Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Challenges
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envc

Electronic waste: A critical assessment on the unimaginable growing

pollutant, legislations and environmental impacts
Ramachandran Rajesh, Dharmaraj Kanakadhurga, Natarajan Prabaharan∗
School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Department of EEE, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur 613401, Tamilnadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Electronic waste is an indirect and unimaginable waste which make adverse effects on the human, animals and
E-Waste environment by polluting the natural resources like air, soil and water. Accumulation and contamination of
Environmental impacts e-waste for a longer period may harshly affect the environmental resources. India and China are the largest
Policy
consumers of electronic gadgets at the same time they are responsible for an increase in the waste electrical and
Legal instruments
electronic equipment. Therefore, this review article mainly focuses on the detailed explanation of the e-waste
Health impacts
Pollution management system includes the recycling process and its effects in India. The uniqueness of this review article
lies in the discussion of legal instruments and awareness programs in India at various periods of time. Also, it
provides sufficient knowledge to the readers in various aspects of increasing e-waste and its controlling methods.
As a result, it gives adequate information for reducing the utilization of e-product in consumer-side and control
measures on the manufacturer-side. In addition to that, it will be helpful to the policymakers who are involving
in framing the future policy of e-waste in India.

1. Introduction
Quick advancement and cost reduction on electronic gadget made a
drastic transformation among regular users to access the new electronic
products and digital technology. The utilization of mobile phone and
internet usage are drastically increasing in last ten years. According to
the Digital 2020 report (Kemp, 2020), 5.15 billion mobile phone users
and 4.57 billion internet users in globally as of July 2020. Around 60%
of the world population are using the mobile phone and internet. From
the report, it is evident that the mobile phone and internet users has been
increased with 2.4% and 8% as compared with the previous year data
respectively (Kemp, 2020). This modern technology has a wide area of
applications which makes life more comfortable. This rapid expansion of
electronic products in worldwide could adversely affect the environment
by vast deposition of e-waste at the backdrop. Due to enhancement of
e-commerce, widespread and availability of e-product makes the global
pollution.
Electronic waste (E-waste) account to be the fastest growing solid
waste stream in the world (Perkins et al., 2014). E-waste can be collected
from basic home appliances, computers, phones, battery and small in-
tegrated electronic parts that are used in transport, healthcare equip-
ment and security systems. These products are required for this modern
society people to make their work more comfortable and efficient. The
above said parameters are not alone to increase the e-waste, some of the
additional parameters are also responsible for raising the e-waste which
is portrayed in Fig. 1. According to 2020 Global E-waste monitor report
(Forti et al., 2020), the production of e-waste in the year 2019 is around
53.6 million metric tons in which 17.4% were properly collected and
recycled then the remaining 82.6% were not accounted. The prediction
on global e-waste is expected to be 74.7 million metric tons by the year
2030. The global e-waste forecasting for upcoming years has been shown
in Fig. 2. The data for plotting the graph (Fig. 2) is collected from the
literature (Forti et al., 2020). Every year almost 50 million metric tons
of e-waste is produced in globally where the contribution is higher in
developed countries like Europe and America based on their per capita
generation of e-waste. At present, Asia produces enormous amount of
e-waste nearly 24.9 million metric tons followed by America and Eu-
rope. However, considering the parameter of per capita consumption,

Abbreviations: CFC, Chlorofluorocarbon; CFL, Compact Fluorescent Lamp; CRT, Cathode Ray Tube; DNA, Deoxyribonucleic acid; EPR, Extended Producer Respon-
sibility; EV, Electric Vehicle; E-waste, Electronic waste; FAMB, Fly Ash after Mechanical and Basic treatment; GHG, Greenhouse Gas; GPS, Global Positioning System;
GST, Goods and Services Tax; IT, Information Technology; LCD, Liquid Crystal Display; LED, Light Emitting Diode; MeitY, Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology; MoEF, Ministry of Environment and Forest; MoEFCC, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change; NCR, National Capital Region; PBDE, Poly-
brominated Diphenyl Ethers; PCB, Printed Circuit Board; PCDD, Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins; PCDF, Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans; USD, United States Dollar;
WEEE, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment; EIA, Environmental Impact Assessment.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: prabaharan.nataraj@gmail.com (N. Prabaharan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100507
Received 25 August 2021; Received in revised form 15 March 2022; Accepted 28 March 2022
2667-0100/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
Fig. 2. Global forecasting of e-waste.
the Europe generates 16.2 kg per capita, America generates 13.3 kg per
capita and Asia produces 5.6 kg per capita. China has enforced e-waste
regulation with 14 types of e-waste categorization. Also, China has re-
duced its import of WEEE in recent years (Zeng et al., 2016). Both Japan
and South Korea has advanced e-waste regulations whereas the Japan
is the first country to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility
(EPR). India having the own legislation for e-waste management but it
generates nearly 2.4 kg per capita (Forti et al., 2020).
E-waste comprises of various material, small complex components
and contains many noxious elements such as CFC, arsenic, barium, cad-
mium, cobalt, copper, lead, lithium, mercury, nickel, polychlorinated
biphenyls, selenium, silver, zinc and more. Recovering materials like
iron, aluminium, gold and copper can be collected from e-waste (Forti
et al., 2020; Hsu et al., 2021). Many developed countries having the
problem in e-waste separation due to its complex nature and recycling
of e-waste becomes more challenging due to drastically increasing the
WEEE. Even though many frameworks have been implemented by many
countries to manage the e-waste properly but most of the e-waste are
ended up with landfills, incinerated, exported to the developing coun-
tries or disposed by informal workers (Ilankoon et al., 2018). E-waste
has hazardous substances which may create an antagonistic effect on
human health and environment if it is not handled by authorized per-
sonnel with adequate infrastructure. Due to improper e-waste disposal,
the workers in unauthorized sector shall be affected because the work-
2
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
Fig. 1. Major reasons for increasing the e-waste.
ers may not have the proper protective suits. Also, it affects the people
who are living in close proximity near landfills and incineration areas
(LARRDIS, 2011).
Due to high population and proportional use of electronic products,
countries like China and India suffers largely. Few articles related to
the e-waste management are already available in the literature (Chen
et al., 2018; Zeng et al., 2017a; Zeng and Li, 2021; Zeng et al., 2017b).
But none of the review articles has focussed on the updated legal instru-
ment and awareness program conducted in India. Therefore, this review
article mainly focuses on the detailed explanation of e-waste manage-
ment system includes recycling process and their effects in India. The
main objective of this review article lies on the discussion of legal in-
struments and awareness program in India at various period of time. It is
very difficult to predict the volume of e-waste for future years accurately
as it depends on the several factors. But the approximate forecasting can
be done by considering the amount of electrical and electronic products
usage in every year.
Section 2 provides detailed explanation for the contributors of e-
waste in various aspects. E-waste does not harm the human and animals
directly. Due to the enormous amount of e-waste accumulation and con-
tamination for longer period may harshly affect the environment. So,
Section 3 explains the variation of biogeochemical cycles and it affects
of all living organisms in the universe. The biogeochemical cycles in eco-
logical system gets mostly affected due to improper landfill and inciner-
ation of e-waste. So, the various method of e-waste disposal methodol-
ogy is explained in Section 4. Around the globe, India is one among the
top five e-waste generating country. Therefore, Section 5 deals with the
e-waste scenario in India and its management practice. Section 6 pro-
vides the future suggestion for e-waste management in India and Finally
ended with conclusion in Section 7.
2. Contributors of e-waste
The e-waste is mainly consists of electronic based small & large
equipment, monitors & screens, temperature exchange equipment,
lamps and equipment used in IT & telecom. Table 1 shows the examples
of each category regarding to the contribution of e-waste (Forti et al.,
2018; 2020; Reena et al., 2011).
As per the Global E-waste monitor 2020 report, the percentage of
e-waste is decreased by only 1% for screens and monitor category as
compared with the available data in the year of 2014 whereas the other
categories have been raised in percentage towards the contribution of e-
waste (Forti et al., 2020). According to the manufacturing point of view,
the creation of new electronic product regulates the double pollution to
the environment. Figure 3 shows the back to back pollution to the envi-
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507

Table 1
Contribution of e-waste based on the different categories.

Category Examples Contribution of e-waste in the year 2019

(million metric tons)

Small equipment
Large equipment
Monitors and screen
Temperature exchange equipment
Lamps
Small IT and telecom equipment
Irons, Toasters, Luminaires, Radio sets, Microwave oven, 17.4
Ventilation equipment, Vacuum cleaners, Clocks and
Watches, Digital cameras, Electric kettles, Video cameras
Large medical devices, Large monitoring and control 13.1
instruments, Photovoltaic panels, Cookers, Electric stoves,
Large computer mainframes, Large printing machines,
Washing machines, Clothes dryers, Dish washing
machines
Televisions, LED/LCD, Monitors, Tablets, E-Book readers, 6.7
Laptops
Heat pumps, Freezers, Air-conditioners, Refrigerators 10.8
CFL, Fluorescent lamps, Pressure sodium lamps, Metal 0.9
halide lamps, LED lamps
Mobile phones, Printers, Routers, Personal computers, 4.7
Telephones, GPS and navigation equipment

Fig. 3. Back to back pollution.

ronment based on the e-product to e-waste. First, to make the e-product
with the utilization of special metals like gold, cobalt and palladium that
can be collected through mining which requires more use of land, water
and energy (Parajuly et al., 2019). Furthermore, the processing of e-
products require variety of chemicals that may pollute the atmosphere
directly by emitting the harmful gases. For example, flat panel liquid
crystal display requires the fluorinated greenhouse gas which has an
atmospheric lifetime of 3000 years. It should be noted that this gas hav-
ing the potential to increase the global warming like 1000 times more
than the 𝐶𝑂2 . Second, the utilization span of the e-products is reduced
due to the technological advancement which makes current electronic
gadget superseded (European Environment Agency, 2020). Due to the
lack of repairing services for particular e-product, the consumers indi-
rectly encourage to buy the new products which makes more demand
on creating the particular e-product. From the above discussions, it is
clearly evident that the e-waste can be formed by manufacturing more
e-product as well as the usage of more e-product by the consumers. As
a result, it may affect the environment and creates the human health
hazards. Technological advancement is also necessary for this modern
world but they should consider the environment issues which make the
people to think back again (Janjua, 2021; Townsend, 2011).
According to the European environment agency report
(European Environment Agency, 2020), the actual life time of four
main e-products such as smart phone, television, washing machine and
vacuum cleaner has been compared with designed lifetime as shown
in Fig. 4. It is noted that the actual lifetime is always lesser than the
designed life time. From the Fig. 4, it is clearly understood that the LCD
television actual time differs largely with the designed life time due to
technological outdated. Outdated technology refers either the product
gets outdated in the view of customer due to the frequent launch of new
products with multiple advanced features or the usage of components
(example: Integrated Circuit) for making the product is no longer
compatible with the recent developed software. On the other hand, LCD
television manufacture requires around 30% plastic, 34% iron, 22%
glass, 6% electronics, 5% aluminium, 2% copper and 1% others. Due to
the higher quantity of LCD manufacture, it creates the bad environmen-
tal impression. Also, LCD contributes around half of the 300 kg of 𝐶𝑂2
emission per year which is estimated GHG emission for entire life cycle
of the same product (European Environment Agency, 2020). The usage
of new product is increasing due to the technological advancement
and lack of repairing services so that the consumers are indirectly con-
tributed (lack of awareness of e-waste) to increase the e-waste which
affects air, water and soil during the improper disposal and recycling
process.
As per the Indian ministry of commerce & industry annual report,
the electronic items imported for the financial year 2018-19 was around
55475.52 million USD in India (Ministry of Commerce, 2020). Accord-
ing to the report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and In-
dustry of India in 2018, India generates almost 12.5 lakhs metric tons
of e-waste annually in 2014 and it is drastically increased to 2 million
tons per annum in 2018 but only 4,38,085 tons of e-waste is collected
and recycled per annum. Maximum e-waste contribution in India by
state wise hierarchical order as follows Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Uttar
Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh
(ASSOCHAM, 2018). The state wise e-waste contribution is shown in
Fig. 5. The data for plotting the graph (Fig. 5) is obtained from the liter-
ature in (ASSOCHAM, 2018). It is clearly evident that the Maharashtra
produces the largest e-waste (19.8% of the total e-waste) as compared
with other states in India. It should be noted that only 47,810 t per an-
num e-waste is recycled.
Considering the recycling process of e-waste in India, only 5% of
total e-waste gets properly collected and recycled in which 95% have

3
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
been done by the unorganized sector. Many children and adolescents
have been involved for collecting and processing the e-waste where
4.5 lakhs of child labour have been engaged in the age around 10–14
years. Prolonged exposure of these disposed e-waste during the recy-
cling without having safety measures leads to severe damage of nervous
system, skin disorder, lung cancer, heart, liver, respiratory syndromes
and brain development. The percentage of e-waste generation in India
is 4.56 times greater than the yearly e-waste processing capacity offered
by the nation in 2018. The increasing value of e-waste due to the lack
of awareness of dumping procedure and also lack of recycling infras-
tructure (ASSOCHAM, 2018; 2020). The main e- products in India that
are responsible for increasing the e-waste are desktops, smartphones,
laptops and televisions. As per economic times e-paper, India is one of
the leading smart phone consumers around the globe in terms of sales,
usage and utilization of internet (Tech, 2020). To make a modern smart
phone, it requires more than 70 stable metal out of 83 from a peri-
odic table (Parajuly et al., 2019). The processing of these metals affects
the environment directly. Considering the metro cities, four out of ev-
ery twenty mobile users having 4G enabled smartphone, eleven users
having 3G enabled smartphone and remaining user having basic phone.
This makes country’s telecom industry to grow further but in future may
experience the compatibility issues (Balde et al., 2017; Parajuly et al.,
2019).
3. Environment concerns and health hazard
Around six lakhs workers have been employed in both organized and
unorganized sectors for collecting the e-waste and recycling process at
Delhi in India. Improper handling of e-waste may affect the environ-
ment badly and create different health hazards in human. E-waste is
4
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
Fig. 4. Comparison of designed lifetime and actual lifetime of elec-
tronic appliances.
Fig. 5. Contribution of E-waste at different states in India.
too diverse so that the various pollutants emitted from the e-waste. It
has different substances which comes under both hazardous and non-
hazardous categories (Rautela et al., 2021; Standard, 2018). Generally,
e-waste consists of glass, wood, printed circuit boards, batteries, fer-
rous (steel, iron) and non-ferrous metals (aluminium, copper and lead),
concrete, rubber, ceramics, rare earths and other precious metals (gold,
silver). More than one million poor people have been involved in man-
ual recycling process. Most of them are living in the urban places with
lack of awareness concerning e-waste hazard (Soetrisno and Delgado-
Saborit, 2020). The three types of WEEE such as consumer electronics,
large household appliances and information & communication equip-
ment generate the 90% of e-waste in India (Needhidasan et al., 2014;
Vats and Singh, 2014). Chemical substances are also the part of e-waste
which affects the human health badly (Dupont et al., 2016; Fernandes
et al., 2015; Kijko, 2014; Mohammadi et al., 2021; Peshin et al., 2015;
Skovgaard, 2004). The major chemical substances and their effect in
human health are described in Table 2. Fig. 6 shows the overall causes
due to improper recycling of the e-waste. The impact of importing the
electronic product is already described in the previous section. From
the Fig. 6, it is evident that the air and water are the major pollutants.
Therefore, the sub-sequent section is explained the possibilities of air
pollution and water pollution due to e-waste. Environmental Impact As-
sessment (EIA) and life cycle assessment have been used as parameters
to estimate the environmental impact of e-waste. In Nita et al. (2022),
the significance of EIA in reducing the environmental pollution due to
e-waste disposal has been reviewed from researcher‘s perspectives. Also,
the requirement for improvements in EIA stages, procedures & method-
ology and future suggestions have been discussed. On the other hand,
life cycle assessment and material flow analysis has been considered to
estimate the environmental impact of e-waste from printed wire board
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507

Table 2
Causes of chemical substances due to e-waste.

Chemical substances Availability Causes

Lead Computer monitors, PCB, Glass panels Central and peripheral nervous systems,
kidney, blood systems, children‘s brain
development, reproductive systems
Mercury Thermostats, relays, sensors, PCB and Kidney, brain
measuring equipment, flat panel displays
Cadmium Infra-red detectors, semiconductor chips, Kidney, respiratory systems
batteries, toys and plastics
Chromium IV Corrosion resistant used for coating Damage to DNA
electro-galvanized steels and individual
components (Screws, rivets, switches,
plugs, antenna and other accessories)
PVC Cables, computer housings When incinerated, it will emit toxic fumes
which damage the immune system &
pulmonary dysfunction
Beryllium Used with copper and nickel to produce
electrical contacts, gyroscopes,
spot-welding electrodes, springs,
and non-sparking tools, gears and cogs in Chronic beryllium disease, skin disease
aviation industry
Antimony Batteries, semiconductors Irritation of eye and skin, stomach pain,
diarrhea
Arsenic Integrated circuit and semiconductors Affects digestive tract, lung cancer, skin
cancer.
Phthalates Plastic enclosures, cables, wires, and Damage to liver and kidney
connectors
Barium Ceramics, automobile, electronic tubes Short term exposure to barium can cause
and glass liver, cardiac or spleen damage
Dioxins & Furans Older transformers, capacitors,fluorescent Damage immune and hormone system
lighting fixtures, electrical devices

Fig. 6. Effect of pollution due to informal activities of e-waste.

in Malaysia (Ismail and Hanafiah, 2021). In Ismail and Hanafiah (2021), liquid may creates the numerous possibilities to pollute the environment
direct incineration with energy recovery has been suggested as the best especially the liquid form can not filter quickly and last longer for even
e-waste management technique. centuries (Needhidasan et al., 2014; Zeller, 2013).
Ewaste treatment plant utilizes the hydrometallurgical process to re-
move valuable metals like silver, tellurium, and gold from the various
3.1. Water
categories of e-waste. The nitric acid and cyanide have been used for re-
moving the valuable metals through the process but it produces large
Mobile phones and batteries have many toxic metals. Suppose, the
amount of wastewater (Pollutant water) which contains many toxic
incorrect disposing of these metals would lead to contamination of soil
compounds. If the wastewater consumed by the consumers directly or
and water. It is stated that the improper management of e-waste can
indirectly without proper waste water treatment leads to damage the
affect the environment badly. For an example, a single mobile phone
human health adversely (Ackah, 2017). Due to water contamination in
battery can pollute 6 lakhs litres of water (Moletsane and Zuva, 2018).
Pakistan, around 45% of infants die in every year and it happens because
Waste mobile phone plastics has mercury, chromium, lead, stibium, and
of the lack of water treatment plant in industries. Also, the groundwater
bromine. When it is not handled properly, it may affect the environment
in Pakistan has been highly polluted that adversely affects the agricul-
and human health (Singh et al., 2020). It is also insisted that the open
ture sector (Janjua et al., 2021). High persistent and non-degradable
burning of the waste mobile phone plastics should be avoided to reduce
metals as in the form of particulate matter can enter the human bodies
the environmental pollution. Mercury is one of the voluminous noxious
through either inhalation or eating the food products. Consumption of
compounds in e-waste which can exist in any form such as solid, gas or

5
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
food products is the major pathway for entering these toxic metals into
human body as compared with inhalation (Li et al., 2012). For example,
micro plastics screening has been examined in several edible fish from
the municipal water supply in Nigeria. Around 69.7% fishes have micro
plastics in its stomach whereas only 30.3% fishes had no micro plastics.
It should be noted that the native people consume more percentage of
fishes which comes under this category (Adeogun et al., 2020).
Many people do not have the proper awareness to dispose either
the electronic products or the waste from e-products so that the risk of
water pollution increases which leads to intensify the reduction in biodi-
versity and socio-economic development (Kumaraswamy et al., 2020).
Manufacturing industries such as battery, automobile, microelectronics
and other industries utilize the copper metal which contributes more
toxicants into the water bodies (Tabagari et al., 2020). Almost all the
countries depend on the ground water in fully or partially for their sur-
vival and also utilized for farming, domestic and industrial purposes.
But the ground water has been contaminated because of activities like
leaching, dumping and e-waste processing entities (Postigo and Barceló,
2015).
3.2. Air
The informal sectors can recover the valuable materials from the e-
waste but they will pollute the environment due to informal processing
methods such as burning the unsoldering circuit boards over coal-fired
grills in open air, melting plastics, burning cables for removing the cop-
per, shedding metals by acid bath and dismantling printer cartridges.
At last, these extractions may ended-up with the dumping of invaluable
materials or throwing residues at the riverbanks (Zhang et al., 2012).
For example, fly ash could be produced by burning the PCB in an open
facility that has high concentration of tin, copper, lead, bromine and low
concentration of zinc and antimony. They may mixed up with airborne
particles resulting in indirect exposure through contagion of soil, food
and surface water. PCBs are core part of many electrical equipment.
If the PCBs are treated properly, the rich source of materials such as
copper, iron, ferrite, nickel, silver, gold, palladium, bismuth, antimony,
tantalum and some non-metals like epoxy resin, glass will be extracted
(Ning et al., 2017).
Dust particles released into the atmosphere from the e-waste dis-
mantling sites has flame retardants and heavy metal particles. These
particles can travel longer distances through air and also pollutes the
water or soil. Considering the E-waste recycling areas such as Delhi (In-
dia) and Guiyu (China) confirms that air, dust, soil and water has very
high level of PCDD, PCDF, PBDE and lead content due to the improper
disposals (Chakraborty et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2015). At the same time,
the organic pollutant like brominated flame retardants were found more
in the city like Taizhou (China) which is far away from the waste dump
yards (Pascale et al., 2017) and chemicals from informal metal recycling
in Guiyu (Kim et al., 2020).
Yet, there is no one reported for direct or immediate harm due to the
exposure of e-waste. But the long-term exposure of e-waste by workers
may have the few symptoms based on the substances available in the air
(Ackah, 2017). In Ha et al. (2009), nearby areas of disposal and recy-
cling process in Bangalore and Chennai has been tested with reference to
the United States of America Environmental Protection Agency value to
identify the affected rate of air, soil and humans due to e-waste acquain-
tance. The result seems alarming because the lead in soil, chromium and
cadmium in air exceeds the reference value which was suggested by US
Environmental Protection Agency (Borthakur and Govind, 2017; Pascale
et al., 2017).
Due to improper e-waste disposal in China headed to deposition of
toxic metals like lead, mercury and cadmium which make soil conta-
gion leads to affect the irrigation areas especially crops. It will reach
the human and livestock through the food chain consumption for long-
term makes severe health issues (Fu et al., 2008; Kim et al., 2020). Mi-
crobes plays a crucial part in maintaining the biogeochemical cycles in
6
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
the ecosystem. Due to the toxic landfills, air pollution and water pollu-
tion results in diminution of microbial diversity and in turn affects the
overall ecosystem (Liu et al., 2015).
India is the fifth largest country for selling the automobiles in 2019
as per the report of India brand equity foundation. The EV are acknowl-
edged as the future technology which reduces the air pollution in trans-
portation sector yet it is limited in developing countries like India due
to many challenges such as lack of charging infrastructure, automotive
industry landscape and cost benefit. Due to the abovementioned chal-
lenges, the purchase of EV is limited. For motivating the EV consumers
in India, the government has taken the various steps especially for ex-
empting the income tax and percentage GST reductions to the owner
of EV. The Delhi is the capital of India which suffers largely in air pol-
lution. The transition from the fuel/gas-based vehicles to electric vehi-
cle/hybrid electric vehicle is the good remedy for reducing the air pol-
lution. Considering the recycling batteries, India should improve their
recycling infrastructure and facility to suppress the environmental pol-
lution (Shah, 2019). Although India have separate legal instruments for
handling the battery but the safe recycling of lead-acid battery remains
a challenging one. Initiating of the recycling process of battery starts
form the consumer end. While purchasing a new battery, consumer gets
discount while returning their old battery with authorized retailers. This
recycling is carried out both in formal and informal modes. In formal
mode, after receiving old battery from the consumer, it reaches to the
manufacturer or authorized recycler through the retailer. Informal mode
retailer may sell the batteries to the roving collectors who again sell it to
the informal smelters through scrap dealers where they will perform the
recycling process to remove the lead. Finally, it will reach to the local
manufacturer and it may ready for the next selling process. In Gupt and
Sahay (2015), indicated that the informal smelters during the battery re-
cycling process may emit the heavy pollutant as equivalent to the value
of eight lakhs car running on the leaded petrol. This type of recycling
predominately happening at Delhi and also many states in India (Gupt
and Sahay, 2015; Gupta, 2020). Under this situation, India should focus
on the lithium ion batteries recycling because India lacks the authorized
lithium ion battery recycling plants for mobility batteries. Lithium ion
batteries are less hazardous as compared to other batteries but should
not be dumped with normal waste materials. Suppose, if lithium ion bat-
tery is properly recycled, the useful materials like aluminium, graphite,
copper and cobalt may obtained (Media, 2019).
4. E-waste disposal methodologies
Most of the e-waste has been disposed to the landfills, incinerators
and also it has been exported from the developed countries to the de-
veloping countries like India, China, Pakistan and Malaysia. In recent
years, the export of e-waste was banned in most of the countries and
they have been framed the separate legislation for proper disposal of e-
waste. The e-waste disposal methodologies have been followed widely
which includes dumping in landfills, acid bath, incineration, leaching,
recycling and reuse.
4.1. Landfilling
Landfill being the most commonly used and informal e-waste dis-
posal methodology which is harmful to the soil and atmosphere (Media,
2019; Mmereki et al., 2016; Robinson, 2009). The environmental im-
pacts and health impacts of workers at informal e-waste recycling site
in Ghana is discussed in Acquah et al. (2021), Asibey et al. (2020).
In Spalvins et al. (2008), the authors had analysed the disposal of e-
waste in municipal solid waste landfills at USA and found that the lead
concentration is lower than the specified limit. The above study found
that the concentration of lead has been reduced by the proper manage-
ment maintenance of the disposal sites and the recycling of the lead acid
batteries. However, landfill is not a good option for the disposal of e-
waste which pollute the soil and groundwater (Kiddee et al., 2020). In
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
Kiddee et al. (2020), the different e-waste disposal methodologies have
been critically reviewed and discussed the different metallic contami-
nants in e-waste that are harmful to the environment when disposed to
landfills.
4.2. Incineration
Incineration is the thermal process which includes the combus-
tion of e-waste. It may be used for the conversion of waste to other
form of energy. It includes the processes such as gasification and py-
rolysis. It could be either handled by the modern incinerators (con-
sists of proper filters with protective devices) or open burning. The
open burning method pollutes the atmosphere by releasing the haz-
ardous gasses like carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen ox-
ides (Sivaramanan, 2013). The above-mentioned disadvantages could be
avoided by performing the process in well protected environment and
also catalyst usage (Benedetti et al., 2017). In Benedetti et al. (2017), the
usage of FAMB as the catalyst in pyrolysis process reduces the char and
releases the hydrogen. This is the most advantageous disposal method
as the process converts the waste to energy and reduce the e-waste
quantity as faster. In Hsu et al. (2019), the pyrolysis had used to re-
cycle the non-metals from the printed circuit boards and concluded that
the supercritical fluids could replace the pyrolysis for the extraction
of non-metals. The direct incineration with energy recovery has been
compared with landfill disposal, materials recovery without and with
energy recovery in Ismail and Hanafiah (2021). The PCBs from waste
mobile phones has been considered as the e-waste. The comparison has
been made based on the waste reduction ratio and environmental cost
benefit ratio. From the results, direct incinerator with energy recovery
has been proved as the best e-waste management technique in Malaysia
(Ismail and Hanafiah, 2021).
4.3. Recycling and reuse
As the process of e-waste disposal, the informal recycling and in-
formal metal extraction is becoming a potential threat to the environ-
ment. The circular economy with repair, reuse and remanufacture has
been insisted as the e-waste management technique to maximize the
profit and achieve the zero e-waste (Chen and Ogunseitan, 2021). In
Chen and Ogunseitan (2021), the blockchain has been suggsted to re-
duce the structural and economic barriers of e-waste management. Vir-
gin mining is the process of extraction of metals from its ore. But the
dependency on virgin mining for the manufacturing process became un-
sustainable due to the rapid depletion of natural resources (Jones and
Wynn, 2021). Urban mining has been compared with the virgin mining
in Zeng et al. (2018). The cost of copper and gold extraction through vir-
gin mining have been proved to be costlier than the extraction of copper
and gold from recycling of cathode ray oscilloscopes and printed circuit
boards of end-of-life televisions (urban mining) (Zeng et al., 2018). In
Yang et al. (2021), the economic analysis of the metal recovery process
has been analysed by considering five different stages in China, North
America, and Europe. The cost analysis has considered the purchase of
e-waste, processing cost, recovery of precious metals such as gold, sil-
ver and copper and the profit obtained from the precious metals. The
results showed that the minimum profit for China than the North Amer-
ica and Europe because the purchasing cost of e-waste is higher in China
(Yang et al., 2021). Urban mining is also known as recycling which is
a collective process includes the separation of metallic & non-metallic
components (dismantling, crushing, shredding & milling, sieving & sep-
aration) and chemical techniques such as pyrolysis, metallurgical pro-
cesses & leaching (Ramanayaka et al., 2020). Urban mining is an eco-
nomically advantageous method as it is used either to extract potentially
the precious metals such as gold, silver, palladium, and platinum, base
metals such as copper, zinc, nickel, and ferrous or toxic elements such as
lead, cadmium, mercury (Anselm et al., 2021), carbon-based insulated
7
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
materials such as quartz, silica and carbon material containing parts &
halogenated derivatives (Okwu and Onyeje, 2014).
E-waste contains many toxic metals like lead, mercury, cadmium,
tin, bromide dioxins and etc. When it is dumped into the land fill or
thrown into water body, it could affect the bio-life in both soil and wa-
ter. Table 3 gives the information about the different hazardous metal
in e-waste, informal extraction of those metals that creates the impact
on the environment and human health. The proper metal extraction
methodologies should be followed inorder to overcome the above said
problems. After collection of the e-waste, it should be dismantled prop-
erly with care and individual components should be segregated based on
their chemical properties. Segregated materials must be separated and
then disposed safely without affecting the environment. As a result of
the extraction, the precious metals like gold, copper, silver, palladium
could be obtained from the e-waste which has economical benefits. The
extraction of the hazardous metal reduces the environmental pollution.
E-waste recycling consists of three main steps such as collection, pre-
processing and end processing. Most of the e-waste collection process
comes under the informal sector. The pre-processing of e-waste con-
tains different process such as dismantling, testing & isolating of in-
dividual components, shredding of e-waste scrap using hammer mills
and segregation of metals & non-metals by utilizing the processes like
screening, magnetic, eddy current and density separation techniques
(Schluep, 2009). Figure 7 portrays the preprocessing techniques re-
quired to seperate the metals, non-metals, wirings and plastics. The de-
tailed explanation for each step in preprocessing techniques has been
discussed in Khaliq et al. (2014). The major components of most com-
monly used electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, key-
boards and televisions could be recycled by using the above pre-
processing steps. The precious metals such as copper, gold or lead could
be extracted from the cathode ray tubes and PCBs from the above-
mentioned electronic devices. On the other hand, after segregation of
the metals & non-metals should be handled by the different meth-
ods separately. Recycling of non-metallic PCB materials has done by
the chemical processes like gasification, pyrolysis, supercritical fluid
de-polymerization and hydrogenolytic degradation for producing the
chemical substances and fuels (Kaya, 2016) that could be used in py-
rometallurgical processes. The separation of metals from e-waste could
be done by various metallurgical processes based on the type of met-
als. In Lucier and Gareau (2019), informal and formal sectors of e-waste
disposal and recycling have been critically reviewed. The informal &
formal sectors and legislation on e-waste management for countries like
srilanka (Ranasinghe and Athapattu, 2020), brazil (Souza, 2020), Aus-
tralia (Islam and Huda, 2021) and United states, Japan, Switzerland &
Indonesia (Raharjo and Utomo, 2021) have been discussed in detail. The
techniques mostly used for the extraction of metals and nonmetals from
the E-waste are illustrated in Fig. 8.
4.3.1. Metallurgical process
The metals from the e-waste could be processed by different metal-
lurgical processes such as hydrometallurgical, pyrometallurgical, elec-
trometallurgical, bio metallurgical processes, and hybrid process (com-
bination of any two) (Balaji and Senophiyah-Mary, 2020). The metal-
lurgy includes shaping, alloying, heat treatment, joining, corrosion pro-
tection and testing of metals. The precious metals like gold, copper, sil-
ver, palladium have been extracted from the e-waste by hydrometallur-
gical, pyrometallurgical and bio leaching processes in Kavitha (2014).
The overall sustainability of metal recovery from e-waste technologies
has been analysed for different metallurgical processes considering en-
vironmental, economic and social performance in Debnath et al. (2018).
Also, the different metallurgical has been compared in Hsu et al. (2019).
In Wu et al. (2017), the extraction of copper, gold, silver and palla-
dium from waste PCBs using hydrometallurgical process has been dis-
cussed. The metallurgical processes such as pyrometallurgy and hy-
drometallurgy were critically reviewed in Ilankoon et al. (2018). In
the above article, hydrometallurgy was insisted as the environment
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507

Table 3
Comparison of different contaminants of e-waste and its impact.

Contaminants Causes Environmental impacts Health impacts

Metals (Aluminium, Arsenic, Antimony,
Barium, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium,
Copper, Europium, Palladium, Lithium,
Iron, Tin, Manganese, Zinc, Nickel,
Selenium, Silica, Yttrium, Mercury, Lead,
Gold, Platinum, Indium, Silver)
Phthalates (Monoethyl phthalate (MEP),
Mono-n-butyl phthalate(MBP),
Monobenzyl phthalate(MBzP),
Monoisobutyl phthalate(MiBP),
Di-isononyl phthalate(DINP),
Di-ethylhexyl phthalate(DEHP),
Mono-ethylhexyl phthalate(MEHP),
Butylbenzyl phthalate(BBP), Dibutyl
phthalate(DBP), Di-isodecyl
phthalate(DIDP))
Chlorinated compounds (Polychlorinated
biphenyls(PCBs), Tri-chlorobenzenes,
tetra-chlorobenzenes,
mono-chlorobenzenes,
hexachlorobenzene, penta-
chlorobenzenes, di- chlorobenzenes,
Polychlorinated dibenzo- p-dioxins)
Flame retardants (PBDE, pentabrominated
congeners, octabrominated congeners,
decabrominated congeners, brominated
dioxins/furans, mixed bromochloro
dioxins/furans, TPP, monocyte carboxyl
esterase)
Incineration or the burning of e-waste in
open fires, or using acids for informal
e-waste recycling
Precipitation via dry or wet deposition
after rain
Disposal of coated wires, cables,
components of inks, adhesives, sealants,
surface coatings and personal care
products
Dismantle, recycle and disposal of PCBs
Flame retardant additives in plastics and
foams, including plastic casings of
electronic equipment
Fumes, dust, and smoke polluted the
atmosphere, contaminate soils,
agricultural crops, and drinking water
resources.
Rice and vegetables, cultivated in the
same region showed elevated heavy metal
concentrations
Pollutes air both indoor and outdoor.
Most commonly found in indoor in the
form of air and dust
Affects groundwater, soil, atmosphere,
and marine life
Food contamination and direct exposure
to chemicals from consumer products &
contaminated specks of dust
Several forms of cancer, nervous system
problem, skin and eye irritations, liver,
and kidney damage, anemia,
immunotoxicity, gastrointestinal
problems, nausea, vomiting, and
abdominal pain caused by the exposure of
copper and zinc in the atmosphere.
Mercury contamination causes
malfunction of peripheral visions,
numbness in hands, feet, and around the
mouth, extrapyramidal diseases and
movement disorders, impairment in
writing, speech, hearing, and walking,
mental degradation and kidney damage.
Children, especially those born to mothers
exposed to mercury, are highly vulnerable
to diseases like ataxia, constriction of the
visual field, congenital cerebral palsy, or
mental retardation.
lung fibrosis, cardiovascular and kidney
diseases were resulted from the nickel
contamination
Affects the liver and kidney. Also test on
rats proved reproductive toxicity
Immunological and reproductive
disorders in marine mammals, When
mothers exposed to PCBs and PCDFs, the
children are prone to higher incidences of
retarded growth, delayed cognitive
development and behavioural problems
Abnormal brain development in animals
and human, affects memory, learning and
behaviour on long term exposure in
human endocrine (hormone) disrupting,
affects estrogen, androgen & thyroid
system and immunity system

Fig. 7. E-waste preprocessing techniques before recycling.

friendly approach than pyrometallurgy, as the hydrometallurgy oper-
ates at lower temperatures, emits very less harmful gasses and also
the process is simple. Leaching is a hydrometallurgical process of ex-
tracting the metal from the e-waste by using a solvent. Based on the
type of solvent used, the leaching process is classified into chemical
leaching and bio Leaching. In Moyo et al. (2020), seven different pre-
treatment methods before the process of leaching were suggested for bet-
ter efficiency and the method of cutting the PCB into (2 cm × 1.5 cm)
pieces & soaking in NaOH was proved to be more efficient in metal
extraction.
In chemical leaching, certain chemicals have been used to extract
the precious metals from the e-waste. Different leaching methods such

8
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
Fig. 8. Extraction of metals and non-metals.
as acid leaching, cyanide leaching, halide leaching, thiourea leaching,
thiosulfate leaching, aqua regia leaching and ionic liquid acid leaching
have been discussed in Wu et al. (2017), Dave et al. (2016). It has also
explained the processes associated with the metal extraction and the
harmful effects of each process. Acid bath is the process of immersing the
electronic circuits in the sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid or nitric acid
to recover the metals which can be reused after recycling in the man-
ufacturing sector. Although the recycling with acid bath has economic
benefits but the waste coming out from the acid bath contaminates the
water sources. In Sivaramanan (2013), the extraction of copper from
circuit boards and gold & silver from lead has been discussed.
Chemicals produced by some bacteria may seperate the metals from
electronic scrap which is termed as bio leaching. Chromobacterium
violaceum is a type of bacteria that could produce an antimicrobial
agent called violacein which could be used to extract precious metals
from the E-waste (Kwok and Writer, 2019). This method may com-
paratively more sustainable than other extraction techniques such as
heating e-waste to high temperatures or adding toxic chemicals. In
Thompson et al. (2018), this method has been tested on e-waste materi-
als such as fluorescent lamp parts and fluid catalytic cracking catalysts
in 2016. In Kavitha (2014), discussed about the extraction of copper,
nickel, aluminium & zinc from electronic scrap through Acidithiobacil-
lus ferrooxidans + Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and extraction of
lithium & copper from lithium batteries through Acidithiobacillus fer-
rooxidans. The drawbacks of the pyrometallurgical and hydrometallur-
gical techniques such as atmospheric pollution, inefficient in precious
metals extraction, generation of acidic water in large quantity which
pollutes the water sources and the requirement of high investment
(Dave et al., 2016; Nithya et al., 2021). The importance of bioleach-
ing with chemolithoautotrophs, cyanogenic microbes and organic acid
producing fungi and bio metallurgical processes have been explained in
Dave et al. (2016), Razali et al. (2021). Also, different microorganisms
for the extraction of different metals and effectiveness of the microor-
ganisms in conversion process has been discussed.This technique is not
commercially applied to recover metals from e-waste due to the longer
period required for implementation.
4.3.2. Electrolytic process
Electrolysis is a technique that utilizes the electric current to induce
a chemical reaction for the extraction of metals. In Liu et al. (2017),
the copper powder has been extracted by using a mixture of copper
sulphate pentahydrate (𝐶𝑢𝑆𝑂4 .5𝐻2 𝑂), sodium chloride (𝑁𝑎𝐶𝑙) and sul-
furic acid (𝐻2 𝑆𝑂4 ) as the electrolyte. It has also analysed the impact
of concentration for each part of electrolyte in the copper extraction.
In Veglio et al. (2003), the copper and lead has been extracted by elec-
trowinning process. The electrowinning has been done after the pre-
processing and leaching. For copper extraction, copper sulphate has
9
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
been used as electrolyte while lead chloride has been used as an elec-
trolyte for lead extraction.
4.3.3. Vacuum recycling process
The recycling process in vacuum possess various advantages such
as reduced residues after the process, minimal impact on water, soil
and atmospheric pollution. In Zhan and Xu (2014), different processes
involved in the vacuum metallurgy separation such as vacuum evap-
oration & sublimation, vacuum carbon reduction and vacuum pyroly-
sis have been critically reviewed. It has also discussed about the ex-
traction of metals such as copper, tin, lead, iron, nickel and cadmium
from any one of the following material such as waste batteries. LCD,
PCB, pole transformer, capacitors and cables by utilizing the above-
mentioned vacuum processes. Lead, zinc, cadmium and bismuth have
been extracted from the e-waste by vacuum evaporation under high
pressure in Taylor et al. (2012). Different e-waste management tech-
niques have been critically analysed and benefits of vacuum recycling
has been explained in Abdelbasir et al. (2018).
4.3.4. Extraction of non- metals from e-waste
Non-metallic material is usually the leftovers after the extraction of
precious metals from the e-waste. The non-metals such as epoxy resin,
brominated flame retardants, dicyandiamide curing agent, curing accel-
erator, glass fiber could be extracted from the residue by physical and
chemical methods (Guanghan et al., 2016). The physical methods as-
sociated with the separation of metallic and non-metallic components
includes mechanical crushing, winnowing and electrostatic separation.
The chemical processes utilized for separation of metals and non-metals
were pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization using supercritical fluids
and hydrogenolytic degradation processes (Kaya, 2016). The extraction
of metals and non-metals from the PCBs through physical techniques
such as gravity separation, magnetic separation and electrostatic sep-
aration have been reviewed in Kaya (2017). Other advanced methods
for e-waste recycling such as high-pressure compaction, cement solid-
ification, thermal treatment, organic dissolution, simple acid leaching,
plasma-coupled acid leaching and substrate oxidation have been insisted
in Kiddee et al. (2020). It has also suggested that the bio treatment tech-
nique is the sound technique for reducing the environmental pollution
over the thermal treatment processes.
5. E-waste scenario in India and its management
Large variety of compounds have been used for manufacturing the
electrical and electronics equipment. For instance, the quantity of in-
dividual heavy metals, compositions of metal and metalloids have not
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
specified properly while producing the electrical and electronics equip-
ment in electronic industry. The compositions of elements will be main-
tained as secret information due to the patent filing. For example,
lithium ion batteries have been used in modern smartphones which con-
tains the manganese, carbon and cobalt oxides. Therefore, it is very dif-
ficult in processing these elements as it comes in the form of e-waste
because it requires proper infrastructure. The localized collection pro-
cess and advanced infrastructure were lacked in India so the people
throw the waste particles into the dustbin without any categorization.
The first public e-waste bin has been installed at Bengaluru city by the
non-governmental organizations in the year 2017 (Sunitha, 2019). The
absence of e-waste bin leads to increase invariably the ecological pol-
lution by dumping the waste particles without any recycling process
(Sunitha, 2019). Therefore, it is necessary to get the knowledge about
the evolution of e-waste management in India. So, the sub-section will
address the different policies for handling the e-waste includes collect-
ing, processing and recycling in India.
5.1. Different policies in india based on E-waste
The main purpose of waste management is to reduce or eradicate
the impact on environmental pollution and human health. Also, waste
materials produced by human activity can recover the useful resources
through the recycling of the waste materials. Waste management pro-
cess includes collection, transportation, processing, recycling/disposal,
and monitoring of waste materials. India is continuously updating the
rules and regulations to handle the e-waste properly for betterment of
the nation as well as creating awareness to the public for reducing the
pollution based on the e-waste (Arya and Kumar, 2020). The changing of
rules and regulation based on the increasing amount of e-waste, illegal
import of e-waste, technological development and recycling activities.
The evolution of different policies and their main objectives are por-
trayed in Fig. 9. The detailed explanation for each policy is described in
this section.
Environment protection act 1986 was the most important legal
instrument in the framework of waste management. This legislation
mainly focus on the environment protection measures. It does not fo-
cus only on the e-waste but it covers all types of waste and framed the
different rules based on the types of waste. This act is also called as
‘umbrella legislation’ where all the activities has been established un-
der this single legislation. This legal instrument address both rural and
urban local bodies. The previous laws had framed separately by central
and state authorities (Singh, 2018).
The rapid industrialization has been increased the number of chem-
ical industries that utilize more chemicals. It pollutes the environment
and human health either in alone or in contact with other wastes. Also,
it may generate the hazardous wastes which was the major reason to
frame the “Hazardous Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules” in 1989.
It mainly focuses on the narrowing ecology pollution caused by waste
generated by the chemical industry.
Municipal solid waste management involves generation, storage, col-
lection, transfer & transport, processing and disposal. The examples for
municipal solid waste are food waste, commercial waste, rubbish, in-
stitutional and industrial waste, street sweeping waste, construction &
demolition waste and sanitation waste etc. Municipal Solid Waste (Man-
agement and Handling) Rules had adopted in the year 2000 (Priti and
Mandal, 2019; Singh, 2018). The municipal authority was solely respon-
sible for monitoring and planning as per the legal instrument which
includes the infrastructure development for collection, storage, segre-
gation, transportation, processing and disposal of solid wastes. As per
the act, municipal solid waste should be collected on the regular basis
at pre-informed timing and schedules in every home. The key features
of this act were the storage facilities should not be exposed at open
environment and the facility adopted for storing waste should be aes-
thetically acceptable & user friendly. Also, this act had introduced to
use the different colored dust bins with respect to the waste category.
10
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
It should be noted that green color dustbin for biodegradable wastes,
white color dustbin for recyclable waste and black color dustbin for
other wastes. This municipal solid waste management act largely fo-
cuses only on the collection part of waste materials includes the safety
of the workers rather than the other process/functions. This regulation
prohibits the manual handling of solid waste but unavoidable circum-
stances it encourages the manual handling of waste could be done with
the proper safety precaution of workers. Meanwhile, this act emphases
on the landfill techniques, post closure care of landfill locations for at
least 15 years and periodic health checkup for landfill workers. Location
of landfill areas must be selected away from the places such as national
park, water bodies, forest areas, habitation clusters etc. State pollution
control board is responsible for monitoring the municipal solid waste
management functions (Ray and Rahman, 2016).
A new legal instrument called the Hazardous Wastes (Management,
Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules in the year 2008 which
was derived from the rules of 1989. The 1989 rule had concentrated
only the waste from inside the country but the revised rule in 2008 had
concentrated the hazardous waste in both domestic and transboundary
activities (Mundada et al., 2004; Singh, 2018). This rule clarifies that it
does not deal with the municipal solid waste, radioactive waste, wastew-
ater and bio-waste because the handling and processing of these wastes
having the different and separate legal instruments/rules and regula-
tion. It is the responsibility of industry authorities to manage (handling
and processing) these wastes by their own treatment plant or through
the authorized disposal centers. This rule specifically informed to the
all types of industry or new establishment should take the adequate
care in preventing the accidents and limit consequences to the environ-
ment and human beings. In addition, the rule had insisted about safety
of the workers through conducting the training programs for handling
the waste and usage of equipment during the working environment.
The important entities while considering transboundary movement is
the basel convention which was defined as the control of transbound-
ary movements of hazardous waste and their disposal. This is an in-
ternational entity which was created to reduce the illegal movement
of hazardous waste between countries especially developed countries
to developing countries. In addition to the basel convention, India has
a separate government sector namely nodal ministry i.e. MoEF to re-
duce the transboundary movement. The key activity of MoEF was to
prohibit the import and export of hazardous waste to and from the In-
dia respectively. Only in the exceptional case, it was allowed to import
or export the hazardous waste for the purpose of recycling, recovery
and reusage process. Any import or export of hazardous waste activity
found without the prior permission from concern ministry will be liable
for violating the law of the government. As per the law, the occupier,
importer, transporter and operator of the facility are liable for all pol-
lution caused to the environment and people due to the transboundary
activity (Karthikeyan et al., 2018; Singh, 2018).
The E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules had developed in
the year 2011. The main key feature of this legal instrument was Ex-
tended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR states that it was the duty
of the producer to framework a proper system for collecting the e-waste
after the lifetime of the equipment or failure of the equipment before
its lifetime so that it creates the environmentally friendly management.
This rule specifies that the responsibility of the producer for provid-
ing the necessary information about safe e-waste disposal system to the
consumers. Pollution control board having the authority to monitor the
e-waste management functions and they can provide the no objection
certificate for various industries in their states to manage the e-waste
in the proper limit abide the suggested rules and regulation by the gov-
ernment policy. The producer must maintain the record of e-waste with
furnished details so that the state pollution control board can easily ac-
cess the data during the inspection period (Bhaskar and Turaga, 2018;
MoEF, 2011).
MoEFCC amended the E-Waste (Management) Rules in the year
2016, it focuses on the e-waste for every bulk consumer, manufacturer,
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
Fig. 9. Evolution of legal instruments in India.
dealer, re-furbisher, producer responsibility organization whereas it is
not dealt with the previous legal instrument in 2011 (MoEFCC, 2016).
The rules for certain electrical equipment that had omitted in the pre-
vious legal instruments such as consumables, CFL and other mercury
containing lamps were included. In addition to EPR in 2011, this rule
insisted to the producers for creating awareness among the consumer
about their collection centers and take back system through proper com-
munication channel. Deposit refund scheme had introduced to channel-
ize the effective implementation of EPR. At the time of selling a new
e-product, an additional amount has been taken from the consumer and
saved as deposit. The deposited amount should be returned to the con-
sumer with proper interest, after the end of life of particular e-product
provided that the proper return to the authorized dealers. The collec-
tion target by EPR starts with 30% of the total e-waste generation and
every two year there will be an increase in 10%. i.e. 70% starts from the
period of seventh year. The state government is responsible in ensuring
the safety, healthiness and skill development of workers who have in-
volved in dismantling and recycling process of e-waste. The e-waste im-
port is strictly restricted and it can be allowed only for special cases with
proper permission. The producers who have EPR authorization alone get
11
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
the permission from central pollution control board and it is possible to
import the e-waste to India if they are permitted. The manufacturer, pro-
ducer, importer, transporter, re-furbisher, dismantler and recycler are li-
able to pay financial penalties as imposed for any violation of rules and
regulation provided by the state pollution control board with prior ap-
proval from the central pollution control board (MoEFCC, 2016; Turaga
et al., 2019).
The e-waste collection target through EPR in E- Waste (Management)
Amendment Rules was revised in 2018 from the previous E-waste man-
agement act 2016. This revised EPR rules was applicable for producers
who recently started their sales. E-waste collection target percentage
had reduced for the producers who has less year of sales duration than
the average life of their selling product. For example, if the producer
collected e-waste between Oct 2016 and September 2017, this shall be
considered for the financial year 2017–2018. In comparison with the act
of 2016 EPR, the percentage of collecting e-waste had reduced to 5% in-
crease for every two years form 10% for every two years. At seventh year
onwards, the collection of e-waste must be 20% of sales account of previ-
ous financial year. For other producers, the target for first year is 10% of
quantity of e-waste generation and there is 10% increase of e-waste tar-
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
Table 4
Number of dismantling and recycling units across India.
State No. of dismantlers/ recyclers
Andhra Pradesh 1 Madhya Pradesh
Chattisgarh 1 Orrisa
Gujarat 16
Goa 1 Rajasthan
Haryana 28
Himachal Pradesh 1 Telangana
Jammu & Kashmir 1 Uttar Pradesh
Karnataka 71
Maharashtra 75
get of 10% every year (MoEFCC, 2018; Turaga et al., 2019). Central pol-
lution control board can randomly examine any electrical and electronic
equipment available in the market and verify whether it follows the per-
missible limit of hazardous substances. The cost of the test will be borne
by the Indian government if hazardous substances such as lead, mercury,
cadmium should less than the permission value otherwise the producer
will bear the cost of the inspection. These are the main changes have
done in legal instrument 2018 as compared with legal instrument 2016
because the producer would bear the cost of the inspection in 2016 even
if it is within the permissible value. In 2019 and 2020, the government
has taken the various steps to create the awareness about the e-waste
to the public by employing the different campaign, training programs,
policy awareness workshop, conference cum exhibitions (ASSOCHAM,
2019; MoEFCC, 2018; Rajput and Nigam, 2021).
5.2. State wise e-waste recycling capacity in India
As per the information given in MeitY, there are 312 authorized dis-
mantling/recycling units for e-waste. State wise dismantling/recycling
units are furnished in Table 4. From the Table 4, it is clearly understood
that the highest number of dismantling/recycling unit has in Maharash-
tra followed by Karnataka. It is necessary to increase the number of
dismantling/recycling in few states in India such as Chattisgarh, An-
dra Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir because they
have only one in every state (Meit, 2019). On the other hand, to re-
duce the amount of e-waste MeitY conducts many awareness programs
regarding e-waste in the form of Campaign through Cinema in phases,
Ad films, and movies. The continuous feedback has been received and
processed in finding the outcome of these programs (Meit, 2018).
5.3. Informal recycling process in India
The India has a stronger vision and mission on e-waste management
because India is continuously updating the legal instruments whenever
required in order to handle the e-waste through proper channel. Even
though, the informal recycling sector is handling the 85–90% of e-waste
which is unacceptable although it offers income to millions of people.
The impact on the environment and human health make the researchers
to think deeper into this informal activity carried out in India. Delhi,
NCR of India is the largest and major recycling hub (Borthakur and
Singh, 2021). As per the toxics link report in 2018 (Link, 2018), fif-
teen areas in NCR handling higher informal recycling of e-waste where
Sellampur is the major hot zone accounting for 57% of informal recy-
cling activity as compared with other areas. More than 5000 informal
e-waste processing units engaging more than 50,000 peoples. Most of
these units is operating nearly for three decades. Different key play-
ers are involved in the informal activity such as kabadiwalas, kabadi
shop, scrap dealer, dismantlers, re-furbisher, recyclers and consumers.
The informal recycling sector has received with lesser amount e-waste
in recent years due to the large shift in electronic market on the certain
equipment and implementation of 2016 Act which could directly affect
the informal recycling sector people. Equipment such as refrigerator,
12
Environmental Challenges 7 (2022) 100507
State No. of dismantlers/ recyclers
2
3
Punjab 3
26
Tamilnadu 24
11
41
Uttarakhand 4
West Bengal 3
washing machine, air conditioner, microwave, cable and wire, televi-
sion, CRT, monitor, mobiles and chargers, printer, hard disk are the main
reason for decreasing the informal sector business in bulk volumes and
many informal units had shut down completely during this period. For
example, most CRT monitors technology had replaced with LED and LCD
monitors. Therefore, this transition reduces inflow of e-waste as well as
no demand for new CRT monitors. The informal recycling or disman-
tling units don’t have any health or environmental protection measures.
92% of units were not aware of the E-waste management rules in 2016.
Compared to the formal sector, informal dismantling units make cost
beneficial because the informal sector heads utilizing the low-cost la-
bor employee. The infrastructure or working units are not needed so
that these unit owners make more profits than the formal sector. As
per guidelines of E-waste management rule 2016, a minimum of 300 m2
area is essential for dismantling 1 tons of e-waste per day but this infor-
mal sector utilizes only 20–40 m2 so that it creates the major impact on
the human health. As per government guidelines, the recycling facility
should install wastewater treatment plant but the informal units do not
have such treatment plants so that all harmful waste water were drain
out into the fields (Link, 2018).
6. Future suggestions for e-waste management in India
The major issues of the environmental and health impacts are created
due to the informal e-waste disposal and without proper recycling of the
e-waste. It pollutes the soil, agriculture, groundwater, marine life and
atmosphere. To reduce the above-said impacts, the rules and regulation
should be made mandatory in all countries to handle the e-waste and
proper e-waste recycling. It is suggested to provide higher financial com-
pensation to the formal recycling sectors in order to reduce the informal
recycling sector. Although, India has been framed many legislations to
control the use of hazardous substances during the manufacture of elec-
trical and electronic equipment. It is suggested to strongly inspect the
electrical and electronic equipment to check the hazardous substances
either in the market or in manufacturing place at regular interval basis.
India should reduce the import of electronic products because imported
products unintentionally support the accumulation of e-waste in near
future.
Lists of collection centers or companies involving in the formal col-
lection and recycling of e-waste must be provided by the manufacture
which includes the contact details such as an address, telephone num-
bers and e-mail. The collection centers and stores should be monitored
whether they are following the existing rules or not. Actions should be
taken if the rules are broken out by the centers by the imposing penalty.
The majority of recycling activities have been executed in small shops,
houses and most often manually by their bare hands in India. The avail-
ability of workers with low labor cost and lack of monitoring in occupa-
tional and environmental regulations makes the hidden informal sector
activities to grow further. So, it is necessary to monitor the disposal of
e-waste through informal activity and suggestions should be provided
to follow the formal activity. Also, awareness should be given to the
informal sectors for reducing out of sight activities.
R. Rajesh, D. Kanakadhurga and N. Prabaharan
Biological method for procuring valuable elements from e-waste
seems to be a safe and promising process as compared with conventional
methods such as mechanical and chemical recycling. The implementa-
tion of biological process in developing countries requires larger period
but it seems to be appreciable in terms of less pollution generation to
the environment. The informal sector takes a major part in handling the
large quantity of e-waste and employees who working in those informal
sectors are mostly below the poverty line. So, it is very important to
frame the future waste management policies by considering their eco-
nomic situation and health precautions so that the majority of informal
activities will be reduced.
7. Conclusion
Undoubtedly, e-waste is the fastest-growing solid waste stream
across the globe. The review article has discussed the sources of e-waste,
the importance of e-waste management, and the hazardous & precious
metals contamination in e-waste. This article has also critically reviewed
the growth rate of e-waste for each year and environmental & health
impacts associated with the informal e-waste disposal & recycling. Dif-
ferent e-waste disposal methodologies and their advantages have been
discussed. The details of dismantlers/recyclers for different states have
been given. This article focused on the policies, guidelines, and consti-
tutional laws obliged in India. The highlights of each law have been dis-
cussed separately. Based on the critical review in various aspects, future
suggestions have been provided for India to improve the formal sector of
e-waste disposal and improve awareness among the consumers of elec-
tronic appliances about the disposal of e-waste. The legislation related
to the collection of municipal solid waste has been created in the year
2000. The separation of solid waste cannot be done through the work-
ers alone. It is an equal responsibility to the consumers also. Because
they should dispose of their waste into proper place based on the type
of it. Therefore, a necessary awareness of the disposal of e-waste should
be made among residential consumers. Also, the availability of local e-
waste collection centers should be increased and made available every
time so that the consumers can handover their e-waste easily. Therefore,
a streamlined process should be proper developed from the manufacture
to the end-user.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to SASTRA Deemed University, India for
the support provided.
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