Growth in the IT and communication sectors has enhanced the usage of the electronic equipment exponentially. Faster upgradation of electronic product is forcing consumers to discard old electronic products very quickly, which, in turn, adds to e-waste to the solid waste stream. The growing problem of e-waste calls for greater emphasis on recycling e-waste and better e-waste management.
Electronic waste or e-waste is generated when electronic and electrical equipment become unfit for their originally intended use or have crossed the expiry date. Computers, servers, mainframes, monitors, compact discs (CDs), printers, scanners, copiers, calculators, fax machines, battery cells, cellular phones, transceivers, TVs, iPods, medical apparatus, washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners are examples of e-waste (when unfit for use). These electronic equipments get fast replaced with newer models due to the rapid technology advancements and production of newer electronic equipment. This has led to an exponential increase in e-waste generation. People tend to switch over to the newer models and the life of products has also decreased.
E-waste typically consists of metals, plastics, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), printed circuit boards, cables, and so on. Valuable metals such as copper, silver, gold, and platinum could be recovered from e-wastes, if they are scientifically processed. The presence of toxic substances such as liquid crystal, lithium, mercury, nickel, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), selenium, arsenic, barium, brominated flame retardants, cadmium, chrome, cobalt, copper, and lead, makes it very hazardous, if e-waste is dismantled and processed in a crude manner with rudimentary techniques. E-waste poses a huge risk to humans, animals, and the environment. The presence of heavy metals and highly toxic substances such as mercury, lead, beryllium, and cadmium pose a significant threat to the environment even in minute quantities.
Consumers are the key to better management of e-waste. Initiatives such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR); Design for Environment (DfE); Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (3Rs), technology platform for linking the market facilitating a circular economy aim to encourage consumers to correctly dispose their e-waste, with increased reuse and recycling rates, and adopt sustainable consumer habits. In developed countries, e-waste management is given high priority, while in developing countries it is exacerbated by completely adopting or replicating the e-waste management of developed countries and several related problems including, lack of investment and technically skilled human resources.
In addition, there is lack of infrastructure and absence of appropriate legislations specifically dealing with e-waste. Also, there is inadequate description of the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and institutions involved in e-waste management, etc. In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released the updated E-waste (Management) Rules, which came in supersession of the E-waste in India (GOI, 2016).
Other Countries like Europe, the EU, the EU WEEE directive clearly imposes collection, recovery, and recycling targets on its member countries. Thus, it stipulates a minimum collection target of 4 kg/capita per year for all the member states.
These collection- and weight-based recycling targets seek to reduce the amount of hazardous substances disposed into landfills and to increase the availability of recyclable materials that indirectly encourages less virgin materials consumption in new products.
One-third of electrical and electronic waste in the EU is reported as separately collected and appropriately treated. The introduction of the EPR scheme in 2003 was the most important step in South Korea, and about 70 per cent of e-waste was collected by producers. Over the same period, the amount of e-waste reused and recycled was 12 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively. The remainder was sent to landfill sites or incineration plants, accounting for 19 per cent.
Waste management rules in India are based on the principles of “sustainable development”, “precaution” and “polluter pays”. … Only 43 million tonnes (MT) of the waste is collected, 11.9 MT is treated and 31 MT is dumped in landfill sites.