Giving Teeth to Tiger

India has emerged as one of the largest markets for telecommunications
equipments in the world, but manufacturers are still expected to follow
government guidelines on pollution control. However, the guidelines are not
governed by any stringent law to manage the wastes that contribute to
degradation of natural reserves of the country. Legislation and government
support play an important role in promoting the adoption of Green practices by
all the industries.

The telecom industry has a huge share in the total markets pie. Some Indian
telecom players have voluntarily adopted Green practices as a strategy to enter
newer markets, which offer lucrative business as well as improve their brand
image in being identified as Green companies.

According to industry experts, telecom manufacturing units are not the major
polluting agents as such, but its constituents are toxic in nature. The real
area of concern is that the telecom equipments like all other electronics are
made out of materials that are toxic in nature. With 500 mn tonnes of e-waste to
be accumulated, India can be taken to be sitting on a tinderbox of electronic
waste. As newer technologies continue to lure the user to chuck old gadgets and
own new ones, electronic waste is fast being accumulated with the end-users.

“There are standards for manufacturing units, but not specifically for
telecom equipments manufacturers. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has
identified the different industries under various categories of Red, Orange and
Green on the basis on their nature of pollution generation. The telecom
equipment manufacturing units are treated under the Orange category which are
not as polluting as the ones under Red like the metal smelters, fertilizers,
etc,” explains Dilip Bolkar, former CPCB official and a freelance
environmentalist, who agrees that some players have already plunged in the
movement to paint the industry green.

Voluntary measures taken by some of the players are not sufficient to save
the country from being a threat to the environment. There has to be a
well-defined structure that is tangible and effective. The government has always
drawn flak from national and international forums that have been closely
watching both the industry and the government. Campaigners against toxic waste
believe that the government has not made any serious effort in educating
enterprises and the general public on Green initiatives. They say the government
guidelines are toothless tigers that do not bind the defaulters, thus a
well-defined legislation is needed to safeguard the interest of going Green.

Bangalore alone produces 8,000 tonnes of e-waste. The pace at which India is
adding to the e-waste may not be as fast as the other developed countries but we
have to find a solution before the heap gets large.

However, it would be incorrect to say that the government has done nothing.
Back in 2003, the Parliament had expressed concerns about the issue, following
which the Central Pollution Control Board launched a pilot project across Delhi,
Mumbai and Pune to access the situation of e-waste. A set of guidelines were
then issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest which include direction on
treatment, transportation and disposal of e-waste. But they were only guidelines
and not a legislation.

The government also has a National Telecom Policy, which is a five year plan,
and says the company investing in India has to spend 30% on value addition.
“Earlier this year, the government came out with a separate e-waste guideline,
but almost no effort was made toward popularizing these guidelines and educating
the public and the electronic sector on issues related to effective e-waste
management. Further, the guideline was largely ineffective, as it is not
mandatory and enforceable,” says Abhishek Pratap, a Greenpeace Campaigner.

He says it is ditto with the hazardous waste management rules, rules
governing lead acid batteries disposal and recycling or, for that matter,
eco-labeling mark promoted by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Sloppy
implementation coupled with not much effort to make the public and industry
aware about the rules and guidelines resulted in visible ineffectiveness of
these measures.

Though the government has taken some initiative by having an e-waste
guideline, but the initiatives are clearly not at the level of what countries
like European commission and USA are doing. On this front, India even lags
behind China and countries like Taiwan and Korea. These countries have mandatory
law for electronic product standard and recycling of e-waste, which is not in
the case of India.

It is said that the Government of India immediately must take cognizance of
the issues mounting e-waste and come out with mandatory e-waste management law
based on Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR). Already the industry and
Greenpeace along with other civil societies are working together to draft a law
for effective e-waste management based on IPR. The process of drafting is in the
final stage and it includes all technical and legal aspects of the law.

“What is essential is a comprehensive legislation, it could be under Ministry
of Telecom if needed,” Boralkar suggests. But whatever legislation is formulated
it should have some techo-economic viability attached to it. There should be a
good disposal system in place for telecom equipments.

“The volumes of telecom equipment wastes are going to be very high and in the
coming times IPR will not be successful until there is a factor of profitability
involved. The legislation should also have incentives for the agencies working
toward waste management,” he added.

The government should fix the responsibility of manufacturing green products
and management of e-waste on the companies who are manufacturing those products.
It should also invest in education and awareness of public in general and
electronic product consumers in particular for the need of proper e-waste
management in the country.

Finally, the government should encourage people and firms to invest in
creating infrastructure for end-to-end recycling of e-waste through special
economic incentives. Currently in India, there are few authorized recyclers who
carry out pre-treatment processes like dismantling and segregation, but there is
no facility which can carry out recovery processes in safe and sound
environment-friendly manner.

Rahul Sharma, chairman, 'Cool The Earth Initiative', Assocham says at present
there are twelve registered e-waste companies handling e-waste recycling. It is
not yet a profitable business model but a huge informal or unorganized sector
involved in treating the e-waste. We could think of models like in Taiwan where
plastic is re-moulded into decorative products. There are technologies to
support this in the country.

“The problem in India is that you get money by disposing off e-waste, in the
US you have to pay instead. It is about profits, and the right technologies with
techno-economic viability will be needed,” he says.

K Sridhara, member, technology, Telecom Commission, Ministry of
Communications and IT says, “The government should encourage the reuse of the
equipment if they are in a condition to be used. Also, the government should
consider allotting Green/e-waste.” The points that would encourage the
stakeholders, Boralkar says, under the Environment Protection Act there are
measures to punish the defaulters, but the laws are very loosely implemented and
many defaulters manage to escape disciplinary action. A separate body with
sufficient powers and resources may be constituted to guide the players.

Heena Jhingan

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in