New Delhi: As much as 24.94 lakh tonnes electronic waste was generated in the country in the past three years, the Ministry of Environment informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, adding that India’s electronic-waste generation is increasing every year. Responding to a query, Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo told the Lower House that for the 21 types of notified Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), an estimated 7.08 lakh tonne e-waste was generated in 2017-18, while the respective figures for the next two financial years were 7.71 lakh tonnes and 10.14 lakh tonnes.
As per the information available with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) generation of e-waste is increasing every year. The Government has made provisions for inventorization of e-waste generation across the country under the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, he said. Under the said Rules, the responsibility for inventorization of generation of e-waste has been assigned to State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Pollution Control Committees (PCCs), Supriyo said. As per the information of the CPCB) so far seven SPCBs namely Goa, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab have completed the inventorization of e-waste generation. Inventory for each of the states in the country is not available. CPCB had also circulated methodology for inventorization of e-waste to all the SPCBs/PCCs, the minister told the House.
The minister also said that for the disposal of e-waste in an environmentally sound manner, the government has notified E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016. Under the said rules, producers of EEE have been given responsibility under the principal of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for collection and environmentally sound management of e-waste and for creating awareness among consumers and bulk consumers. The said rules have provisions for environmentally sound collection, transportation, storage, dismantling and recycling of e-waste, he said. Under EPR, producers have to obtain Extended Producer Responsibility Authorization (EPRA). In the EPRA of the producer’s e-waste collection targets are mentioned which is based either on their generation or on their sale of EEE, the minister said. To a question whether the government is aware that the workers engaged in e-waste management are getting affected by various diseases and several casualties have been recorded as a result, the minister said the electronic products and electrical equipment after their useful life do not cause any harm to the environment if stored and processed in an environmentally sound manner. However, if the e-waste is opened-up and unscientific methods are used for extraction of precious and semi-precious material from it, then it causes health risks and damage to the environment. However, no specific studies to assess the damage caused by e-Waste on Environment have been carried out so far, he said.
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