"Firms that make computers and mobile phones must take legal responsibility for recycling them," say environmentalists, who are pushing for a new law on handling e-waste. They also want a ban on import of old computers to India. Greenpeace India, along with Toxics Link, an environmental NGO, and the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) are pushing for separate legislation for e-waste management to be enacted under the Environment Protection Act.
India is likely to generate as much as 800,000 tons of electronic waste by 2012 and there's only one government registered recycling firm. Most computers and phones are dismantled and shredded in the informal sector under dangerous circumstances, with little attention paid to safeguarding workers from the toxic components. According to a Greenpeace report, in 2007-2008, India generated 380,000 tons of e-waste. Only three per cent of this made it to the authorized recycler's facilities.
"Unlike most hazardous wastes that are directly produced by factories, e-wastes are post-consumer waste, so the way to recycle and treat them is different and hence, needs a separate law and a cradle to grave approach," says Abhishek Pratap, Greenpeace toxics' campaigner. The main contention of environmentalists is to place the legal onus of take back services (collection and recycling) directly on producer companies. The new legislation will hold producer companies responsible for the way their e-waste is recycled.
