E-Waste Management

Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informal processing of e-waste in developing countries can lead to adverse human health effects and environmental pollution.

Electronic scrap components, such as CPUs, contain potentially harmful materials such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, or brominated flame retardants. Recycling and disposal of e-waste may involve significant risk to health of workers and communities in developed countries, and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaking of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes.

E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016, enacted since October 1, 2017, had further strengthened the existing rules. Over 21 products (Schedule-I) were included under the purview of the rule. The rule also extended its purview to components or consumables or parts or spares of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), along with their products.

The present rule has strengthened the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which is the global best practice to ensure the take-back of the end-of-life products. A new arrangement entitled, 'Producer Responsibility Organisation' (PRO) has been introduced to strengthen EPR further. PRO, a professional organisation, would be authorised or financed collectively or individually by producers, to share the responsibility for collection and channelisation of e-waste generated from the 'end-of-life' products to ensure environmentally sound management of such e-waste.

The rule has provisioned the target for the producers, which was missing in the first version of the Rule (2012). Now, manufacturers are mandated to take back their sold products with recommended mechanisms.

The present Rule ensures that every producer of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and their components or consumables or parts or spares shall ensure that new EEE and their components or consumables or parts or spares do not contain pollutants such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers beyond a maximum concentration value.

Every producer shall provide detailed information on the constituents of the equipment and their components or consumables or parts or spares, along with a declaration of conformance to the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) provisions in the product user documentation.

Imports or placement in the market for new electrical and electronic equipment shall be permitted only for those which are compliant to provisions of rule 16.

Further, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shall conduct random sampling of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market to monitor and verify the compliance of RoHS provisions and the cost for sample and testing shall be borne by the producer.

If the product does not comply with RoHS provisions, the producers shall take corrective measures to bring the product into compliance, and withdraw or recall the product from the market, within a reasonable period as per the guidelines of CPCB.