Handset manufacturers have been busy increasing their footprint in the country, while little or no thought has gone toward tackling the issue of increasing e-waste. India boasts of a subscriber base of around 260 mn and the number of handests sold to be around 95.5 mn. And while in most developed countries the legislation forces manufacturers to take full responsibility of their products, this is not the case in India. However, there is a growing concern about rising e-waste in the country, and it is increasingly being felt that manufacturers or enterprises should adopt the cradle-to-grave approach.

In this respect, there are mainly two concepts which are being talked about. Firstly, there is the individual producer responsibility (IPR) where individual producers are responsible for the end-of-life costs of their products. This also assumes importance in the context that it puts pressure on the manufacturers to design products that are less toxic and are easily recyclable.

The second is the extended producer responsibility (EPR), which is designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with products throughout their life cycle into the market price of products.

Both IPR and EPR shift the responsibility of the waste from the government to the private industry. Though IPR adopts a proactive approach, encouraging manufacturers to design products that are easier to recycle, EPR advocates inclusion of recycling cost in the price of the product.

Of late the concept of IPR has been propagated as a panacea for e-waste. It certainly offers an edge over EPR since there are very few authorized e-waste recycling facilities currently available in the country. This is also being endorsed by handset manufacturers, with many of them coming out with their own take-back policies.

“The authorized e-waste recycling facilities in India capture only 3% of the total e-waste generated; the rest makes its way to informal recycling yards in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. This is because businesses sell their discarded IT and other equipment to informal recyclers for quick money without realizing the hazardous implications it has on health and environment,” says the report, Take-back Blues, released recently by Greenpeace. The report tries to access the ground realities vis-à-vis declarations by the manufacturers.

Take-back Report Card
In India, the concept of take-back is yet to catch up, with most companies just offering a token take-back service. Though this is not the case with global brands that are supposed to offer take-back service in the rest of the world. For instance, LG, which offers take-back service in the rest of the world, has only five-to-seven centers in the country and even these do not function properly.

“We do have a take-back policy, but as of now it is not functioning properly. We are on the verge of finalizing a new policy, according to which we would have around twenty collection centers in the country. We would also tie-up with one of the authorized recyclers. The collected gadgets would be sent to the recycler. We are also planning to have a dedicated call center, which would help customers inquire about our take-back policy,” says Raju Kalra, head, Energy, Environment, Health & Safety Department, LG. The company as of now offers take-back only for mobile products.

Nokia offers take-back around the world and was the first to offer the service in India. It has recently increased its collection centers in India from ten (in the metros) to around 600 in the country. The company was 'penalized' twice by Greenpeace because it had the take-back policy globally but not for India.

“Nokia's environmental work is based on life cycle thinking. This means that we aim to minimize the environmental impact of our products throughout our operations, beginning with the extraction of raw materials and ending with recycling, treatment of waste, and recovery of used materials. In India, we have installed take-back bins in 600 centers, and plan to extend this to a similar number of priority dealers shortly. We are also training care center and customer helpline staff on recycling services, and have recently provided more local information on our website to help people find out where to bring back their phones,” says Ambrish Bakaya, director, Corporate Affairs, Nokia India. Nokia sends the returned handsets to a recycling plant in Singapore.

The company has already started educating the dealers and plans to roll out a consumer awareness program to highlight the importance of recycling in the near future.

Motorola is another company that supports producer responsibility and accepts financial management of end-of-life mobile phones. “At present, the takeback option is available at location in India which includes five authorised service centers and five motorola office locations,” says Ramalingam Saravanam, EHM manager, Motorola India & Bangladesh.

Samsung, on the other hand, doesn't have any take-back policy in the country. This is in total contrast to its policy worldwide. However, the company is planning to have a slew of eco-friendly products. “We have launched two green mobile phones which do not have BFR and PVC chemicals, according to ROHS compliance. In the second half of the year, we are also planning to introduce a bio-cover mobile phone using vegetable plastic material to prevent pollution,” says Sunil Dutt, country head, Samsung Telecommunications India.

Sony Ericsson also does not offer any take-back policy in the country and is not planning to offer any in the near future as well. It is believed that this is led by the fact that they do not have a manufacturing unit in the country, and hence does not need to have a take-back policy.

Smaller companies like Meridian are only now waking up to the possibility of take-back and environment friendly handsets. “We are coming up with miniature phones, thus reducing the amount of heavy metals used. Miniaturization means we use slimmer batteries and smaller accessories,” says Rajiv Khanna, CEO, Indian Operations, Meridian Mobiles.

Legislation Lacuna
It is imperative that the stakeholders come together to find sustainable solutions to the problem of e-waste. A comprehensive legislation will also go a long way in addressing the issue of waste management. In the absence of legislation, there is no incentive for an enterprise to offer take-back to its customers or to design products that are conducive to recycling.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has recently come out with guidelines for environmentally-sound management of e-waste. However, since they are just guidelines and not regulations, they are not likely to be taken very seriously by the industry. The e-Waste Act is currently coming up under the hazardous wastes management and handling rules (HWR) that are likely to evolve into a separate law over the coming two years.

“This is mainly because of the lack of political will and lack of customer awareness. Also, the Indian consumer is very price conscious and is usually willing to exchange the product for a newer version but is simply not willing to give it for free because it is a health hazard,” says Ramapati Kumar, manager, Greenpeace.

Most of the consumers are unaware that they can actually give back the mobile to the company. Unless and until there is a replacement scheme going on, they are reluctant to give the old mobile to the shop. Mostly, the old handsets keep lying at home or are passed on to someone else.

Curiously, handset manufacturers in the country are Restriction of Hazardous Substance (ROHS) compliant inspite of the fact that there is no legislation to this effect. This is mainly because most handset manufacturers market their products globally and need to follow the guidelines in other countries.

Handset manufacturers in India have already phased out harmful chemicals like lead, cadium, mercury, chromium, and 2BFRs in the first phase. In the second phase, the companies are planning to phase out the next level of chemicals like PVC and BFR.

Though there might not be much tangible benefits associated with take-back of handsets, many handset manufacturers feel that it actually establishes brand recall and generates goodwill among consumers. “The value of handsets is dependant on many factors such as age, condition, and model. In general, we see a small material return value (Rs 4-5/Kg) of hansets paid by the authorised recycler,” says Ramalingam of Motorola.

Further, there are lot of factors that actually determine the value of a returned handset. “No, there is no value attached to the handsets that we get back from our customers. It improves our risk management, often makes good economic and business sense operationally, and reinforces our brand with our customers,” says Bakaya.

While the legislation is imperative in solving the issue of e-waste, it is heartening to see the industry take positive steps, howsoever small, even in the absence of any legislation or regulation.

Gagandeep Kaur
gagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in