e-Waste: Should Organizations be Concerned?

According to the latest report released by MAIT
(Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology), India produces about
3,80,000 tonnes of e-Waste per annum, which includes only the waste generated
out of television sets, mobile phones and PCs, a major chunk of which comes from
organizations. If we put together the e-Waste resulting out of rest of the
Electrical and Electronic equipments (EEE) in India, we would be looking at a
much larger volume. With much of this ending up with the un-organized recycling
sector which fails to practice eco-friendly e-Waste recycling methods, the
amount of toxic chemicals released can well be imagined.

E-Waste rules : Impact on organizations

Till date, there were no definite e-Waste rules in India to regulate the
management of  waste EEE. But in September 2009, MAIT (Manufacturers'
Association of Information Technology), GTZ (German Technical Cooperation
Agency), Greenpeace and Toxics Link, in consultation with all stakeholders,
submitted a set of draft rules for e-Waste management to Govt of India. These
are currently being reviewing by Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and
would be put up in the public domain for comments by March 2010.

According to the draft rules that Central Government is
proposing to make, managing e-Waste would become a shared responsibility of
various stakeholders, including the bulk consumers of EEE, ie the bulk users
such as Central or State Government Departments, public sector undertakings,
banks, private companies, multinational organizations and others that are
registered under Factories Act, Companies Act or Societies Act, including the
international agencies. With the introduction of the e-Waste rules,
organizations will have to shoulder the responsibility of managing the e-Waste
generated by them. Draft rules to be proposed say that  organizations would have
to ensure that e -Waste which are not fit for the intended use are deposited
with the dealers or authorized collection centers in order to be sent to the
authorized dismantler or registered recycler. The bulk consumers would be
permitted to auction e-Waste only to authorized collection centers or authorized
dismantlers or registered recyclers or avail the pickup/take back services
provided by the producers.  The organizations would also have to maintain
records in electronic format, which should be available for scrutiny by the
appropriate authority. So for organizations who are not right now managing their
e-Waste properly, its high time to gear up for the stringent e-Waste management
rules that would be coming up.

India generates 3,80,000 tonnes of e-Waste per annum, which includes just the waste generated out of television sets, mobile phones and PCs.

Disposal concern of waste IT equipments

A large part of an enterprise's e-Waste consists of redundant IT equipments
that range from computers to peripherals. Organizations generally tend to sell
their e-Waste to the scrap dealer / kabadiwalla, for a good price. But in
addition to the environment, what is put at risk is enterprise's confidential
information like trade secrets, financial information, employee records etc
which may still be stored in the end of life equipments, making it vulnerable
for misuse.

So, complete removal of data from all types of
organization's disposed computer media, like PC's, laptops, servers,  hard
drives, CDs etc is extremely important. This is being identified as a concern by
many organizations and they are addressing these by refraining from giving it to
scrap dealers and giving it back to either the vendors who are facilitating
take-back or by providing it to authorized e-Waste recyclers.

Where should e-Waste go?

In spite of a large number EEE producers in India, only a few have
voluntarily taken-up the initiative of practicing product take-back programs and
have tied up with authorized e-Waste recyclers to manage this waste in a
responsible manner. The awaited legislation on e-Waste management would
dynamically change the way EEE vendors are looking at e-Waste generated from
their products. But  enterprises  are not effectively utilizing even the already
available services for recycling. This is either due  lack of awareness of
take-back programs or  authorized e-Waste recyclers or due to the monitory
benefits attached to selling the e-Wastes to scrap dealers. To resolve this
problem, initiatives need to be taken by organizations to drive behavioral
changes amongst themselves and make recycling of old EEE of organizations an
instinctive action.

Utilize Product Take-Back Programs

Companies like Wipro, HP, HCL, Lenovo and Dell are offering take-back
programs to business customers and consumers, in India, enabling them to dispose
off the end of life products of respective brands in an environmentally safe
manner. Organizations can drop their unwanted computer hardware at collection
centers that are notified on their websites or can arrange for free pickup by
registering on their site. The respective vendors then get the collected e-Waste
recycled.

Avail e-Waste recyclers' service

Organizations can avail the service of CPCB registered e-Waste recyclers who
are engaged in processing e-Waste or components thereof for recovering various
components and constituents. Currently there are 11 e-Waste recyclers/reprocessors
registered with MoEF/Central Pollution Control Board, having environmentally
sound e-Waste management facilities. They provide free pick up service of
e-Waste from your doorsteps and many of them provide the service of secured and
complete data destruction.