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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

02/08/22 14:19 PM IST

News E-waste rules

In News 
  • Government has proposed a new framework for regulating e-waste in India that may upset informal sectors.
E-waste 
  • E-Waste refers to all items of electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been discarded by their owner as waste without the intent of re-use. India is the third-largest e-waste generator in the world after China and the USA (Global E-waste Monitor 2020).
Status of E-waste in India
  • One of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world
  • 95% of e-wastein India is recycled by the informal sector
Concerns 
  • Under E-Waste Management Rules 2016, it is mandatory for the organization to comply with the Extended producer responsibility of recycling e-waste. Complying with that, most firms outsourced recycling to organizations called Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) (CPCB has registered 74 PROs)
  • In May this year, Environment Ministry issued a draft notification that does away with PRO and dismantlers and vests all responsibility of recycling with authorized recyclers, only a handful of whom exist in India.
  • Now, Authorized Recyclers will source a quantity of waste, recycle them and generate electronic certificates. Companies can buy these certificates equivalent to their annual committed target and thus do not have to be involved with engaging PROs and dismantlers.
Benefits 
  • Streamline and standardize the system
  • Introduce an Electronic management system that would track the material that went in for recycling
  • Make recycling remunerative: Currently, the entire system isn’t remunerative for recyclers, who actually do the job of recycling.
  • Increase reliability: The current system managed by PRO isn’t always reliable as there have been several instances of double-counting (where the same articles recycled once for one company are credited into the account for multiple companies).
Source- PIB 

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