Shocking Waste

India enacted a law to manage e-waste in 2016, but lack of data and a monitoring mechanism have rendered it toothless

- Banjot Kaur

HOW DO most of us dispose of a mobile phone or a television set? Usually, by selling it to a scrap dealer. But as per the E-Waste Management Rules, which were notified in October 2016, manufacturers of electric and electronic equipments must facilitate their collection and return it to authorised dismantlers or recyclers. However, even one and a half years after the law was passed, there is little evidence that it is being implemented.

The matter came to light in March 2018 when the Delhi High Court was hearing a petition on solid waste management. The court asked Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based non-profit, to submit a report on the status of e-waste in the country. While giving its interim order on May 22, the court directed the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) “to devise a proper method of inventorization of e-waste” and come up with “a strategy and plan” for the proper management of e-waste in a timebound manner. The MOEF&CC has to now submit a status report within eight weeks.

Growth of e-waste

India is one of the biggest producers of e-waste in the world. The