Festival Lessons on E-Waste

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) cut, instant discounts, cashback offers and other festival bonanzas, combined with digital technology innovation, drove a bumper sale of electronic goods such as smartphones, laptops, television sets, etc., both offline and online. Industry estimates put festive season smartphone and appliance sales at a three-year high. While the festival boom brought smiles to retailers and consumers alike, the celebrations also raised an alarm over the mounting heap of e-waste, or electronic waste. Heavy discounts offered by e-commerce platforms triggered a shopping rush for consumer electronics, but few gave a serious thought as to what they should do with a discarded electronic appliance after purchasing a new one.  The harsh reality holds out the mirror on the widening gap in consumer awareness about the hazards of e-waste. It also speaks volumes about the systemic gap in infrastructure and lack of accountability on the part of producers and sellers to bridge it to promote scientific e-waste management. In the absence of adequate infrastructure and an efficient system for channelling E-waste to formal recycling facilities, the E-waste finds its way into informal recycling hubs, which operate without any regulatory oversight. Unregulated and improper disposal of e-waste poses grave environmental and health hazards to humans as well as animals, as these contain hazardous substances and pollute soil, water and air. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology’s recommendation to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to promote formal recycling infrastructure and investment in recycling units deserves urgent and decisive action by the Ministry to set things in order.  The parliamentary has given pragmatic advice about the need to integrate informal sectors, i.e., informal waste collectors, into the formal system to ensure safe handling of health-hazardous e-waste and the need for launching public awareness campaigns on the hazards of e-waste and proper disposal. This will ensure that even if a consumer, because of his or her ignorance, gives away the discarded electronic goods to a waste collector, their disposal will be carried out under strict regulatory oversight. Encouraging manufacturers to design eco-friendly and easily recyclable equipment and providing incentives for recycling through tax benefits, subsidies, or Production-Linked Incentives to businesses and startups engaged in e-waste recycling, as recommended by the Committee, is a strategic necessity to prevent e-waste management from escalating into a full-blown environmental crisis. The Ministry attributes the widespread availability of low-cost smartphones, laptops, and internet-enabled devices to tariff reduction due to tariff reduction and zero-duty import to the country under the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). The ITA under the WTO, which came into effect in 1997, covers a broad spectrum of IT products, including computers, telecommunication equipment, semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing and testing equipment, software, and scientific instruments, as well as most of the parts and accessories, which, according to the ministry, enabled small businesses to access broader markets through e-commerce platforms, promoting rural entrepreneurship and employment. As consumers benefit from the availability of low-cost upgrades of their smartphones, laptops and other digital devices, the shopping rush continues even after the festival bonanza is over. The worry of the e-waste heap growing taller and wider, therefore, continues to mount with each upgrade by consumers leaving behind a trail of discarded devices to informal waste collectors. Information provided by the Ministry and highlighted in the Committee’s report that the signing of the ITA has led to an influx of finished products while simultaneously reducing incentives for the development of a robust domestic component manufacturing ecosystem explains the challenges in building the ecosystem of formal recycling of E-waste around the domestic manufacturing system. Without encompassing the import of most of the critical components, e.g., microchips, display panels, and integrated circuits, from countries like China, Taiwan, and South Korea into strategic planning, the formal e-waste recycling system will remain incomplete. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, provide for managing e-waste in an environmentally sound manner and putting in place an improved Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regime for e-waste recycling wherein all the manufacturers, producers, refurbishers and recyclers are required to register on a portal developed by the Central Pollution Control Board. These rules also facilitate and channelise the informal sector to the formal sector for doing business and ensuring recycling of e-waste in an environmentally sound manner. The real challenge lies in finding out the compliance of these rules across formal and informal sectors. As consumers are at the centre of e-waste generation, a robust and scientific recycling ecosystem is not possible without their active participation. Until they realise that every single upgrade is not just about a consumption decision but also about the responsibility to ensure that the discarded device or accessories go into a regulated recycling facility and are not dumped in a scrapyard, the desired circular economy will remain unachieved. Leveraging festival celebrations to educate consumers to hand over the e-waste to registered producers, refurbishers or recyclers is pivotal to encourage responsible disposal and promote environmentally sound recycling.