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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