The Menace of E-wastes & Strictest Rules Ever

Any material that will be recycled or processed in order to reclaim a metal, or to reclaim an organic or inorganic substance for further use, is deemed a waste. Electronic components that are used without further processing are not likely to be defined as a waste.

1. Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Amended Rules, 2003: These rules define hazardous waste as “any waste which by reason of any of its physical, chemical, reactive, toxic, flammable, explosive or corrosive characteristics causes danger or is likely to cause danger to health or environment, whether alone or when on contact with other wastes or substances.
2. DGFT (Exim policy 2002-07): Second hand personal computers (PCs)/laptops are not permitted for import under EPCG scheme under the provisions of para 5.1 of the Exim Policy, even for service providers. Second-hand photocopier machines, air conditioners, diesel generating sets, etc, can also not be imported under EPCG Scheme under the provisions of Para 5.1 of EXIM Policy even if these are less than ten years old.

What can be the stringiest set of rules to handle the menace of e-waste ?
Under the new ‘E-waste (Management & Handling) Rules’, each manufacturer of a computer, music system, mobile phone or any other electronic gadget will be “personally responsible” for the final safe disposal of the product when it becomes a piece of e-waste. This “personal” responsibility makes it the world’s most stringent set of rules for e-waste disposal.
What India is doing to handle the menace of E-waste?
Ministry of environment and forests, Government of India is giving the final touch to a set of rules , which are being referred to as the strictest rules ever to handle the problem of e-wastes. These rules have been framed by India’s Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) with the help of various NGO’s active in the environment protection. The NGO’s include Greenpeace, civil society group Toxicslink and Germany’s external aid agency GTZ .

Major electrical brands like Nokia, Wipro, HCL, Acer and Sony Ericsson, have already begun implementing plans on toxic chemical phase-out and take-back of old end-of-life products in India.
What are the objectives of these rules?
Apart from addressing the specific requirements for e-waste management, these rules include to devise an effective mechanism to regulate the generation, collection, storage, transportation, import and export of e-waste to be able to achieve the objective of environmentally sound recycling of e-waste.
This includes:

1. Establishment of a collection system,
2. Environmentally sound refurbishment and recycling
3. Mandatory provisions for reduction in hazardous substances
4. Producer responsibility

In this way the new set of rules make a producer of electronic and electrical equipment ‘personnally’ responsible for the entire lifecycle of its products including end-of-life phase.

The producer has the first level of responsibility of proper collection and recycling of discarded electronic and electrical products of its own brands in environmentally sound manner.

Who else is included?
Dealers, retailers and consumers are also responsible for proper and effective collection and recycling of the electronic waste.

What is consumer’s responsibility ?
It will be the consumer’s responsibility to return a discarded electronic product to the designated collection centre.

What is dealers responsibility ?
Dealers are responsible for proper handling and storage of the e-waste.

Except consumers, everyone in the value chain, including producers, have to takepermission from a designated authority for handling, collection, transport, dismantling and material recovery of the e-waste.

with hints from IANS, http://www.cpcb.nic.in/ , ewasteguide.info
image credit : ÇP’s photostream on flickr.com