Ravi Agarwal, Director of ToxicsLink, an environmental NGO that works in e-waste management, speaks to Sweta Goswami about the scale of the informal sector and whether the new regulation is going to make any difference.
What is your opinion on the fresh guidelines of e-waste management notified by the Centre?
The biggest difference between the old and the new provisions is the Extended Producer Responsibility.
Unlike earlier when the onus lied on MCDs, now e-waste will fall under the ambit of the producer. But, it is to be seen how it is implemented as that along with monitoring will be the duty of the State pollution control boards.
Can the informal sector be integrated with the formal?
There has to be a systemic effort. The size of the informal sector is so huge that there is no option but to integrate it with the formal. While recycling can be done by the manufacturing companies, they can fix agencies for collection centres. These agencies will engage the existing informal sector for first-hand collection of the e-waste.
Besides, instead of focusing on the domestic sector, we first need to start from offices.
We have found through a survey that household electronic goods are mostly exchanged, which are refurbished and sold again. So recycling here is the second phase. Offices, however, auction off their e-waste and it lands up directly into the hands of the e-scrap market.
Should the government introduce greater fines or more tax breaks to encourage formal recycling?
Penalty for handling hazardous waste, or for running an illegal collection centre has always been there, but hardly imposed. For those who want to formally take up collection of e-waste, subsidy can be given. Such entitlements exist even now, but are quite meagre.
This is a State issue and the Delhi government needs to think of more benefits. Encouragement in the initial stages is very crucial as those involved in this sector need to come up and engage in a formal set up. The recycling sector should also be able to make a profit so that it can sustain itself and expand.
Is the law to not have recycling within Delhi justified or is it just shifting the onus to other States?
Handling hazardous materials, as is widely done in Delhi, is banned by the court. But seeing the scale of the industry, I think it is time for a re-think. There is bound to be a loophole if recycling continues to be prohibited because ad-hoc entrepreneurs will come up again and that is exactly what we want to remove in the first place.
