India's E‐Waste Rules and Their Impact on E‐Waste Management Practices: A Case Study

Abstract

India, like many other developed and developing countries, has adopted an extended producer responsibility (EPR) approach for electronic waste (e-waste) management under its E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. Under these rules, producers have been made responsible for setting up collection centers of e-waste and financing and organizing a system for environmentally sound management of e-waste. In this article, we use the implementation of these rules in Ahmedabad in western India as a case study to conduct a critical analysis of the implementation of India's Rules. Interviews of main stakeholder groups, including a sample of regulated commercial establishments, regulatory agencies enforcing the Rules, informal actors involved in waste collection and handling, as well as publicly available information on the implementation constitute data for our case study. Our results indicate that while there has been an increase in the formal waste processing capacity after the implementation of the Rules, only 5% to 15% of the total waste generated is likely channeled through formal processing facilities. While the EPR regulation forced the producers to take action on a few relatively inexpensive aspects of the Rules, the collection and recycling system has not been made convenient for the consumers to deposit e-waste in formal collection and recycling centers. Based on our findings, we argue that Indian EPR regulation should go beyond simple take-back mandates and consider implementing other policy instruments such as a deposit-refund system. An important implication for developing countries is the need for careful attention to instrument choice and design within EPR regulations. Keywords:environmental regulation e-waste extended producer responsibility (EPR) India product take-back waste management Supporting information is linked to this article on the JIE website Conflict of interest statement: The authors have no conflict to declare.

A Study on Awareness of Consumers Towards E-Waste Management in the City of Jaipur

“…This result is supported by some other studies in which researchers have suggested that in order to manage e-waste successfully, there is a dire need of successful implementation of e-waste regulations in India. (Bhaskar and Turaga, 2017). • Figure 3 shows that majority of respondents between the age group of 20 to 30 years, 31 to 40 years and 41 to 60 years are not sure about the existence of regulations related to e-waste management in India.…”

Pythagorean Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in Making Optimal Decisions on Feasible Strategies for Inhibiting Electronic Waste

“…Legislative measures are exclusively put forwarded to regulate and minimize the generation of electronic waste, but lack of strict enforcement of these laws is a setback [3]. Researchers are investigating on the optimal methods of mitigating waste generation and treating the waste generated.…”

Electronic waste management and sustainable development goals

“…India has not remained untouched with the rise in quantities of e-waste generated. Though there are no official estimates, it is estimated that India generated 1.5 million tons of e-waste in 2015 (Bhaskar and Turaga, 2017). Most e-waste in India has traditionally been managed by the informal sector with scant attention paid to human health and environmentally safe recycling and disposal practices (Bandyopadhyay, 2008; Manomaivibool, 2009; Bandyopadhyay, 2010; Wath et al , 2010; Pradhan and Kumar, 2014).…”

“…Literature on implementation of EPR in Indian e-waste rules is scarce. This scarce literature also suggests that the impact of e-waste rules on practices of producers and their subsequent efforts have been far from satisfactory (Bhaskar and Turaga, 2017). It is estimated that even after the introduction of the rules, almost 85 to 95 per cent e-waste is still channelized to the informal sector in India (Bhaskar and Turaga, 2017).…”