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What the article is about?
- Talks about the changes proposed by Draft e-waste Management rules and concerns associated.
Syllabus: GS-II Government Policies; GS-III Environmental Issues
Draft E-waste Management Rules:
- A decade since the E- waste (Management and Handling) Rules came into – effect in India.
- The most recent amendment is the Draft E-waste Management Rules, 2022, released for public comments in May 2022 by the Environment Ministry.
- Despite retaining the underlying extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework, the new draft Rules depart significantly from the previous regulations.
Major Changes and concerns:
- Introduction of a market for e-waste recycling certificates. The draft rules state that producers of e-goods have to ensure that at least 60% of their produced e-waste is recycled by 2023.
- This shift from collection rate targets (which set targets for the collection of e-waste as a percentage of the quantity of products sold by weight in the market in the previous year) in the current Rules to recycling rate – targets in the proposed Rules is another important change.
- Large-scale recycling of e-waste is still in its infancy in India. Most of the recycling of valuable material is carried out within the informal sector using – inefficient and unsafe technologies
- If the regulatory targets were to create a vibrant market for recycling, the – existing formal and informal players would have to play a crucial role.
- The informal sector accounts for a vast majority of e-waste processed in India.
- The proposed regulations, however, place the responsibility of such integration on the State governments without specifying what the – incentives are for them to do this.
- Introduction of a Steering Committee to oversee the “overall implementation, monitoring, and supervision” of the regulations.
- lack of representation in the Committee, representation from science/academia and civil society organisations is not deemed appropriate.
Conclusion:
- Experience from European countries suggests that recycling targets would likely be much more difficult for the regulators to monitor and enforce compared to collection targets.
- The draft e-waste Rules propose a few positive changes, including expanding the definition of e-waste, more clearly specifying the penalties for violation of rules, introducing an environmental compensation fund based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle, and recognising the informal waste workers.
- The core changes it proposes within the EPR framework, however, require careful deliberation with all the relevant stakeholders before the Rules are
