Friday, August 30, 2013: India is one of the few countries generating the lowest quantity of e-waste as informed to Rajya Sabha on Thursday. According to a report prepared by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) titled ‘Recycling from e-waste to resources’, India’s annual e-waste is less than 0.15 kg for every individual.
This is an encouraging statistics and only few other countries are in the same line of e-waste from personal computers, as per Jayanthi Natarajan, the environment Minister of the country.
Jayanthi further added that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has duly been notified when the new E-Waste Rules came up in May 2011. The rules had been put to effect since 1 May, 2012.
The rules largely enshrine Extended Producers Responsibility Concepts (EPR) and accordingly, producers are required to set up collection centers to collect e-wastes. This could be taken back by the centers either collectively or individually. The wastes thus collected are to be sold to authorized and registered recyclers who have sound pro-environment facilities.