(a) whether in recent years India has emerged as a major source of electronic waste generation, thereby posing a serious environmental threat and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the details of e-waste processing centres operational in the country, State-wise; and
(c) the measures taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to introduce environmental friendly e-waste processing techniques in the country?
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ANIL MADHAV DAVE)
(a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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Statement referred to in reply to Parts (a) to (c) of the Lok Sabha Starred Question No 77 for answer on 7th February, 2017 regarding “e-Waste Processing Techniques” raised by SHRI PONGULETI SRINIVASA REDDY
(a)The country’s economic growth with rise in per capita income and technological innovations coupled with high obsolescence rate of electronic and electrical equipment are leading to increase in the rate of generation of e-waste. Central Pollution Control Board had projected 8.0 lakh tonnes of e-waste generation in the year 2010. As per the United Nations University report, “The Global E-Waste Monitor 2014”, 17 lakh tonnes of e-waste generation was reported in the country in 2014. The report notes that the per capita generation of e-waste in 2014 in India was 1.3 kg/inhabitant, which was much less than that in the USA (22.1 kg/inhabitant), Japan (17.3 kg/inhabitant), China (4.4 kg/inhabitant) and many other countries.
(b) The total capacity of 178 dismantling/recycling units located in 14 states is 441085.6 metric tonnes per annum. State-wise detail of installed recycling/dismantling facilities operating in the country is as given below:
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S. No. State Number of Dismantlers/ Recyclers
1. Chhattisgarh 2
2. Gujarat 12
3. Haryana 16
4. Karnataka 57
5. Madhya Pradesh 3
6. Maharashtra 32
7. Odisha 1
8. Rajasthan 10
9. Punjab 1
10. Tamil Nadu 14
11. Telangana 4
12. Uttar Pradesh 22
13. Uttarakhand 3
14. West Bengal 1
Total 178
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(c) The Government has comprehensively revised e-waste (Management & handling) Rules, 2011, and notified E-Waste (Management) Rules in March, 2016 to ensure better management of e-waste in the country. The provisions of this Rule include expanding producer’s responsibility, setting up of producer responsibility organizations and e-waste exchange to facilitate collection and recycling, assigning specific responsibility to bulk consumers of electronic products for safe disposal, providing for economic incentives for collection of electronic waste, and other measures to include dedicated responsibility of electronic and electrical product producers for collection and channelizing of electronic waste and simplification in permission process for dismantling and recycling facilities through single authorization based on Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) prescribed by Central Pollution Control Board. State Governments have been entrusted with the responsibility for earmarking industrial space for e-waste dismantling and recycling facilities and to undertake industrial skill development; and put in place measures for safety and health of workers engaged in dismantling and recycling facilities. Further, for resource recovery through recycling, the Ministry is coordinating with Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology, which has already undertaken few initiatives such as Research and Development programmes for recycling technology for extraction of precious metals, plastics and glass, up-scaling innovative technologies, demonstrations through pilot plants and technology transfer.
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