"E-waste Management in India: Current Practices and

Challenges"
Name – Aditya Anjungikar
PRN- 21020148001
Word count – 1278

Abstract—Electronic waste or e-waste refers to of restoring the essentials. However The process of E-
electrical and electronic items that are unwanted, waste recycling and disposal is very complex,
obsolete or unused products. The increasing use of
involving various types of products, large numbers of
electronics and electronics has all led to the accumulation
on top of e-waste. Current waste management practices people and businesses, wide areas, and long-term
in India are mixed with many challenges such as the (sometimes equal more than a decade), a large and
difficulty of innovation, ineffective, and unsafe complex system. Electronic waste, especially computer
regulations conditions of informal renewal, improper waste is growing exponentially in volume due to the
consumer awareness and disgust on the part of
increasing demand for information technology as well
participants to deal with challenges. India is also facing
the problem of e-waste management that needs to be its use in the national growth process. Various
addressed lack of awareness among people about the government departments, public and private the private
harmful effects of e pollution on the environment and a sector is more likely to use older electronic devices
person with a random collection of e-waste and a lack of such as computers, telephones, etc.
implementation of the rules of e-waste process in an
environmentally friendly manner.  E-waste source in India.
 Introduction E-waste is produced by various sources in the country
such as Govt. sectors, commercial institutions,
E-waste is made up of recycled technology and
institutional sectors, research and development,
household appliances which are not suitable for future
domestic and manufacturing sectors of the country.
use and are intended for recycling, reuse or disposal .
Such waste includes many electronics and electronic
devices, such as computers, cell phone arms, toilet
hands, including large household items such as
refrigerators, air conditioners etc. E-waste contains E-waste source
over 1000 different types of many of them they are in India.
toxic and can be dangerous to the environment and
human health. The past decade has seen tremendous Hospital Government
Home Private sector
growth in the construction and operation of electrical 1.PC
and gas equipment worldwide. As a result, this includes 2. TV
the obsolescence of fast production, low cost, discarded 3.Radio
4.Phone 1. Boilers
electrical and gas equipment or ‘E waste’ has now 1.PC 1.PC
5.Washing 2. ECG Frive 2. Mixers
become the fastest growing waste problem in the Machine 2. Fax Machine
3. Genrators
3. Microscope 3. Xerox
world. Many companies today design their expired or 6.Oven 4. Incubator
4. Incubator 4. AC
planned expired products. This is reinforced through
marketing and reselling practices, and accessibility and
ease of use have taken over product durability as early
drivers. E-waste is an emerging problem as well
business opportunity of increasing value, given the • Individual homes and small businesses up to
amount of E-waste produced and content is both toxic individual PCs anxious homes; it is difficult to know
and essential to them. Part of which includes iron, the exact value. Each one homes do not provide major
copper, aluminum, gold and other metals in the E- donors in India. They account for 22% of total
waste are more than 60%, while pollution accounts for computers in India. The remaining allocation, 78%,
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2.70% Therefore, re-use of E-waste is important from comes from the business sector.
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not only the point of waste treatment but also the aspect

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• Large businesses, institutions, government houses
and foreign embassies are the first consumers of
electrical products; today account for 78 percent of all
PCs installed. Therefore, they are the largest
manufacturers of obsolete technology in India.
Apparently, the total number of outdated PCs from
business and others the families will account for 1.38
million.
• PC manufacturers and retailers follow the list of e-
waste supplier’s part of India. The form of pollution in
this sector consists of IC chips, motherboards, cathode
ray tubes and other boundary materials produced
during the production process. It including
malfunctioning PCs under warranty from the consumer
as a replacement things. It is estimated that about 1050
tons of waste per year are generated from this sector.
• Export waste has become a major source of PC
imports. Large numbers e-waste such as monitors,
printers, keyboards, CPU's, projectors, mobile phones,
PVC strings, etc. imported. Computers imported thus
come from all grades, models and sizes, and functional
and junk items.
• Secondary market waste includes TVs, computers,
cell phones, electrical boards etc.
 Research Methodology.
This paper follows an exploratory methodology based
on a qualitative review of the environmental and social
aspects in the area of e-waste sector. An exploratory
methodology was adopted due to non-availability of
sufficient information on e-waste. Data collected
through comprehensive analysis of qualitative data
related to the topic that have been published in various
Government and NGOs’ reports, research papers, news
articles, websites etc.
 E-Waste Management in India.
India is the fifth largest producer of e-waste in the
world; discards 1.7 million tons (Mt) of electrical and
gas equipment in 2014. In India garbage collection,
relocation, separation, demolition, recycling and
disposal are done by hand untrained working in the
informal sector. Due to low awareness and sensitivity,
e-waste is shocking once garbage collection is
separated by clothing collectors. E-waste is usable and
valuable property. Rag collectors sell this e-waste to
waste retailers and make their money. Retailers of
fossils provide e-waste to renewable energy industries.
Re-workers use old and dangerous technology as well
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equipment, recycling / managing e-waste. India
produces about 12.5 lakh MTs of e-waste every year.
India impresses 155 countries out of 178 countries
indicator of environmental performance. It also
misrepresents various indicators such as 127 health
accidents, 174 in air quality, 124 in water and hygiene,
nature e-waste management (ESM) will improve the
quality of India in these areas. India exists it is used as
a dumping ground for e-waste by many developed
nations
 challenges of E-waste concern.
• Low level of awareness between manufacturers and
users of adverse risks garbage disposal.
• There are no accurate estimates of the amount of e-
waste that has been recycled internally India.
• The bulk of the e-waste is processed by the informal
(informal) sector using Art techniques such as acid
leaching and open air heating, which lead to serious
environmental damage.
• E-waste employees have little or no knowledge of the
toxicity of e-waste and are exposed to it health risks.
• The reuse of high-risk items affects vulnerable social
groups such as women, children and immigrant staff.
• Ineffective process of recycling results leads to
significant loss of material value as well resources.
• Cherry selection by recycling recipients of precious
metals (gold, platinum, silver, copper, etc.) and
improperly dispose of otherwise, posing environmental
hazards.
• There is no specific law to deal with waste
management.
 Conclusion.
It is fact that the e-waste generation is increasing very
fast due to obsolescence of the electrical and electronic
equipment (EEE). People either store the obsolete
equipment in their home or sell it to the local collectors
for monetary benefits. Presently there is no legislative
binding framework for e-waste management. In view
of that there is no e-waste collection mechanism at
places. E-waste collection, transportation, segregation,
dismantling, recycling and disposal is done manually
by untrained labors in informal sector due to low
awareness and sensitivity. With a view to bridge the
digital divide, there is exponential growth in the use of
electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and so there
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is an alarming effect on the environment and human

health when the ICT wastes are not disposed of
scientifically. The legislative work regarding e waste
had been doing lately in time and is not performing
well. Therefore the awareness of people about e-waste
need to be increased and the rules should be properly
implemented to control the rise in e-waste in future.
There is an emergent need to have a proper information
system through standardized mechanisms and existing
policies, guidelines in line with the international
standards and practices for a healthy e-waste
management system

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