The Hindu Business Line : This bin ain’t laden

Electronic waste is mounting at an alarming pace but not much of it is finding its way to the recycling pool. It’s time for concerted action, alerts industry study.

“The lifespan of a computer has come down from seven-eight years to about five now. PCs sold today will be obsolete five years down the line.”

Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee

This is one waste generation and disposal problem that is sure to raise a stench! At a time when PC sales have touched 6.34 million units in FY07, and explosive growth in cell-phones has pushed subscriber levels beyond the 170-million mark (2007-end), the extent of the ‘e-waste’ challenge facing India is becoming more and more evident.

And while the issue and its various aspects have grabbed headlines time and again, the industry has now released the first-of-its-kind report that not only inventorises e-waste in India — throwing-up some hard statistics that quantify the enormity of the issue — but also offers interesting insights into the e-waste disposal behaviour amongst households and businesses in the country, and the current recycling practices.

The study, released by hardware association MAIT and the GTZ, reveals that as much as 3.30 lakh tonnes of e-waste is generated annually in India, while an additional 50,000 tonnes is estimated to be illegally imported into the country. What’s even more shocking is that e-waste generation in India is slated to hit 4.7 lakh tonnes by 2011. And that, mind you, is only mobiles, desktops, notebooks and TVs!

The ‘build-up’

Electronic waste or ‘e-waste’ or ‘Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment’ (WEEE) is defined as waste material consisting of broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliances.

IT and telecom equipment, household appliances, consumer and lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, medical devices, monitoring and control instruments, are some sources of e-waste.

At present, India has about 20 million computers and the number is expected to grow to 75 million by 2010. Moreover, the massive growth of the telecom industry has led to an unprecedented acceleration in India’s mobile handset sales. The handset market touched revenues of Rs 21,434 crore in the year 2006-07. Mobile handset sales — including new users and replacements — in India surged 26 per cent to 93 million units in 2007. Colour TV market sales, on the other hand, stood at 15 million units in 2007, growing at 22 per cent CAGR.

This phenomenal boom in India’s electronics production and consumption is leading to increasing obsolescence rates (an estimated 2.2 million computers will become obsolete this year and around 14 million mobile handsets will be replaced by new ones) and, in turn, a higher e-waste stockpile. The issue is being further compounded by dumping from developed nations.

Inefficient collection system

“In developed countries, it is expensive to recycle discarded electronics items. Availability of cheap labour, along with the absence of import regulations, has made India a favoured destination for dumping of e-Waste from developed markets. Since it is illegal to import the e-waste, these products are being imported in a clandestine manner, mostly under misleading titles such as charity or scrap,” says Vinnie Mehta, executive director of MAIT.

According to MAIT, of the total e-waste generated, Western India accounts for the largest chunk (35 per cent), followed by the South (30 per cent). North and Eastern India contribute 21 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively. Interestingly, almost 70 per cent of the total e-waste comes to Delhi for processing.

The study observes that of the total e-waste, only about 40 per cent finds its way into the recycling pool, while the rest remains in warehouses due to an inefficient collection system. A significant proportion of the waste that finds its way into the recycling pool, especially televisions and mobile handsets, is refurbished and resold. Only about 19,000 tonnes, representing just 5 per cent of the total e-waste, is processed.

What’s even more alarming is that in the next five years, India would have to deal with an estimated 1.31 lakh tonnes of potential annual e-waste from desktops; 3.28 lakh tonnes for TVs, 6,670 tonnes for mobiles. At present, of the total annual e-waste, computers account for 56,324 tonnes, TVs 2.75 lakh tonnes and mobile phones 1,655 tonnes.

“Computers are undoubtedly amongst the fastest growing e-waste segment, as the obsolescence rates also tend to be higher in this industry compared to other sectors such as white goods. The lifespan of a computer has come down from seven-eight years to about five years, now. The enormity of the problem can be gauged from the fact that PCs sold today (over six million units) will be obsolete five years down the line,” points out Rajoo Goel, Secretary-General, ELCINA.

Disposal practices in businesses, households

Most organisations appear to be replacing less than 10 per cent of the computers each year. The replacement levels are higher in services organisations than in the manufacturing sector — close to 10 per cent of services organisations that were surveyed replaced over 40 per cent of their PCs, annually. In case of businesses, incompatibility with latest technology was cited as the most important factor for the replacement of computers.

“Almost 80 per cent of the replaced computers directly enter the e-Waste stream either through scrap dealers or through second-hand markets and exchange or buy-back schemes, implying that the first step of managing e-Waste is to come up with a proper collection system involving the intermediaries of the second-hand market and then take action towards the environment-friendly disposal of that material,” feels Mehta of MAIT.

Even more shocking was the fact that an estimated 94 per cent of the organisations did not have any policies on disposal of IT products. Though a lot of business organisations were ‘aware’ about e-Waste, the ‘knowledge’ was certainly lacking.

In the case of households, almost all the computers, televisions and mobiles replaced were given in the family, friends or neighbourhood for further use. About 3 per cent of mobiles replaced were directly entering the municipal waste. Over 25 per cent of the electronic products directly entered the e-Waste market, through second-hand or scrap market or through exchanges, in case of households.

Recycling and challenges

The recycling practices in India are currently being handled by two segments: Formal recyclers (who undertake processes in closed chambers and do not use chemicals or incinerations) and Informal recyclers, who handle almost 95 per cent of India’s recycled e-waste. Formal recyclers, the likes of Trishyiraya and EParisara, only handle 5 per cent of the e-waste that is recycled.

“Right from the sourcing stage, the formal recyclers face daunting challenges. As there are no legislations in most of the organisations for disposal of electronic waste, the users are not particularly worried about the method of disposal. The only concern for these organisations is the value they get for their scrap,” says Mehta. Above all, reaching out to the customers requires a huge investment on the part of formal recyclers. As far as processing is concerned, there are no smelting units in India, and hence these recyclers are left with no option but to send the crushed mixture to other countries for the recovery of precious metals.

“The cost of transportation and getting the mixture smelted comes out to be quite high. For the Precious metal mixture sent to refineries (out of which 99-99.5 per cent of metals are recovered), recyclers receive only that value that is decided by the refineries,” the study notes. In addition to absence of legislation, lack of awareness among consumers is a huge challenge for formal recyclers.

The way ahead: Recommendations

The industry agrees that the issue can be tackled through an inclusive model where informal recyclers are also included as stakeholders. “The policy that comes into force has to specify the range of activity that can be taken up by the informal sector so that they can remain in the value chain. Meanwhile, the hazardous work involving treatment of chemicals and disposal in an environment-friendly manner needs to be done by the formal sector,” says Goel of ELCINA. The industry is also seeking legislations that would ensure that institutional buyers of IT products are required to include method of disposal of computers in their IT policy document. Further it should be mandatory for institutional users to declare their annual procurement and disposal of computers, in annual reports, they say.

Other measures that have been mooted include Government push for developing recycling capabilities in India, especially in North India. “In European nations, municipal agencies collect electronic waste once a week, and those found disposing electronic items carelessly are liable to be penalised. In India too, we could look at special bins for safe disposal of electrical waste,” says George Paul, Executive Vice-President, HCL Infosystems, a leading Indian PC manufacturer.

Manufacturers and vendors, on their part, can do their bit for safe disposal of electronic products by entering into tie-ups with dealers or retailers for buy-back schemes, and establish dropping centres for their customers.

“Customer education is really important when we talk of e-waste issue. HCL has set up collection points across the country where consumers can return the electronic product, which then gets into the recycling system,” he points out.

moumita@thehindu.co.in

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This bin ain’t laden