TIOL - COB( WEB) - 914
APRIL 04, 2024

By Shailendra Kumar, Founder Editor

RACE, Race & Race! For the aspiring youth, the Civil Services Exams are a race! For the industries and businesses, higher profit is a race! For governments, holistic development is a race! For economies, higher per capita income is a race! Our planet has been reduced to a circus of race-walkers! The crux of economic growth and development is more and more consumption which is based on steady and rising growth in per capita income. Where has this insatiable appetite for consumption led us to? Global warming and climate change? Yup, beyond the pale of doubts, higher global temperature. The year 2023 was the warmest in the past several decades. Going by the 'racy' behaviour of the mercury in the recent weeks, the year 2024 also appears to be in a race against the records of 2023! And the key driver behind all these pug-ugly changes is the environmental damage which cryingly calls for a race to contain the harmful consumption patterns and practices humans are rapaciously prone to! One of the major races I would like to talk about today is the resolve of each country to swiftly digitalise the socio-economic and political eco-system and raise the per capita 'Electrical & Electronic Equipment' (EEE) devices which is emblematic of a developed society! Perhaps, yes! As per the UN data, it is 109 EEE devices per capita for high-income countries and just four for low-income!

Pollinating the idea of higher consumption of electrical and electronic goods may perk up the mood of the governments, businesses and even economists but an equally sincere attention is required to be paid to the over-spilling trash cans! Evidently, it is nobody's baby! How can one say so? Let me swirl to the latest UN Report - In the year 2022, humanity produced 137 billion pounds of e-waste - 17 pounds for every person on earth. How much was recycled? Barely 22% of it! Shocking and ghastly - a case of burying head in the sand! The global market size of electrical and electronic goods was USD 3.7 trillion in 2023 and at CAGR of 7%, it is projected to be over USD 4 trillion in 2024. By 2030, it is projected to be worth USD 10 trillion! Sacré bleu, more gigantic leap in sales means churning of more e-waste! Worse, the UN Report says that the recycling is going to be less than the present 22% in the future! Sounds eerily scary! Humanity is heading to witness alarmingly steeper mountains of junk washing machines, TVs, computers, printers, refrigerators, cameras, routers and even electric toothbrushes! Less recycling means greater damage to environment by hazardous materials like mercury and lead! Indeed, a case of throwing axe at our own feet!

Decrying the global trend of dumping unprocessed and un-recycled e-waste into landfill, the UN report underlines that recoverable materials such as iron, gold, copper and aluminum worth USD 60 billion is lost in landfills. Undoubtedly, recycling e-waste is a dangerous vocation as it also contains hazardous materials like lead and cobalt. The UN Report states that each year, casually processed e-waste injects over 1.25 lakh pounds of mercury alone into environment, risking health of humans and animals. Though there is lot of value in electronic waste but it also contains toxic materials which spoil the environment. A case of double whammy! Worse, in low and middle-income countries, recycling is an informal sector - no chance of any safety equipment. Clearly poisoning themselves and also the environment. The report highlights that as much as 7 billion pounds of e-waste is shipped globally - its management is unknown and disposal is also unrecorded and thus, is likely to be not environment-friendly. In 2022, rich countries shipped about 1.8 billion pounds to poor countries which often welcome them out of greed and without any disposal infrastructure. Environmentalists worry that given the tattered state of recycling industry, the canyon against the uncontrolled consumption is soaring and the planet is slipping into deep trenches! What is adding to the bowl of woes are the products not designed to be repaired - the thriving use and throw culture!

Lack of policies, modern technology and investments in recycling sector is resulting in embarrassing loss of precious metals annually. A good chunk of metals like Iron, zinc, tin, aluminum, nickel and copper can be retrieved. The Report states that in 2022, the e-waste contained 68 billion pounds of metals. Let's not forget that it takes oodles of ore to produce a little amount of metal. In other words, more recycling means less of mining which, in turn, means less of greenhouse gases and erosion of biodiversity. Whatever little recycling was done in 2022, the Report notes that it resulted in avoiding the mining of two trillion pounds of ore for fresh metal. Given the frivolous consumption trend year-on-year, humanity keeps mining more ore out of the ground rather than endeavouring for recycling. The best recycling record is thus far held by Europe but it is also barely 43% of the e-waste generated. The best e-waste collection rate is projected to be close to 44% by 2030 for the planet. Globally, only 81 countries have bespoke policies on e-waste and 67 have legal provisions relating to extended producer responsibility (EPR). The fees paid by them is earmarked for e-waste management.

How well India fares on this front? After China and the US, India is the third largest e-waste generating country. From 7 lakh tonnes in 2017-18, it has jumped to 1.6 million in 2021-22. It is projected to be close to 14 million by 2030. In value terms, e-waste management market is worth USD 1.66 billion and is projected to surpass the valuation of USD 5.2 billion by 2032. What materials constitute the Indian e-waste - computer devices account for 70%; 12% by telecom equipment including phones; 8% by electrical devices and 7% by medical equipment. Going by the yardstick of rules, India stands tall against dozens of countries. Quite flattering! India framed the rules and put the onus on producers in 2016 and from 2023, it has raised the bar of recycling to 70%. However, the fiendish problem is that 95% of its e-waste is handled by the informal sector - lack of technology, paucity of funds and virtually no safety equipment. So, India's policy clearly falls short by miles of a holistic package needed to make long-term investment for dismantling and recycling. A subsidy scheme like PLI is required to be floated for mega players to step into the recycling industry. India has spearheaded an ambitious EV plan but has played squint-eyed for recycling of lithium-ion batteries which are going to be a perma-anxiety for the future world unless the recycling matches the pace of e-waste generation.

India also needs a new Regulator with inclusive power and also all-encompassing functionality, including the power to enforce the right to repair as repair is, worldwide, acknowledged as a harm-containment strategy. Leaving it to the Central Pollution Control Board, a relic of an old-fashioned administrative scaffolding and also a den for parking of bureaucrats in Delhi, is a pale reflection of the otherwise inspiring commitment of the Modi Government, globally praised for its environmental stewardship. The CPCB's working continues to be a glorious symbol of 18th century apparatus of arthritic governance if one goes by the recent example of how it has been handling the online filing of new EPR regime which has run into deep mess! Merely putting the entire burden on manufacturers is certainly not a good example of the job done! The extended responsibility needs to extend to recyclers and also consumers who simply discard jaded electronics or electrical goods anywhere in a leisurely fashion! What may help consumers and also producers to collect dead batteries is a good swap policy. A clear message ought to be SMSed to all consumers that if a battery is to be changed in a mobile or EV or any other device, the new one can be bought only if the old ones are returned to the retailers. And the recyclers authorised by the government and contracted by the manufacturers can easily collect them rather than banking on the labyrinthine network of kawadiwalas! The world certainly needs phones to communicate, fridges to protect food and airconditioners for comfy working indoors but humanity also needs to recycle its way out of the grotesquely rising mountain of e-waste! Let's not forget the time-tested proverb: Waste not, want not! Let's choose fight and not flight to deal with the problem packing a wallop! Amen!