Establishing E-Waste Channels to Enhance Environment Friendly Recycling
Brief Description
The project aims to improve living standards in urban centers of India and to support the implementation of the National Environmental Policy which refers to the 3R and Polluter Pays Principle involving the informal sector in waste management.
The project also addresses to reduce the pollution arising from e-waste recycling undertaken in the informal sector in 4 urban areas (Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata & Pune) by encouraging environmentally sound recycling through a collective effort of all relevant stakeholders of the value chain.
The current e-waste recycling situation in India indicates that 95% of e-waste is recycled by the informal sector using highly polluting technologies causing threat to environment and human health. The project seeks to amend this situation by providing technologically feasible and socially acceptable solutions for the proper canalization of e-waste and regulating the flow of e-waste leading to environmentally sound recycling, while at the same time involving the unorganized sector in regulated recycling activities. The project is based on an integrated approach to deal with the whole process of e-waste management in order to improve the present situation.
There is also an urgent need to provide linkages between the informal and formal sector. The last steps in the e-waste recycling chain for extracting precious metals and other valuable raw materials are the most critical and therefore should be carried out in the formal sector. A system for organized collection channels is needed. Plus stakeholder participation and creating awareness among the users of electrical and electronic equipments on the disposal of the end of life equipments is necessary. In parallel to this, training and capacity building programmes are developed for all stakeholders after assessing their needs. These activities are to be accompanied by the facilitation of information exchange and networking. All tasks that are conducted simultaneously will mutually influence and provide input to each other.
News
January 2011
The WEEE Recycle conducted a Training of Trainers (ToT) course in January 2011 for the project implementation unit, SMEs and local trainers. The three-day course for beginners provided basic information on e-waste specifics, environmental and occupational aspects, and approaching the informal, policy and collection of e-waste. The sessions were interactive and included group work. The event aimed to enhance the capacities of the local trainers for replicating the learnings with the SMEs, focusing on awareness building and upgrading the informal sector.
In December a one-day Interim Review Meeting was organised by GTZ – ASEM in December 2010 at Jor Bagh, New Delhi. The objective of the interim meeting was to review the project progress over the previous year and to plan the future course of action. The meeting was attended by project partners GTZ, MAIT, Toxics Link and Adelphi, along with representatives of the project implementation units in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. The sessions included a review of activities in each city, focusing on major achievements; project visibility guidelines; capacity building modules and city wise needs assessment.
April 2010, Dehli
The SWITCH-Asia project “Eco-friendly Electronic Waste Recycling (WEEE-Recycle)” conducted a two-day planning workshop for its partner organisations to ensure a common understanding of the project, its vision and goals, and the specified roles of each partner. Together, the partners elaborated a detailed Action Plan with timelines for the targeted cities. To target activities well, they mapped the external stakeholder cooperation landscape for each of the four cities – Bangalore, Kolkota, Delhi and Pune. At the planning workshop in Delhi in April, partners formed a working group to discuss capacity building and a structured delivery of training.
April 2010
The Government of India published the Draft E-waste Rules for comments. The SWITCH-Asia project partners Toxicslink, MAIT and GTZ togehter with Greenpeace worked for two years and cnducted a wide range of consultations to draft a set of recommendation on e-waste law and submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The presented draft e-waste rule is largely based on this recommendation. The rules enable the recovery and/or reuse of useful material from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), thereby reducing the hazardous wastes destined for disposal. By specifiying responsibilities of producers of electronic euipment, of dismantlers adnr ecycler the draft rules aims to ensure the environmentally sound management of all types of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
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