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.