Will the Minister of Communications & Information Technology be pleased to state: -
(a) whether in near future India is going to face the problem of huge e-waste and if so, the steps Government is taking to address the issue; and
(b) whether any study has been conducted as to how foreign countries have been handling the problem and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?
ANSWER
MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a): E-waste comprises of the end of life product of a wide range of electrical and electronic devices. Availability of improved features and requirement, consumer dispose of the older products, which fuels the growth of e-waste. Unless e-waste recycled in scientific manner, it is not hazardous. E-waste recycling with appropriate technology results in extraction of precious metals and other useful resource. Following steps have been taken by Government to address the issue:
(i) Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), nodal Ministry for all environmental related issues, including e-waste, enacted E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 to ensure safe collection, handling, storage and dismantling of e-waste, setting up of authorized e-waste collection centre, dismantling and recycling facilities. To ensure better implementation and management of e-waste, Ministry has published draft E-Waste Management Rules, 2015.
(ii) Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), being the nodal department for Electronics and IT, has been involved in developing technology to recycle e-waste in an environment friendly manner precious metals and mineral resources available in e-waste. A number of R&D projects have been successfully completed (Annexure).
(iii) Further, DeitY had notified the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) to promote large-scale manufacturing in ESDM sector in India, where e-waste is also one of the verticals. The scheme provides subsidy for investments in capital expenditure - 20% for investments in SEZs and 25% in non-SEZs.
(iv) DeitY has recently initiated a pilot project entitled “Awareness Programme on Environmental Hazards of Electronic Waste” in 10 identified States. The proposed pilot aims to create awareness in order to reduce the adverse impact on environment and health due to recycling of e-waste in unscientific manner.
(b): No study has been conducted by Government, as such. However, various reports have been published by Indian agencies, such as, MAIT, CEAMA, TERI etc.
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Annexure
List of Projects undertaken by DeitY
DeitY, being the nodal Ministry for Electronics and IT, is involved primarily in the process of promoting and developing suitable technological solutions for e-waste recycling, creating awareness on e-waste etc. DeitY is continuing its efforts to promote R&D to develop technological solutions for e-waste management in environmental friendly manner. The projects initiated at national institutions in India in this direction are indicated below:
a. Development of processing technology for recycling and reuse of electronic waste at NML, Jamshepur. In this effort the project at National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur has reached a stage where on a pilot scale upto 1 Metric Tonne of e-waste has been successfully recycled. The processing technology for recycling of e-waste through physical separation and chemical leaching methods had been developed at NML, Jamshedpur. It is now being attempted to take it to possible commercial application.
b. In another project, the Recovery process of precious metals from PCBs had been successfully developed jointly by C-MET, Hyderabad- an R&D laboratory under the DeitY and E-parisara, Bangalore. In this project, an unique components depopulation followed by pyrolysis and solvent extraction route has been established and demonstrated. In the second phase, a large scale demonstration project is being planned to showcase sustainable PCB recycling using materials from formal and non-formal sectors.
c. Novel recovery and conversion of e-waste plastics to value added product had also been successfully developed at CIPET, Bhubaneswar- Autonomous academic institute under Department of Chemical & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India. E-waste contains nearly 27% of the plastics. The value added products had been developed from these waste plastics with a goal to minimize the accumulation of plastics waste in the society. The sub-objectives are Develop an environmentally friendly process twith improved performance. A suitable technology transfer of the master batch developed is in progress.
d. DeitY has initiated a demonstration plant to showcase its developed technology for PCB recycling in India since August 2014. This project would be implemented jointly C-MET, Hyderabad and E-parisara, Bangalore. The project has been financially supported jointly by DeitY and Government of Karnataka. This plant would process 30MT of PCB per annum. This facility would be utilized by formal and informal sector.
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