state, in both urban
and rural areas.
The collection points we see are concentrated in large, urban sectors and the rural areas are mainly
neglected. We all know that electronics are getting into rural areas as well. All pollution control authorities
must carry out an inventory of e-waste generated in their respective states, she says.
Besides, the report assessed only 50 national and multinational brands but there are several other local
companies assembling or selling electronic and electrical products that were not considered. Priti points out
that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive list of companies operating in the country, so that all can be
monitored.
Richa Malhotra
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18 Jul 2014
Richa Malhotra is a Bangalore-based freelance journalist focusing on science, technology and environment."
URL for this article
http://indiatogether.org/toxics-link-report-on-e-waste-generated-and-managed-environment

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