When any electronic or electrical equipment becomes unsuited for its intended use or exceeds its expiration date, it generates electronic trash, often known as e-waste. Newer models quickly replace older electronic equipment due to rapid technical breakthroughs and the production of newer electronic equipment. In India, it has resulted in an exponential increase in e-waste. People tend to upgrade to newer models and cutting-edge technologies, and product life spans decrease over time.

E-waste disposal is becoming a global environmental and public health concern, as electronic waste has become the world’s fastest-growing portion of the formal municipal waste stream. As a result, the importance of proper e-waste management has been identified. Reviewing the public health concerns and ways to tackle this growing threat is required.

Importance of e-waste management

In India, consumers are the key to better e-waste management. Extended Producer Responsibility, Design for the Environment, and the (3Rs) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle technology platform for connecting the market and facilitating the circular economy are all aimed at encouraging consumers to properly dispose of e-waste, with increased reuse and recycling rates, as well as adopt sustainable consumer habits. As a result, E-waste management is a top priority in many developed countries.

On the other hand, in the case of developing countries it is aggravated by fully adopting or reproducing wealthy countries’ e-waste management and several related issues, such as a lack of investment and technically qualified people resources. Furthermore, there is a lack of infrastructure and appropriate legislation, particularly when it comes to e-waste. In addition, the roles and obligations of parties and institutions involved in e-waste management, among other things, are not adequately described. E-waste management has thus become a significant health challenge in India.

Challenges for e-waste management in India

In India, e-waste recycling is primarily a black market industry. Thousands of disadvantaged families eke out a living by scavenging things from landfills. Middle-class urban homes commonly sell waste paper, plastic, clothing, or metal to small-scale, informal sector purchasers known as “kabadiwalas,” who sort and sell it as a raw material to handicraft or industrial processors. In India, e-waste management follows a similar approach.

Thousands of households in urban areas are employed in the informal e-waste recycling business, which collects, sorts, repairs, refurbishes and dismantles unused electrical and electronic products. In advanced countries, however, the situation is different, and in India, there is no idea of people willingly contributing obsolete electrical and electronic equipment to professional e-waste recycling centres. There is also no concept of consumers paying for the disposal of the e-waste they produce. These primary issues arise from the high reliance on the informal sector for e-waste recycling.

1. Inadequate infrastructure– India’s infrastructure capability for large-scale e-waste management is severely inadequate. Only roughly 1/5th of the total amount of e-waste created each year is recycled in the country’s few government-approved e-waste recycling centres. The Indian government offers a co-funded grant programme that pays between 25% and 50% of the project expenditures for e-waste management facilities and e-waste business capacity building. However, just a small percentage of people have taken advantage of this plan. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of formally certified e-waste recycling centres, as existing centres now work at a portion of their capability due to poorly managed supply chains between them and the majority of e-waste collectors in India’s informal sector. In India, however, formal sector recycling of e-waste management is confined to manual sorting and mechanical dismantling. There is currently a scarcity of industrial e-waste managers with the necessary environmental controls for large-scale precious and base metal recovery. A few new Indian enterprises are extracting metals from e-waste, but their processing capacity is limited.

• The majority of e-waste treated in the formal sector is transported to nations with the necessary large-scale infrastructure for metal extraction. On the other hand, the informal sector obtains metals through complex processes such as open-air burning and acid leaching, which worsen pollution and health problems. Despite the fact that the E-waste standards provide multiple technologies for recycling and processing various types and components of e-waste, both the formal and informal sectors have prioritised metal recovery above the glass, plastics, and ceramics that form the bulk of e-waste.

2. Scarcity of data on e-waste generation rates- It is noted that e-waste inventories are lacking, with full responsibility for state-level e-waste inventories resting with the different State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). Electronic product sales data is a key input in calculating e-waste volumes. It is frequently available at a national level of aggregation, making state-level inventories difficult to create. E-waste is imported from industrialized countries, frequently illegally, in addition to domestic generation. There is unawareness about the nature and volume of e-waste coming into the country. The methods needed for efficient trash collection, transportation, and processing necessitate reasonably precise waste generation and composition knowledge.

3. Regulations that aren’t well-designed or enforced- The required take-back system for manufacturers, without associated collection targets, provided no incentives for producers to take responsibility. Hence, e-waste management practices did not improve significantly. Certain amendments were recommended that would provide additional regulatory certainty by defining gradually tighter collection targets. However, the regulatory structure throws a substantial strain on regulatory agencies that are already understaffed. The regulators must examine the producers’ EPR plan, give authorization, and enforce the plan’s conditions. The laws also required the agencies to enforce compliance with particular requirements for dismantlers, collectors, recyclers, and bulk consumers and specify complex criteria and processes for other businesses. Poor enforcement, lack of openness, and a refusal to publicly share information on compliance and regulatory activities must all be exploited by regulatory agencies. In India, environmental regulatory enforcement has long been a problem, and e-waste restrictions are no exception. It is a serious public policy dilemma for India’s future e-waste management.

4. Financial incentives and unawareness– In India, there is a shortage of public knowledge about the dangers of e-waste. Hence recycling is extremely low. Most consumers aren’t aware of the dangers of e-waste components or the implications of improper disposal. They are unaware that in India, e-waste management is handled by municipal or state government entities. There are few specialized collection depots or official recycling centres in certain cities where consumers can drop off their e-waste freely. When purchasing new electrical or electronic equipment from small-scale retail establishments, most people and urban home consumers used to sell e-waste or receive a discount in exchange. Consumers have little financial incentives to dispose of their e-waste appropriately because they lack market information on prices for e-waste and other e-waste components.

5. Practices in the informal sector that are not environmentally friendly– Despite the rise of the formal breakdown and recycling business, the amount of garbage processed in the formal sector remains modest. Due to a lack of trash, most of these formal facilities are operating below their allowed capabilities. Due to a lack of information about e-waste and the cost of returning end-of-life equipment to formal collection centres, residential and corporate consumers are less eager to return their trash to the official sector. Millions of individuals, many of them are members of the most marginalized groups, rely on the informal e-waste business for a living. The sector’s waste management techniques, on the other hand, pose major environmental and health risks to both workers and the general public. It poses a possible moral problem for public policy, and resolving this dilemma will be critical to the long-term viability of any e-waste treatment programme in India.

6. Market Mismanagement for End-of-Life Products- The difficulty to properly source e-waste amounts to produce economies of scale prevents private actors from entering the formal sector to build up e-waste management systems. For example, in India, adopting effective recycling technology for e-waste management may necessitate considerable upfront capital costs, which private firms cannot justify in the lack of assurance about procuring sufficient amounts of e-waste. A lack of information also hampers these markets. As e-waste recycling is such a new industry, a lack of knowledge about cost-effective recycling technology could be a market obstacle. Second, limited awareness affects market functioning, mainly due to a lack of credible information on e-waste management among customers. However, government policy will play a bigger role in creating better e-waste markets.

Conclusion

E-waste management in India is a major concern for many developing countries’ governments. It is rapidly becoming a major public health concern that is only getting worse. E-waste must be collected separately, appropriately processed, and disposed of. It also serves as an alternative to traditional landfills and open burning.

Therefore, the integration of the informal and formal sectors is critical. In developing countries like India, competent authorities must build systems for sustainably and adequately processing and disposing of e-waste.