Department of ECE,RNSIT E-Waste Management

CJ,VKS,MSN,PVM,AG

Module 4
STRATEGIES AND INITIATIVES FOR
DEALING WITH E-WASTE IN INDIA

Overview of pan-India initiatives for dealing with e-waste during 2000 and 2012

• The years 2000 and 2012 are believed to be founding years for building

up the discourse and actions for e-waste management in India;

• A game changer in the larger context of growth of electronics industry
as one of the promising engines for economic development in India.
• These years were beginning of enforcement of two international
regulations – the Basel Convention across the world, and the
WEEE Directive in EU countries;
• Regulating transboundary movements of e-waste, and specific guideline for
e- waste management and introduction of EPR respectively.
• India had amended Hazardous Waste Management Rules in 2003 in light of
the Basel Convention, and later in 2008; and introduced E-waste Management
and Handling Rules, 2011 towards end of 2010.

• The global thinking on e-waste management had begun in late 1990s

on the following issues:
• Growing quantity of e-waste;
• landfills as well as leaching of toxins to soil and
water, and its hazardous impact on environment and
human health;
• safe disposal/treatment of e-waste as a necessity because of its toxic composition;
developed countries shipping e-waste to developing

countries, sale of ‘grey goods’; and

• EPR and waste management.

• As part of domestic e-waste, large quantity of e-waste is generated by

consumers and manufacturers. The e-waste from manufacturers is
generated in the form of defective printed wiring boards, IC chips, and
other components, which are discarded in the production process. All
types of e- waste are being recycled in the country.
• The unorganised recycling units as part have been developed organically
as a natural branching of the established scrap industry, which has been
market-driven and driven by economic necessity associated with
poverty. For these units, main incentive is financial profit, not
environmental or social awareness (Sinha-Ketriwal et al. 2005).
• Materials recovery interest small scale recyclers, and entire
communities, including children, earn their livelihoods by foraging
metals, glass, and plastics from the e-waste.
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Getting to know ground reality, knowledge base created

• The first report on e-waste scenario in Asia (including India) was
published by the BAN and SVTC (Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition) in
2002 with the contributions of three country representatives3 (Puckett et al.
2002).
• This report revealed how the USA and other rich economies that use most
of the world’s e-products, generate most of the e-waste, and exporting the
e- waste crisis to the developing countries of Asia.
• It stressed on unjust, inappropriate export of pollution to a particular
region (China, India, and Pakistan) simply because it is poorer.
• After showing e-waste impacts – environmental and occupational, and
legal implications of e-waste export, it drew attention to – how from a legal
standpoint, the issue has become murky and is dependent on how seriously
a government intends to deal with the hazards (ibid.: 27)
Implementation of the Basel Convention

• The report stressed upon making;

• Making producer responsible;
• Activating product take-back system;
• Encouraging design for longevity, upgradability, repair and reuse, and for
recycling.
• Thus, most actors of e-waste sector were made aware of Indian ground
reality in the global scenario – e-waste export by rich countries, its
hazardous impacts, limitations of Indian laws to deal with e-waste dumping
vis-à-vis the Basel Convention as well as the WEEE Directive in European
countries and its implementation.
• The ‘Indo-German-Swiss E-waste Initiative’ was started in 2003–2004 for
knowledge partnership through an understanding between MoEF and
EMPA,
• working on a mandate for SECO (Swiss State Secretariat for
Economic Affairs) and GTZ,Germany (renamed as GIZ in
2011).
• This was commissioned under BMZ and ASEM (Advisory Services in
Environmental Management) Programme.
• This programme was instrumental in supporting the WEEE strategy
group, which was establishing national WEEE baselines, and assisting in
implementing WEEE pilot projects.
• A national workshop on ‘Electronic Waste Management’ was
organised jointly by CPCB, MoEF,8 EMPA, Switzerland, and GTZ in
New Delhi during March, 2004
Two-pronged strategy was adopted:
• first, at the macro level, national level desk study was
proposed; second, a national level working group was
formed (Arora et al. 2019b).
• The working group included multiple stakeholders, such as regulatory
authorities, industry associations, NGOs, recyclers (formal and
informal), research institutions, and experts in the field like EU and
UNEP.
• This was to take initiatives to improve recycling practices, providing
fiscal incentives, and evolving standards for recycling, formulating
legislative tools, providing cleaner production options to
manufacturers using fewer toxic components, and take steps to check
illegal imports of e-waste in the country.
• The CPCB commissioned by the proposed desk study to IRGSSA, its
report was published in 2005
• IRGSSA was to carry out a study covering the following:
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CJ,VKS,MSN,PVM,AG
• rapid assessment for quantification, characterization, future projections for
e-waste, documenting e-waste management in different cities, and plans for
new management systems.
• This report estimated e-waste generation (computers) based on ‘the average
penetration levels of PC in a population of 1,000…According to this
estimation, total e-waste generated in India was 146,180 tonnes’ (quoted in
Sinha 2019a: 28–29).
• Maharashtra was at the top among 35 State and Union Territories with
20,270.6 tonnes followed by Tamil Nadu with 13,486.2 tonnes, and
Andhra Pradesh with 12,780.3 tonnes.
• Some of the important sectors like railways, defence, and health generate
very large volumes of e-waste…individual households are perhaps the
lowest contributors to e-waste for PCs.
• large-scale generation from consumer durables, such as TVs, refrigerators,
air conditioners, and washing machines etc.
• The e-waste generation was linked to production and consumption pattern;
production was linked to lifespan of an e-product and introduction of
newer technology in short span of time.

Domestic generation of e-waste:

The statistics of production, exports, and sales of each product and their average life
have been considered in these studies.
• For example, average life of a PC was assumed to be 5 and 7 years and of
a television (TV) to be 15 and 17 years.
• It was also assumed that 100% of electronic units sold in one
particular year would become obsolete at the end of the average life.
• These perceptions of life of e-waste were based on urban conditions; the
conditions are far from it considering the rural scenario (Chatterjee and
Kumar 2009: 895).
• A report was jointly prepared by GTZ and BIRD in 2007, which is one of the
firsts WEEE Assessment Study to develop a sound methodology for estimation
the volume of WEEE produced in India (limited to computers, television, and
mobile phones).
• This study aimed at developing methodology for calculating WEEE in India,
including –
(i) projections of e-waste over next five years,
(ii) disposal behavior and recycling practices,
(iii) identify stakeholders in e-waste trade value chain,
(iv) assess capacities of existing recyclers, and
(v) recommend a national action plan for major stakeholders to ensure proper
handling and disposal of e-waste.

The methodology adopted for e-waste assessment and quantification study was
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‘Funnel Approach’ for accuracy and better understanding of the e- Waste
production in India;
• WEEE was estimated at three levels:
(i) potential annual e-waste;14
(ii) e-waste available for recycling;15 and
(iii) e-waste recycled

• Based on this method, …the total annual e-waste generated in India in the
year 2007 is 3,82,979 MT,17 including 50,000 MT of imports in India…
the amount available for recycling was 1,44,143 MT but due to the
presence of considerable refurbishment market only 19,000 MT of e-waste
has been recycled in the year 2007.’
• Conceptual methodology for mapping of e-waste in Mumbai and Pune
cities in a layered manner.
The four layers are:
1.Identifying e-waste streams as layer ;
2.Value added [chain] as layer ;
3.Labour input as layer ; and
4.Hazards as layer.

• It stresses on primary survey method for estimation of WEEE quantity

– material flow, input quantities/import, reuse, disposal, recycling
technology, and hazardous processes – these are the stages of estimation.
• Until almost 2010, e-waste related estimates included computers, cell
phones, and TVs.
• Different projections were made about generation of e-waste during
2005– 2009.
• For example, ELCINA (2007) estimated 4.84 lakh tonnes (0.48 Mt) e-
waste by 2009; CPCB (2008) estimated 8.0 lakh tonnes (0.80 Mt) by

2012 (quoted in LARRDIS 2011: 5);

• while Dwivedy and Mittal (2012) projected e-waste around 2.49 million
MT during 2007–2011 based on a study conducted in 2010.
• Thus, recognising a range of e-products for preparing a list of e-waste
became a point of policy/regulatory framework in India, which was
reflected in the Rules, 2011.
• The need for preparing inventory of e-waste in the country has been an
agenda for almost 15 years.
Details about imported e-waste

• Along with e-waste generation in India, imported e-waste was also talked
about; figures were available in ‘truckloads’, estimating in tonnes until
2009. For example,
• ‘Old Seelampur18 acquires about 15–20 truckloads of e-waste, amounting
to 1.5– 1.8 tonnes of e-waste every day’ (Basu 2019: 57), thus, 45–50
tonnes a month.
• About 300 days of the year, two truckloads of scrap PCs arrive daily in
Delhi…about 133,000 units and 3,600 tonnes arriving per year (PC weighs
about 27 kg).
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• For an assumed obsolescence time of 7 years, the quantity of locally
produced PC scrap is almost doubled by imports (+ 89%). (Quoted in Babu
2007: 316)
• (ILO 2014:17) provided more details about imported items and why
illegal e-waste is difficult to track.
• Importers bring in huge quantities of e-waste including used
and obsolete monitors, printers, keyboards, central processing
units (CPUs), typewriters, projectors, mobile phones, polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) wires, etc.
• These items exist in all ranges, models and sizes, and are functional as
well as unsellable and non-reusable materials.
• Often, illegal shipments of e-waste are labelled as
donations or imports of second-hand EEE, to cross
borders as a legal trade transaction.
• These illegal transactions are difficult to track as they are both hidden
and controlled by criminal groups that profit from informal e-waste
recycling practices.

Recycling scenario

• Regarding e-waste recycling, several authors noted that it was gaining

currency as a lucrative business from early 2000s, as larger quantities of
electronics are coming into the waste stream and e-waste as an abundant
source of metals.
• Also, that recycling is known to be a complex task, especially in terms of
special logistics requirement of its collection, cost, release of toxins, and its
environmental impact (Toxics Link 2004; Arora 2019b; Basu 2019; Jain
2019; Sinha 2019b)

In INDIA:

• In India, ‘environmental concerns among manufacturers as well as the

awareness of consumers regarding environmental issues are not very high.
• While the government has passed several environmental protection laws,
their enforcement remains questionable’ (Sinha-Khetriwal et al. 2005:
498).
• Parallel to these processes, a couple of recycling units were established
and recognized by the SPCBs across India, who showcased recovery of
precious metals through formal way of functioning, that is, by installing
proper infrastructure, technology, and scientific methods by 2005
(www.attero.in; www.ewasteindia.com).
• ‘The informal recycling sector has a vast network of collection, storage,
segregation, and material recovery facilities’ (Sinha 2019a: 34); a large
number of women, children, and migrant unskilled labourers are engaged
in different stages of recycling.
• Inagaki (2008: 21) mentioned, Only 5% of the total e-waste recycled in
India is handled by four formal recycling companies who have recently
emerged in the recycling market;

• Apart from large corporate, some of formal recyclers are now under the
negotiation with informal recyclers in specific stages of the chain on
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benefit sharing from PC components collected by them.
• The same formal recycler repeated that this scheme would create the win-
win effect on both of the informal and formal sides.
Trade chain and informal sector.
India, the informal sector has a historic role in waste management and recycling, partly
because of the notion of waste being a fringe commodity, rather than being a waste.
• As a result, historically the fringe commodity was left to be handled
by the fringes of society – the informal sector.
• As waste management is primarily a responsibility of local governments, every
government agency needs to manage huge quantities of waste generated in large
cities.
• The existing informal sector has been contributing to reduce the burden of formal
waste management agencies with their manual skills, widespread and active
network, recycling of waste, especially e-waste makes a profitable business venture.
• Khattar et al. (2007) mentioned that 94% of manufacturers were not aware of IT
disposal policy and were disposing e-waste to the informal sector.
• ‘Primary survey by the Greenpeace found high concentrations of Sb, Cu,
Pb, Ni, Sn and Zn,’ (Brigden et al. 2005: 7).
• Some data was generated on toxicity and its impact through a primary field
study (Brigden et al. 2005; Dimitrakakis et al. 2006; Manda 2008; Wath et
al. 2011).
• The recycling techniques of the informal sector has mainly been studied
from Delhi20 and surrounding areas, and a few from Chennai and
Bangalore; most media reports were Delhi centric (Manda 2008).
• Most observers of informal sector agree upon that this sector survives in
the country because it externalises different costs including recycling
infrastructure, recycling materials, labour cost, and logistics related costs
(Sinha-Khetriwal et al. 2005; Raghupathy et al. 2010; Skinner et al. 2010;
Sinha 2019b).

• The first players in this sequence of collection are the individual waste
dealers or kabadiwallahs…then linked to large waste dealers or
traders…these large traders also acquire waste from the large offices…
through auctions… from the scrap dealer, the waste moves to he
dismantler…each component is dismantled and cannibalises the useable
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components like ICs, capacitors…dismantlers are finally
linked to the recyclers…who are engaged in final recovery of materials.

• The metals extracted are usually sold to smelters that purify the metals
and sell them in the market for reuse
• Advantages of the sector:
• The recycling trade provides livelihoods to a significant number of urban poor;
• Recovery of materials from this waste and ploughing them back into the
supply chain process.
• The flipside of the recycling sector is the hazardous practices and
processes (Basu 2019; Sinha 2019a).
• As per a study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment, it
mentioned that as informed by the district administration, around 100,000–
150,000 persons are engaged in informal e-waste recycling in Moradabad
(Uttar Pradesh) alone.
• Workers are paid around INR 200 per day for working in the e-waste
recycling sector with women and children earning far less (CSE 2015).
• ‘The situation is likely to worsen if there is an exclusive environmental
focus while implementing the e-waste rules with scant attention paid to
livelihoods of the informal sector,’ (Chaturvedi and Gaurav 2016: 5).
• Three goals are considered, ‘closing’ the recycling loop, optimising the
value added, and sustainability of recycling (Wath et al. 2011; ILO 2014).
• EPR and take-back campaign Nokia organised take-back
campaign for mobile phones in 2009 and continued till 2012.
• In the context of EPR, based on Nokia experience about take-back
system, Singhal (2010) said that EPR is effective when there is a shift
from ‘Brand Environmental Responsibility,’ (BER) to ‘ecosystem
approach’ takes place; adopted by every producer.
• Implementation of EPR based regulations, material flow chain for
each e- waste item, and channelisation of material at the levels of
country state, and city;
• Internal/external leakage prevention;
• Local and cheap solutions for E-waste dismantling/recycling;
• Integration of informal sector to formal sector; etc.
• These are the challenges and the regulatory framework should
effectively address these challenges (Jain 2010; Sinha 2019b)
Formal-informal partnerships fostered Informal sector’s employment presents a
challenge in extending the reach of the state to sections of the population that are often
very large.
The challenges are of social and economic types that call upon much more than labour or
social policy, which include
Macroeconomic policies,
Fiscal policies,
The structural composition of value added and wealth creation, and
Job creation.
Macroeconomic policies are the key drivers, structural and sector policies provide right
incentives including improving governance and fighting corruption, and social protection
and risk management policies recognise voice and role of non-state actor (Jutting and de
Laigesia 2009).

Indian informal sector managing e-waste has remained unnoticed in macroeconomics,

and structural and sectoral policies;
The protection and risk management (pollution, informal economy, etc.) related concerns
have been raised by non-state actors.
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Job creation, resource recovery and secondary material management aspects of
macroeconomics in relation to e-waste recycling have not been duly addressed in India
• ILO (2014) has introduced ‘decent work deficit’ with reference to e-waste sector.
• Due to bulk of e-waste recycling being carried out in the informal economy, which is
labor-intensive activities.
• Workers get ‘low earnings, long working hours and exposure to hazardous substances,
leading to a serious of decent work deficits.

• The potential mismanagement of e-waste by informal workers can have

damaging
consequences on entire communities, including children.’ (Ibid.: 18.)
• As more formal recyclers entered in the sector for recycling of e-waste after 2005, the
discourse on role of informal sector is fashioned around environment (harmful to
environment); and social, and economic (poverty centric/economic disadvantages)
challenges.
• This discourse discusses the following points:
• first, can formal-informal co-exist, especially when the focus of environment is shifting to
economy (CE);
• second, what would be the impact on environment of partnership between formal
and informal; and
• third, whether the existing legal actions/ regulatory provisions would lead towards formal
economy in India.

POLICY ISSUES

• Most social actors expressed concern about imported e-waste and need for
complying with international legislations (Puckett et al. 2002; Jain 2010);
and
• Amendments in the existing Customs Act in consonance with the Basel
Convention (Toxics Link 2003; 2004).
• Initial workshops, meeting, and studies on e-waste generation and flow
stressed upon two policy issues –
• 1)production and consumption pattern and need for inventorisation;
• 2)product design improvement for increased life-span of an e-product,
reduction in RoHS, and introduction of newer technology (Toxics Link
2004; Khattar et al. 2007).
• Multi-pronged strategy, specific fund allocation, and necessary action
with reference to the NEP, 2006 for fostering formal-informal
partnership.
• WEEE management related activities and outcomes cover a
wide range of sectors, thus affecting the whole chain of
industry, trade, academia, community, and environment.
• Therefore, with regard to environmental protection and the quality
of life of the people involved in the recycling chain need special
attention; knowledge and technical expertise transfer, sensitisation,
and dissemination, etc. need to be addressed by the legislation
(Dimitrakakis et al. 2006; Chaturvedi et al. 2010; Skinner 2010).
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• Refurbishment has specifically not mentioned by the existing studies, rather it has
been considered as part of reuse/recycling. In response to the ‘Draft E-waste
Management Rules’ in 2010 (Skinner et al. 2010: 22) mentioned ‘Given the role of
the refurbishment market in India, it may take considerable time for the benefits of
this provision to become evident in recycling facilities.
• In this scheme of ‘role of awareness,’ aspects, such as,
• the consumer/user of an e-product is the producer of e-waste; repair and
refurbishing are ways to lengthen life of e-products; management of secondary
materials in the globalised era and global market; etc. were not thought thoroughly
and put forth extensively.
• The economics of recycling (technology, infrastructure, cost of reverse logistics,
etc.); potentials of recycling – resource recovery and organising secondary material
management; economics of EPR functions and performance; economics of
informal sector’s functions and performance, violation of worker’s rights, etc;
• issues of governance and institutionalisation (engagement of various ministries
and centre-state government agencies) in federal structure and linkage of e- waste
with international regulations, Customs, Science and Technology, Trade and
Commerce, Environment, Health ministries, etc. were not articulated expansively
based on almost a decade’s experience regarding e-waste and its management.
• Due to non-recognition of informal nature of e-waste work by the
authorities, the workers remained excluded from the social and policy
dialogue as well as from gaining full awareness of the sectoral dynamics
(risks involved in their occupation) and from forming organisations and
securing representation in sectoral dialogues with other stakeholders in
the value chain.
• Thus, workers’ collective concerns, needs and challenges among other
industry players and public authorities, and improving their working
conditions, including skills development and better income remained away
from policy dialogue (ILO 2014).
• In order to respond to policy dialogue and advocacy measures, the most
important step by the GoI was to prepare a research paper (titled E-waste
in India) by the Research Unit (LARRDIS) of Rajya Sabha Secretariat in
2011.
• The report has covered country’s e-waste management scenario very
comprehensively and with minute details. The knowledge base created by
all the civil society actors is wisely used in the report; describing legal
nitty-gritties, policy requirements, different department/ ministry’s data
and performance, media reports, and people’s perception, etc. are
substantial value addition to the existing literature on the e-waste
management in India.
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II: Law-driven e-waste management – initiatives by the government, non-government agencies,

and judiciary
o It covers pan-Indian initiatives post-2012; almost all initiatives appeared to
be associated or driven by the existing regulations.
 The actors are – government, industry actors, non-government agencies,
and the judiciary.
o The initiatives include awareness measures are;
o Educational initiatives; conducting research on various topics, such as,
formal- informal partnership,
o gap analysis in e-waste management based on multi-stakeholder views, etc;
o preparing roadmap for the Agenda 2030;
o experimentation for resource efficiency and working out its economics as part of
CE; and
o launching courses on e-waste management.
Initiatives by government agencies and industry actors post-2012
• The first set of initiatives, taken by various government agencies, such as,
• state government/ department (IT, Science & Technology, etc.) issuing Executive Orders,
• Mandating the government agencies for the proper disposal of e-waste and its
mechanism
during 2012 and 2016;
• Strategy papers on ‘resource efficiency in EEE sector’, and on ‘resource efficiency
and circular economy’ by the GoI in 2019;
• Expression of intention to link three missions (Digital India, Clean India, and Make in
India) for economic betterment of EEE sector;

• Actions taken by regulatory agencies – CPCB and SPCBs at centre and state levels
respectively
including inventorisation, creating database on e-waste generation;
• State run academic institutions/ portal (e.g. SWAYAM,25 Skill Council for Green
Jobs (SCGJ),26 and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)27) launching a
course on e- waste management, and providing hand on experience;
• Training manual for training of trainers on E-waste awareness for bulk consumers28
published by the MeitY under Digital India Mission (Chaturvedi et al. 2016b);
initiatives on SDGs/Agenda 2030; and so on.
• The second set of initiatives cover industry actors (associated in the chain of EPR
implementation), including PROs, dismantlers and recyclers, repairers, refurbishers,
etc.
• The third set is of civil society organisations (CSOs) including academic and
research institutions, international (e.g. International Finance Corporation (IFC), a
World Bank Group and its five year long ‘e-waste management program’) and
bilateral agencies (e.g. GTZ).
• Their initiatives include awareness measures; fostering formal-informal partnership;
furthering research; and
• Teaching e-waste management at various places, in different ways. The fourth set
of initiatives came from the judiciary.
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Awareness related efforts, research, and materials

• One of the first awareness raising on e-waste by the GoI is the

Environmental Information System (ENVIS).
The centers are active in installation of e-waste bins or e-bins and are
motivating and providing the subsidised infrastructural facilities and other
necessary things to the private players for management and disposal of
collected e-waste through these bins.
• Awareness aspect of e-waste and its management were explored by a few
studies in the 2010s
• Most studies are micro level, city specific like
• Ahmedabad30 (Shah 2014),
• Bengaluru31 (Iyer 2014; Botharkur and Govind 2017),
• Delhi32 (Kwatra et al. 2014),
• Srinagar, Uttarakhand (Nath et al. 2018);33 Pune34 (Bhat and Patil 2014;
Shivathanu 2016), etc.
• These studies considered ‘awareness about e-waste’ as a critical part of e-
waste management, as awareness can lead to enhancement of e- waste
collection, to increase in recycling, and consequently reduction in hazards
for environment as well as human health.
• Focus on different aspects related to e-waste, such as, awareness about
‘what is e-waste’; about Rules, 2011; as hazardous waste; disposal related
– perception, attitude, behaviour, and the existing mechanism; about
recycling – methods, hazards, etc.
• Among these studies, the most common findings among different cities,
reflecting ground reality are awareness about e-waste varies;
• e-waste as hazardous waste is known among almost 80% respondents; not
more 50% know about channel of disposal;
• Not more than 40% know about the Rules, 2011.
• Wipro has its take-back channel which reported 100% recycling against the
collection.
• Most banks and IT companies prefer to dispose of e-waste through auction.
• Pan India Awareness Programme (PIAP) was organised by MeitY, GoI in 2015.
• It was identified that lack of awareness about the safe disposal of e-waste
amongst stakeholders is a key challenge in enforcement of the Rules, 2016
(Chatterjee and Porwal 2019).
Key findings of the programme.
• First, informal sector has low awareness about the health and
environmental impacts as well as safety precautions associated with the
recycling of e-waste.
• Second, informal sector workers have very low literacy and awareness
regarding hazards related to the unsafe handling of e-waste.
• Third, awareness amongst consumers regarding e-waste management is
inadequate; consumers expect some return from end-oflife products and do
not contribute anything towards the safe recycling of products and thereby
further promoting unsafe recycling.
• Fourth, limited information and guideline on responsibility for
inventorisation of e-waste, getting authorisation for EPR and renewal,
recycler registration, monitoring compliance and action against violations
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of these rules.

Preparing inventory on e-waste

• Post-2012, inventorisation of e-waste is about no clarity about
• Composition,
• Method for calculation, and
• Tracking e-waste that is collected and recycled.
• Two states, Chhattisgarh and Telangana prepared inventory after 2015 (IRG 2016).
Telangana state reported that 39.11 MT e-waste generated by three government
registered producers during the year 2016–2017.
• Of them, M/s. Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), (Dept. of Atomic
Energy) produced 24.500 MT; M/s. Apple India Pvt., Limited, 5- 132/B,
Sy.No.97/C, Near Kompally Railway Bridge, Secunderabad produced 13.585 MT,
and M/s. Bharat Electronics Ltd., (A Govt. of India Enterprises), IDA Mallapur
produced 1.0227 MT e-waste.

Formal-informal partnership roadmap

based on work experience, research

• The informal sector has a historic role in waste management and recycling
in India, and have strong linkages with secondary material market.
• Some theoretical considerations are developed for formal-informal
partnership. They are:
• first, the existing reality in India since more than a decade is – although
formal recycling units ensured recycling in environmentally sound manner
and increased recovery, they were unable to access large volumes of feed
material owing to the activities of informal collectors, scrap dealers, and
recyclers who operate on a door-to-door basis and pay a good price for e-
waste compared to formal recyclers.
• Second, the existence of an informal is enabled with a widespread and
active network, considerable manual skills, and economics of recycling;
the SMEs are infrastructure based entrepreneurial units that permit a
profitable e-waste management business.
• As most of the informal SMEs concentrate on one or two recycling stages
(collection, segregation, dismantling) with well established relationships to
other informal e-waste recycling SMEs up or down the recycling chain,
some value is added at each stage creating employment at different levels,
which may contribute to sustain the system.
• Third, among the informal sector recyclers, social bond is an important
factor, which could be used as a cohesion factor to bring them closer and
provide a platform for them to share their thoughts.
• GTZ/GIZ started forming partnership of formal-informal sectors for
waste management in developing countries (Brazil, Egypt, and India)
by late 2000s.
• One of the reasons given was informal recycling economy in solid
waste management financially supplements the formal system in
many ways (GTZ 2010, 2011).
• Learning from SWM experiences, GTZ started articulating similar
concept for e-waste management.
• For example, forming and registering member based organisations of
informal sector workers after creating common grounds for organising
(trust building and a shared vision);
Department of ECE,RNSIT E-Waste Management
CJ,VKS,MSN,PVM,AG

• Strengthening capacities of the informal sector (making

informal sector workers as stable entrepreneurs and reliable
partners);
• Technical specialisation;
• Feeding experiences into national policies and legislation; and so on (ibid.).
• Six case studies were investigated –
• Green e-waste recyclers, Delhi;
• SWaCH, Pune;
• Saahas Zero Waste, Bengaluru;
• E-WaRDD, Bengaluru;
• GIZ-Microsoft, Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad;
• Chintan, Delhi – which succeeded or failed in maintaining formal-
informal partnerships across the Indian e-waste management system (GIZ
2017).
• In 2018, similar study was initiated to complement the study of 2017,
aimed at providing practical guidance under the recast policy framework
of the Rules, 2016 (GIZ 2018).
Corporate sector's perspective and performance

o A report written by Agarwal and Mullick (2014), published by YES Bank and
TERI-BCSD provides corporate sector’s perspective on e-waste management
including :
o decision making about e-waste disposal,
o whether any policy exists in the company,
o awareness about the Rules,
o channelisation of e-waste for recycling, and
o filing annual return.
o On surveyed 150 respondents from various sectors including BFSI
(Banking, Financial services, and Insurance), IT & ITES (Information
technology and outsourcing services), education, automotive, EEE
manufacture, and miscellaneous such as consulting, aviation and
hospitality
Regarding the recent environmental laws, the report observed that, the
corporates aimed at products rather than end-of-pipe pollution focus on new
product design mandates, substance restrictions, energy efficiency, and take-
back mandates.
Such emerging trends of legislation is identified as a risk and creator of
challenges for the industry: functioning of EPR systems hampered due to
unbranded and counterfeit products, original components often get replaced
with those of other brands during repair, by the lack of knowhow regarding
collection systems for recyclables, etc; transparency in downstream of
recycling industry in terms of data loss, data leakage, and data security; and
limited success of take-back policies.
The report stressed on collection system as a crucial leverage for the success of
the overall system, and suggested that conventional market- based collection
system is to be utilised, if it is appropriate;
A new collection system is evolved, the stakeholders should be made aware of
that.
The government needs to provide incentives to the actors in collection system;
the cost and responsibility (primarily transportation and recycling) should be
shared by three primary stakeholders – the producer, the generator (households
and bulk consumers), and the local regulatory body (municipality).
Department of ECE,RNSIT E-Waste Management
CJ,VKS,MSN,PVM,AG

Gap analysis in e-waste management representing multi stakeholder views

• Major findings include the following:
• (i) Poor e-waste collection by producers and inadequate supply of e-waste to the
authorized recyclers;
• (ii)Lack of metals extraction capability among formal recyclers and leakage of e-waste
to informal, local recycling markets; informal collectors, dismantlers, and aggregators
continue to generate higher profits selling material to informal recyclers instead of
formal recyclers;
• (iii)NGOs with whom producers, PROs or recyclers partner to reach informal workers
may need initial training to understand India’s e-waste trading markets;
• (iv) Consumers and bulk consumers lack awareness of their responsibilities under the
current Rules, and of collection and recycling opportunities;
• (v) CPCB and SPCBs lack technical capacity and resources to screen and enforce
registrations of recyclers and PROs; and
• (vi) Few stakeholders are in the early stages of considering linkages between e-waste
management, SDGs, and CSR (corporate social responsibility) requirements under the
Companies Act (ibid.).

Future Research Areas

• Opportunities on e-waste management in India; are:

• (i) Audits for financial and mass balance traceability claims;
• (ii) Formal processing (metal processing capabilities and reasons for why smelters
have not been established);
• (iii)Small Scale processing for current informal recyclers (evaluate feasibility of
mobile processing small scale factories);
• (iv)Organising the informal sector (what lessons from other industries, such as,
tanning, electroplating, fruit selling, etc. could apply to informal communities for e-
waste management); and
• (v)Material downstream flows (examine end markets for materials in electronics
within India).

IFC's e-waste programme in India:

• multiple agenda achieved:

• Increased income of LMCs, from USD7/month (INR
6,500) to estimated USD 36/month (approx. INR
25,000).
• The Bhubaneshwar project demonstrated public-private partnership
model. Several multi-stakeholder dialogues on business, environment,
health and social policy, and technology; celebration of E-waste Day;
etc. were organised during 2017 and 2019.
• IFC and Karo Sambhav, Pvt. Ltd. a PRO, jointly developed an
ecosystem, aligned partnership with multiple stakeholders and
civil society actors.
Department of ECE,RNSIT E-Waste Management
CJ,VKS,MSN,PVM,AG

Five major programmes Developed are

–
• with schools for awareness raising and e-waste collection;
• with bulk consumers for channelising e-waste and creating awareness;
• with repair shops for capacity-building of repairers;
• with waste pickers for engaging LMCs and increase in their income; and
• With waste aggregators for
moving towards formalisation/formal economy.