India is one of the hugest producers of electronic waste in the world. In 2016, the Centre notified EPR E-waste Management Rules and one of its highlights was the opinion of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). It means the manufacturers of electric and electronic appliances must expedite their number and return it to authorized dismantlers or recyclers. However, despite two-and-a-half years later the law was passed, there is limited proof that it is being performed.
According to Thiel, technology will matter more than globalization in the coming times. Because he reasons, without this, China will double air infection if it doubles its energy creation over the next decade. If every Indian household drops up living the system the Americans currently do, the result would be an environmental catastrophe.
This catastrophe increases too much more than just air. With the radical increase in the number of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), the waste dumped after a product finishes its life further creates enormous damage to the environment.
Much electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is material that should not end up in the environment. Like arsenic in mobile phones, lead in CRT glass, mercury in light bulbs, and so on. Then there are metals like gold, palladium, silver, copper, and tin. On the face of it, the financial incentive to remove metals from EEE seems high. But it covers a problem which can immediately escalate.
According to the Environment Ministry, nearly 1.7 million tonnes of e-waste was generated in India in 2014. With this number progressing at the time of four to five percent yearly, the environment and to health and well-being face many threats.
Due to violations in breaking down non-working laptops, cell-phones, and other goods – in India, done by hand or roughly burnt – e-waste doesn’t get correctly recycled. The trash from EEE gets dumped in rivers, drains, and/or disposed of in solid waste dumpsites. Over time, this diminishes land and water feature.
The wastage from EEE also affects health issues for workers who deal with it and people on the land adjacent. These health matters involve seizures, nose bleeds, retarded children, skin cancer, paralysis, and even death.
Role of the Extended Producer Responsibility
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in waste management aims to cover the environmental costs compared with goods during their lifecycle into the values of products.
The current Indian government has made producers of EEE below this ambit also, which is a positive move toward managing e-waste better.
While the differences of functions under the EPR concept are still being refined, adding producers to maintain equipment after their ‘end of life’ will positively affect the environment in many ways.
For one, producers will begin innovating to assure minimum deposit after EEE reach their end life. This will start to advance in technology which is the requirement of the hour to promote the environment’s (and human beings’) well-being.
Second, the government has stated that dealers or retailers "shall return the amount as per the take-back system or deposit return scheme of the producer to the depositor of e-waste". And refurbishes must direct those wastes to approved recyclers. So, the best incentive will support more people to process e-waste properly rather than partially remove useful commodities and dump the remaining.
original source: https://bit.ly/2FNTP0T
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