Lok Sabha Question No. 2728 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-15
Subject: e-Waste
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: PRALHAD VENKATESH JOSHI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2728

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 15.12.2015

## e-Waste

## 2728.   SHRI PRALHAD JOSHI:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the number of e-waste recyclers/dismantlers in the country is inadequate and  a  Parliamentary  Standing  Committee  has  also  made  observations  in  this regard and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government proposes to increase the number of authorised e-waste recyclers/dismantlers and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  is  taking  steps  to  increase  the  coverage  of  Extended Producer's Responsibility under the e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011;
- (d) if  so,  the  details  thereof  including  amendment  to  the  rules  to  incorporate internationally recognised best practices; and
- (e) whether the Government has any plan to extract gold from e-Waste and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

- (a) Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology,  Environment  &  Forests  in  its  report  No.  266  on  E-Waste  and  ERadiation  submitted  to  Rajya  Sabha  during  July  2015  had  observed  that  the number of 126 E-waste recyclers/ dismantlers is abysmally inadequate to treat the quantum of nearly 8 lakh tons of e-waste generated in the country. It stated that there  is  an  immediate need  to  increase  the  number  of  dismantlers/  recyclers/ collection centres specially   in states generating large quantum of e-waste and the gap  between  the  e-waste  generated  and  the  capacity  to  deal  with  it  should  be bridged at the earliest possible.
- (b) The  number  of  registered  dismantlers/recyclers  in  the  country  has  increased  to 148 from 126 since the time the Parliamentary Standing Committee meeting held on 20 th November 2015. These 148 registered dismantlers/recyclers in 12 States have registered e-waste dismantling and recycling capacity of 4,55,059 TA (Four lakhs fifty five thousand  and fifty nine tons per annum). However, the ongoing review of the issue also highlighted that large amount of e-waste recycling is in informal sector and the quantity of e-waste processed by the registered dismantlers and recycler is only 1,21,381 TA in the year 2013-2014 against their capacity of 4,55,059 TA, thus indicating unutilized existing capacity for recycling.
- (c) &(d)  To ensure better implementation of management of electronic waste, Ministry has published draft  e-Waste  Management Rules, 2015. The provisions of this Draft Rule  include  expanding  producers'  responsibility,  setting  up  of  Producers' Responsibility Organizations, and e-waste Exchange, assigning specific responsibility to bulk consumers  of electronic products for safe disposal, providing  for  economic  incentives  for  collection  of  electronic  waste,  and  other measures to include dedicated responsibility of electronic and electrical product manufacturers for collection and channelizing of electronic waste.
- (e) Most of the authorized recyclers in the country don't have environmentally sound facility for extraction of precious metals form printed circuit board (PCB) which ultimately either get exported to developed country to recover the precious metal or  channelized  to  informal  sector  which  extract  the  precious  metals  using primitive  methods.  Accordingly,  the  issue  is  to  be  handled  by  strengthening  of regulatory safeguards and formulation of regional development plan for resource recovery. As far as regional development plan for resource recovery is concerned, Ministry is coordinating with Department of Electronic and Information Technology on the issue which has already undertaken initiatives such as R&D programme with respect to recycling technology for extraction of precious metals, plastics  and  glass;  up-scaling  developed  technologies;  demonstrations  through pilot plants; commercialization of technology transfer etc.

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