نحوه طراحی سیستم مدیریت پسماندهای الکترونیکی در هند A roadmap for development of sustainable E-waste management system in India

Abstract The problem of E-waste has forced Environmental agencies of many countries to innovate, develop and adopt environmentally sound options and strategies for E-waste management, with a view to mitigate and control the ever growing threat of E-waste to the environment and human health. E-waste management is given the top priority in many developed countries, but in rapid developing countries like India, it is difficult to completely adopt or replicate the E-waste management system in developed countries due to many country specific issues viz. socio-economic conditions, lack of infrastructure, absence of appropriate legislations for Ewaste, approach and commitments of the concerned, etc. This paper presents a review and assessment of the E-waste management system of developed as well as developing countries with a special emphasis on Switzerland, which is the first country in the world to have established and implemented a formal E-waste management system and has recycled 11 kg/capita of WEEE against the target of 4 kg/capita set by EU. And based on the discussions of various approaches, laws, legislations, practices of different countries, a road map for the development of sustainable and effective E-waste management system in India for ensuring environment, as well as, occupational safety and health, is proposed. ۱٫ Introduction Electronics industry is the world’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry. Rapid growth, combined with rapid product obsolescence and discarded electronics is now the fastest growing waste fraction, accounting for 8% of all municipal waste in European Union (The Economist, 2005). In developing countries, on an average it equals to 1% of total solid waste and is expected to grow to 2% by 2010 (UNEP, 2009). Electronic waste commonly known as E-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), or end-of-life (EOL) electronic are the electronic appliances such as computers, laptops, TVs, DVD players, mobile phones, MP3 players etc. including their assembly, sub-assembly, components and consumables, which have been disposed of or unwanted by their original users(Bhuie et al., 2004). There is no specific definition acceptable globally, which clearly defines E-waste, as every country has its own definition for the E-waste. What to be called as the E-waste? Any electronic or electrical appliances, which are obsolete in terms of its functionality? Or is operationally discarded? Or is both? As rapid technological changes and enhancement are shortening the lifespan of the electronic products the clear definition for E-waste is needed. The most acceptable definition is of EU WEEE Directive (EU, 2003a) which defines E-waste as “Electrical or electronic equipment (EEE) which is waste including all components, sub-assemblies and consumables, which are part of the product at the time of discarding.” E-waste comprises of relatively expensive and essentially durable products used for data processing, telecommunications or entertainment in private households and businesses. In this article, we use the terms “WEEE” and “E-waste” synonymously and in accordance to the EU, WEEE Directive. The first major problem associated with E-waste management is its ever increasing quantum, and second is its scientific and environment friendly disposal, which is very critical. Fig. 1 indicates the increase in the sales of PCs in 8 years during 2001–۲۰۰۹ in India (MAIT, 2008–۲۰۰۹). According to TRAI, India added 113.26 million new cellular customers in 2008, with an average 9.5 million customers added every month. Cellular market grew from 168.11 million in 2003–۲۰۰۴ to 261.97 million in 2007–۲۰۰۸ (TRAI, 2007– ۲۰۰۸). In 2006, microwave ovens and air conditioners registered a growth of about 25%. Refrigerator sales amounted to 4.2 millions in 2006–۲۰۰۷ and its production went up by 17% as compared to the preceding year. Washing machines, which have always seen poor growth, have seen reasonable growth in 2006. The sale of colour televisions (CTVs) is increased 3 times by 2007 (NCAER, 2007). E-waste is the combination of both the hazardous (PBR, lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium, etc) and non-hazardous as well as precious material (gold, silver, copper, etc.) (DEFRA, 2004). The uncontrolled recycling of WEEE “backyard recycling” by the so called informal sector is the main concern in Non-OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries like India, China, etc. Based on the existing evidences informal recycling is the most pressing environmental issue associated with the E-waste (Williams et al., 2008). Primitive tools and methods often involve the open burning of plastic waste, exposure to toxic solders, acid baths to recover saleable materials and components from WEEE with little or no safeguards to human health and the environment which results in polluting the land, air and water due to river dumping of acids and widespread general dumping (Manomaivibool, 2009). The controlled experiments characterises very high emission factors of heavy metal, dioxins and furans (both chlorinated and brominated) in fly and residual ash from the open burning of PWBs and PVC-coated wires (Gullet et al., 2007). The impacts of informal recycling of E-waste in developing countries like India, China, etc. on human health and environment is discuss in detail in Section 4. Managing the increasing quantum of E-waste effectively and efficiently—in terms of cost and environmental impact—is a complex task. While some countries have organized systems for the collection, segregation, recycling, disposal and monitoring, other countries are still to find a solution that ensures minimizing the negative environmental impacts of E-waste treatment and recycling. The major requirements and considerations for developing the sound Ewaste management system are: • Special logistic requirements for collecting the E-waste from the source of its generation and transporting to the site of disposal and/ or treatment/recycling/recovery/reuse. • E-waste contains many hazardous substances which are extremely dangerous to human health and environment, and therefore disposal requires special treatment to minimize impacts in environment. • E-waste is a rich source of metals such as gold, silver and copper, which can be recovered and recycled/reused into the production cycle. Our study and analysis has the following objectives; we aims to proposed a road map for the sustainable E-waste management system for India. The Section 2 reviews the current measures undertaken by developed and developing countries in terms of E-waste management, laws, regulations, policies, practices, etc. to manage the WEEE. With a special emphasis on the study of E-waste management in Switzerland (in Section 3), which ranks second in the 2010 Environmental Sustainability Index by scoring 89.1 points (http:// epi.yale.edu/Countries/Switzerland) and is also the first country in the world which has a well established formal E-waste management system (Bandyopadhyay, 2008). Also approximately 75,000 tonnes of WEEE have been collected, classified, disassembled and then processed in Switzerland in 2004 (Hischier et al., 2005), compared with the collection of approximately 68,000 tonnes in 2003 (SinhaKhetriwal et al., 2005) which corresponds to about 11 kg/capita and 9 kg/capita, recycling of E-waste, respectively. Significantly much more than the target of 4 kg/capita set by the European WEEE directive (EU, 2002a). Section 4 studies and discuss the E-waste scenario in India, along with the social, economical, environmental and occupational impacts of informal E-waste recycling. And also points out the positive–negative drivers and challenges of the current E-waste system of India. In Section 5 we draw the results of the review in Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 to briefly discuss the effectiveness and appropriateness of these results in Indian context using various approaches, practices and systems. Based on the review and discussion in previous sections, in Section 6, we propose possible new future system and technologies which takes care of approach, finances, government role and implementation issues to address multiple societal and environmental objectives regarding the E-waste in India and other developing countries.