E-waste recycling efforts go waste

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 25 September 2008, 18:03 IST   |    2 Comments
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New Delhi: Lack of awareness and poor marketing system are the reasons for poor response to the e-waste recycling program in India, reported the Business Standard. According to a study conducted by the Manufacturers'Association for Information Technology (MAIT) last year only 19000 tonnes of e-waste was processed while the total amount of e-waste generated was 330,000 tonnes. The study reveals that 94 percent of the organizations studied did not have any policy of disposing e-waste. Lot of business organizations were aware about e-waste but the depth of knowledge was lacking added the report. The major portion of the e-waste generated is through disposal of televisions, and computers. Out of the total 56,324 tonnes of e-waste produced through disposal of computers, only 12,000 tonnes were processed last year. "There is a need for a larger number of recyclers across the country for which government support is required," said George Paul, Executive Vice-President, Marketing, HCL Infosystems. "If the number of recyclers increases they would also approach companies or promote this cause to expand their business," he added. Wipro Infotech is also facing a similar response to its 'e-waste disposal service'. A Wipro customer should pay nominal logistics cost of about Rs 5 to Rs 7 per kilogram of packed material towards shipment and logistics costs. This amounts to Rs 150 to Rs 170 for a typical computer system consisting of a base Central Processing Unit (CPU), keyboard and monitor. "The response has been disappointing, particularly from companies, considering the number of electronic items used by them. The end-user, too, has not been very responsive to the program," rued Ashutosh Vaidya, VP (personal computing) of Wipro Infotech. "There is an obvious lack of awareness among consumers in this regard. There are no monetary incentives to lure the Indian consumer. Besides, individuals find the process too cumbersome. They prefer to sell off the e-waste to a kabadiwala or a local PC seller, who would then refurbish or resell it," he pointed out. Even MNC's like Dell and HP are yet to receive a positive response for their e-waste disposal campaigns in India. "Dell offers recycling programs that allow for the free return of all Dell branded products. The recycling program was launched in India about a year back. Recycling used consumer electronics remains a challenge but Dell is committed to taking concrete steps to remove the barriers of cost and inconvenience for consumers," said company sources. HP has launched a company-wide product take-back program called Plant Partners Program (PPP) aimed at enterprise customers. The company's recycling program currently focuses on two segments its enterprise customers and its own personal productivity equipment (PPE). "The response from enterprise customers, though encouraging, does offer room for improvement. HP is actively exploring ways to increase awareness of PPP among its customers," said Bina Raj Debur, Country Communications Manager, Corporate Marketing, HP India Sales. "The companies usually donate their obsolete computers, or they go into storage," said Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT. "Corporate firms are aware of recycling mechanisms, but there is a severe lack of recyclers in the country, which is the major reason for the slow response on the corporate side," he added. The government is formulating guidelines to provide a broad framework and legal provisions for this cause and the policy is expected to be out within the next two weeks, told Mehta.