Energ. Ecol. Environ.

DOI 10.1007/s40974-017-0060-0

VIEW POINT

How well are we managing E-waste in India: evidences

from the city of Bangalore
Anwesha Borthakur1 • Madhav Govind1

1
Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi 110067, India

Received: 15 January 2017 / Revised: 17 May 2017 / Accepted: 26 May 2017

Ó Joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science of the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University and Springer-Verlag
GmbH Germany 2017

Abstract As a toxic waste stream, E-waste poses serious argue that ensuring responsible disposal behaviour is cen-
challenges to the waste management initiatives in India. tral in any successful E-waste management initiative.
While the hazardous components of E-waste call for Further, we emphasize on the relative disinterestedness of
environment-friendly disposal mechanisms, the valuable the research community in addressing the issues concern-
and precious metal constituents necessitate adequate ing E-waste in India by carrying out a detailed bibliometric
infrastructural provisions and responsible management analysis on the topic. We conclude that a transparent sys-
programmes to avoid the loss of economically vital mate- tem across these diverse sectors with adequate infrastruc-
rials. Considering this duality, this paper is an attempt to tural provisions and administrative controls is the key to
evaluate the current E-waste disposal practices in India, address India’s E-waste apprehensions.
particularly emphasizing on the city of Bangalore. Three
sectors listed as ‘bulk consumers’ of electrical and elec- Keywords E-waste
Disposal behaviour
Bangalore
IT

tronic equipments under the recent E-waste (Management) Banking sector
Rules, 2016, namely (1) IT and electronics, (2) banking and
(3) education, are considered for the study purpose. Our
experience suggests that these bulk consumers adopt two 1 Introduction
different approaches to comply with the new EPR guide-
lines as enlisted in the E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016. The considerable rise in the volume of waste generated is a
These are: (1) IT companies like Wipro adopts a ‘take-back critical issue accompanying global developmental para-
system’ where it is responsible for taking back the products digm. In the absence of adequate infrastructural provisions
originally produced in its various facilities from the con- in the developing world, rapid rate of population growth
sumers; (2) most of the banks and educational institutes and urbanization processes make municipal solid waste
take ‘auction’ as the measure by calling tenders from (MSW) management a demanding task (Yadav et al. 2016).
authorized E-waste recyclers with some banks embracing Further, resulting in an exponential increase in the E-waste
an ‘E-waste exchange system’, or complying through generation, the new millennium has observed an increasing
producer responsibility organizations (PROs) for respon- demand and proliferation of electronic equipments (Morris
sible E-waste management in the city. However, we sense a and Metternicht 2016). Globally, electronics is recognized
lack of meticulous initiatives towards addressing the as the largest, most affluent and high-technology industry
E-waste crisis largely prevalent across these sectors. We with the greatest ‘value-adding’ prospective responsible for
changing the social and economic landscape (Zeng and Li
2016). Accordingly, the problem of MSW management has
& Anwesha Borthakur been intensified manifolds with the advent of E-waste from
[email protected]
obsolete electrical and electronic equipments (EEEs).
Madhav Govind E-waste requires special collection and handling
[email protected]

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 A. Borthakur, M. Govind

considerations. Apart from its domestic generation, India Responsible E-waste disposal behaviour of consumers
receives large volumes of illegally imported E-waste. and their awareness are central in any effective E-waste
Majority of the E-waste in the country is handled by the management initiatives (Borthakur and Singh 2016). For
informal workshops due to the availability of cheap labour instance, Awasthi et al. (2016c) argue that informal
and absence of governmental regulations or associated E-waste recycling activities and open dumping of E-waste
errors in implementation (Awasthi et al. 2016a, b). must be substituted by the best available technology and
In India, E-waste has become an important waste stream environmental practices through appropriate monitoring
in terms of its volume and toxicity. It is a complex category and regular awareness programs for residents and workers.
of hazardous waste. It contains considerable portions of Unfortunately, India still lacks a conscientious group of
heavy and precious metal components and persistent people in its both urban and rural areas involving in sus-
organic pollutants (POPs). While toxic components of tainable E-waste management practices. E-waste manage-
E-waste pose serious threats to the human health and ment in the country has been a tedious and challenging task
environment (Garlapati 2016), precious metal components due to its diverse cultural, economic, societal, environ-
provide sufficient incentives for recycling. This is partic- mental and other such considerations. For instance,
ularly true in the context of the urban poors in the devel- because of the peculiar nature of recycling market in India,
oping world. This duality emphasizes the need towards a where consumers await some monetary returns while dis-
careful E-waste management system from both economic posing of their E-waste, the extended producer responsi-
and environmental perspectives (Tran et al. 2016). For bility (EPR) model widely practiced in the developed
instance, enhancing the significance of recycling, valuable world is prone to failure in the country (Dwivedy et al.
metals in E-waste include iron, copper, aluminium, cobalt, 2015). Such distinctive consumers’ behaviour encourages
nickel, tin and zinc and precious metals include gold, silver the growth of a large informal E-waste recycling sector in
and palladium (Alsheyab 2015). Thus, E-waste calls for India which processes E-waste mostly by using rudimen-
sustainable management practices which are fundamental tary techniques and unskilled labours (Pandey and Govind
in preventing the loss of economically important materials 2014).
and to alleviate the emergent scarcity of resources (Van Thus, in developing countries, informal scrap networks
Eygen et al. 2016). For example, the dearth of landfill sites have historically generated income by collecting, extract-
has stimulated alternative waste management techniques ing and selling recyclable materials, thereby playing an
through technological innovations in the European Union important role in solid waste management (Davis and Garb
(EU) for solid waste and encouraged source reduction and 2015). In the context of India, for instance, Ghosh et al.
recycling approaches (Li et al. 2015). (2016: 694) argue, ‘the material flows from waste imports
Some fundamental information on E-waste, including its not only offer a business opportunity, but also satisfy the
generation amount, composition and resource transfer, is demand for cheap second-hand electrical and electronic
essential in both the recycling industry and formulating equipment, which also provides material to informal and
government policies (Zeng et al. 2016b). However, semi informal sectors for processing’. Due to the financial
obtaining such effective information remains a challenge incentives involved, 95% of E-waste in India is recycled
because of two key reasons. Firstly, developing countries informally which has the potential to be overwhelmed soon
lack a comprehensive E-waste inventory with crucial sta- (Kannan et al. 2016). Further, there is an omnipresent
tistical data on production, sales, trade of EEEs and also ambivalence among Indian citizens regarding responsible
lack adequate information on the formal E-waste man- E-waste disposal (Borthakur and Singh 2017). In the
agement system. Secondly, the unregistered infiltrations of absence of adequate information dissemination mecha-
EEEs into the domestic market or E-waste stream exclusive nisms, people are largely unaware about the disposal pro-
of any administrative check (Tran et al. 2016) which need cesses and initiatives undertaken by the local or state
adequate addressing. Zeng et al. (2017) had proposed that governments. Consequently, majority of E-waste,
E-waste management should be addressed at three different amounting for 75% or more, is kept stored across various
levels: (1) microscopic (substance), (2) mesoscopic (ma- organizational structures, businesses, households and so on
terial) and (3) macroscopic (product and component). As in India (Ramachandra and Varghese 2004; Borthakur
approximately 100% of the globally mined indium, 44% of 2014).
the copper, 72% of the ruthenium, 34% of the silver, 50% Considering the complexities in E-waste management
of the tin and 22% of the mercury every year are used by system in India, this paper is an attempt to evaluate the
the electronic and electrical industries, recycling of current E-waste disposal status in the country with special
E-waste has the potential to contribute significantly focus on the city of Bangalore. The case study carried out
towards conservation of valuable resources and sustainable with some ‘bulk consumers’ in Bangalore is considered in
energy utilization (Zeng et al. 2016a). order to provide first-hand information about the current

123
How well are we managing E-waste in India: evidences from the city of Bangalore

E-waste management system and its associated Hong Kong

Switzerland
repercussions. France
Sweden
Brazil
Netherlands
2 Inadequate addressing of E-waste in India Australia
Italy
Japan
E-waste in India is an issue which is yet to be addressed Germany
United Kingdom
adequately by the research community, academics, policy- India
makers, government and non-governmental organizations United States
China
and so on. For instance, unlike Guiyu, the largest E-waste
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
recycling site in China or Taizhou, the second largest one
No. of Publications
or Agbogbloshie, Ghana, E-waste recycling hubs in India
attract not as much research and policy interest from the Fig. 2 Country-wise distribution of E-waste research. Source Sco-
international community as the Chinese or Ghanaian hubs pus, 2016
do (Borthakur and Singh 2016). Therefore, in order to
evaluate the current status of E-waste research in India and
compare it with the international scenario, a bibliometric produced 1053 research documents during this 30-year
analysis has been carried out in the ‘Scopus’ database using period from 1986 to 2016, the second ranked the USA
the search query: (TITLE-ABS-KEY ((‘E-waste’ or produced little more than half of what China produced with
‘Electronic Waste’ or ‘WEEE’ or ‘Waste Electrical and 651 research documents. India and the UK stand joint third
Electronic Equipment’))). in the ranking, producing 276 scientific documents each.
The search results in 4201 research documents pub- Although China and India share a lot in common with
lished during the 30-year period from 1986 to 2016. respect to E-waste and associated concerns, India’s
Starting with only two research papers published in 1986, research share on the topic is far lesser than that of China.
the research on the topic gained momentum from the year Not a single research institute in India has been enlisted in
2004, publishing more than 100 papers since the year 2004 the name of institutes producing 15 or more research
and 200 papers each year ever since 2008. Signifying papers during this 30-year period on E-waste-related topics
growing interest in the research community, the year 2015 (see Fig. 3 for the list of institutes producing 30 or more
has observed 518 research documents published on the research papers from 1986 to 2016). Indian Institute of
topic in a single year (see Fig. 1). Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), produced highest 11 research
However, the country-wise distribution of E-waste papers on the topic among all Indian research institutes.
research shows that researches on the topic are largely Different institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sci-
concentrated only in a few countries, particularly in the ences, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University,
People’s Republic of China (see Fig. 2). While China Hong Kong Baptist University are considerably visible in
the global E-waste research scenario. The relative disin-
terestedness of the research community in addressing the
issues concerning E-waste adequately and effectively in
India has encouraged us towards exploring this emerging
concern so that appropriate policy instruments could be
devised and management strategies could be formulated.

3 E-waste rules in India: some insights

Formulation and implementation of appropriate legisla-

tions are fundamental for sustainable management of
E-waste. Global, regional and national legislations could
facilitate eco-design and aid in saving resources, emission
reduction, eradication of the toxicity, etc. (Awasthi et al.
2016a). For the first twenty years of the economic liber-
alization in India, E-waste observed no significant hin-
Fig. 1 Year-wise distribution of E-waste research. Source Scopus, drance in its expansion. This period ensured increasing
2016 penetration of EEEs into the market due to the evolution of

123
 A. Borthakur, M. Govind

University of Ibadan
The Royal Institute of Technology KTH
National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan
Peking University
East China University of Science and Technology
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
Shanghai University
Zhejiang University
Shantou University, Medical College SUMC
Delft University of Technology
Hong Kong Baptist University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tsinghua University
Chinese Academy of Sciences

0 100 200 300 400

No. of Publications

Fig. 3 Affiliation-wise distribution of E-waste research. Source Scopus, 2016

the IT and electronics sector. For most part of these years, now exclusively made a producer’s responsibility, which
E-waste was an unnoticeable and silent stream of waste can set up collection centre or point or even can arrange
observing a remarkable growth in the country. The E-waste buy-back mechanism for such collection (MAIT 2016). If
(Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 was the first legal the responsibility of collection of E-waste is provided to a
initiative formed to exclusively address the E-waste man- dealer on behalf of the producer, it requires the dealer to
agement concerns in India. Thus, although the IT revolu- collect the E-waste by ‘providing the consumer a box, bin
tion started in India way back in early 1990s, a proper or a demarcated area to deposit e-waste, or through take-
policy related to E-waste was being introduced almost after back system and send the e-waste so collected to collection
20 years in 2011 (Borthakur 2015). This rule primarily centre or dismantler or recycler as designated by producer’
emphasized on the extended producer responsibility (EPR) (MoEF 2016: 7). But eventually producers are the ones
model for effective channelization of E-waste to the reg- who are entirely accountable for the waste produced by
istered collectors/dismantlers/recyclers. The Organization their obsolete EEEs. A target-based collection approach
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been introduced within these rules. The phase-wise
defined EPR as ‘an environmental policy approach in targets are: (1) 30% (either by number or by weight) of the
which a producers’ responsibility for a product is extended quantity of waste generation during the first two years of
to the post-consumer stage of a products life cycle implementation of rules, (2) 40% during third and fourth
including its final disposal’ (Widmer et al. 2005). Within years, (3) 50% during fifth and sixth years and (4) 70%
the purview of the 2011 rules, producers of EEEs or any during seventh year onwards (MoEF 2016: 22).
other person/agency/association can set up collection cen- On a positive note, ‘Deposit Refund Scheme’ has been
tres intended for the collection of E-waste. This means that introduced as an additional economic instrument within the
the EPR was not the sole responsibility of the producers purview of this 2016 legislation. As defined in the rules,
and there were scopes of loopholes to avoid the burden to ‘deposit refund scheme means a scheme whereby the
E-waste management by them. Thus, principles of EPR producer charges an additional amount as a deposit at the
have the potential to be desecrated by not maintaining the time of sale of the electrical and electronic equipment and
exclusivity of producer’s responsibility towards collecting returns it to the consumer along with interest when the end-
the E-waste produced from their electrical and electronic of-life electrical and electronic equipment is returned’
products. (MoEF 2016: 2). Further in order to ease of implementation
The recent E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016 provides of EPR by producers, options in the form of additional
a number of stringent yet insightful amendments to the channels such as setting up of PROs, E-waste exchange and
previous rules. For instance, the collection of E-waste is E-retailer are provided for to ensure efficient

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How well are we managing E-waste in India: evidences from the city of Bangalore

channelization of E-waste. The horizon of EEEs brought establishing the first software technology park in Bangalore
under this rules is also expanded by the addition of a few in 1990 has played a pivotal role in the growth of the IT
more electrical/electronic items, so thus the definition of industry to Bangalore. The region in and around Bangalore
‘bulk consumers’. For instance, compact fluorescent lamp already had a significant presence in the public sector
(CFL) and other mercury containing lamps are brought manufacturing industries and laboratories such as
under the purview of these rules. telecommunications, aerospace and defence electronics
‘Bulk Consumer’ is being redefined by the addition of among others which provided the necessary infrastructures
‘healthcare facilities’ which have turnover of more than and skill advantages for the further development of the
one crore or have more than twenty employees. Never- city’s IT and electronics sector (Parthasarathy and Aoyama
theless, categories of EEEs covered under this rule are still 2006). Consequently, apart from being a base for major
insufficient as compared to its European counterparts. Indian IT service providers such as Wipro, Infosys, Tata
While the Indian rules list only two categories of EEEs Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra and HCL
(‘Information technology and telecommunication equip- Technologies, the city became a preference for a large
ment’ and ‘Consumer electrical and electronics’), Euro- number of multinational companies seeking to establish
pean Union’s (EU’s) WEEE Directive (2003) has included their offshore development centres within India.
ten categories of EEEs with the 11th category supposed to Further the state of Karnataka could be arguably called
be incorporated from 2019. Only 21 varieties of EEEs are the cradle of banking sector in India. Seven of India’s
included within the two defined categories in India. How- leading banks—Canara Bank, the State Bank of Mysore,
ever, a wide array of EEEs is included within the ten cat- Corporation Bank, Syndicate Bank, Karnataka Bank,
egories under EU’s directive which amount for several Vijaya Bank and Vysya Bank—started off from the state
folds as compared to the Indian list. Such a comprehensive (Sharma 2005). Among them, Canara Bank, the State Bank
inclusion of EEEs is essential for holistic addressing of the of Mysore, Corporation Bank and Vysya Bank have their
E-waste management issues in India. headquarters in the city of Bangalore. The emergence of
The success of any legislation depends on its diffusion the IT sector further boosted the growth of the city’s
and execution up to the grassroots level. Considering the banking sector with many international and national banks
dissemination of EEEs in every strata of the society in both establishing their branches and offices in the city.
urban and rural India, the challenge today within the realm Bangalore houses a good number of premier educational
of the policy community lies in the successful implemen- institutes in the country. Apart from the presence of several
tation of E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016. This requires domestically well-known management, science and tech-
adequate awareness among the diverse ‘bulk’ and ‘indi- nology and law institutes, the city has internationally
vidual’ consumers about the disastrous health and envi- acclaimed institutes like the Indian Institute of Management
ronmental consequences of negligent E-waste disposal (IIM Bangalore), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Tata
practices. Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR—Centre for
Applicable Mathematics), National Law School, The
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences
4 The case study (NIMHANS), Institute for Social and Economic Change
(ISEC), International Institute of Information Technology
4.1 The study area (IIIT) and so on. The presence of these leading educational
institutes essentially provided the necessary human resour-
In an attempt to assess the intensity of E-waste manage- ces to the IT sector during its formative years which has been
ment challenges in India, a primary investigation was continuing till date. Describing the role of the city’s educa-
carried out at the city of Bangalore in the state of Kar- tion sector on its development as an IT hub, Joshi (2014)
nataka. As per provisional reports of Census India, 2011, states, ‘Bangalore was known till the ‘70s as the destination
the population of Bangalore was 8,443,675 with an average of public sector industries. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, it donned the
literacy rate of 88.71% (Census 2011). The city of Ban- role of producer of quality engineering, medical and man-
galore is known for housing a number of information agement graduates. In the ‘90s, with economic liberalization
technology (IT) and electronics companies which con- and development of information technology and IT-enabled
tributes significantly to the city’s economy and earns the services in India, Bangalore took centre-stage and emerged
city the title as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’. Nearly, all the as the IT destination of India’.1
major IT firms of the Europe and the USA have set up their
research and development (R&D) centres and software
development facilities in Bangalore (Patibandla and 1
See: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/What-
Petersen 2002). The Indian government’s catalytic role in makes-Bangalore-an-education-hub/articleshow/35613634.cms.

123
 A. Borthakur, M. Govind

The presence of these prominent sectors provided ade- purpose. Further, a recent study by the Associated Cham-
quate validation for considering Bangalore for our study bers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM)
purpose. Further, the city ranks third in the E-waste gen- revealed that computer equipments contribute up to 70% of
erating cities in India (MoEF 2008). Electronic City the total E-waste generation in India.3
Industrial area in Bangalore hosts a significant majority of Semi-structured interview methods were carried out
IT companies and is therefore a source of sizable amounts with representatives from the three sectors mentioned in
of E-waste. An estimated 30,000–40,000 computers the previous section. A basic questionnaire was prepared
become obsolete every year from the IT industry in Ban- for the selected sectors (see Table 2). For these face-to-face
galore alone. Home to more than 1200 foreign and interviews, all the questions were not designed or phrased
domestic technology firms, Bangalore figures prominently in advance. Some of the questions were shaped during the
in the danger list of cities faced with an E-waste hazard interview, letting both the interviewer and the person being
(Needhidasan et al. 2014). Again, as a rapidly educational interviewed the flexibility to explore in detail or discuss
and commercial hub of the country, Bangalore has sizable relevant issues. While interviewing, the questions were
EEE user base. Therefore, it has a potential to act as a also modified according to the response of the person being
model city to evaluate the problems associated with interviewed and needs of the sector involved. Thus, semi-
E-waste in major urban centres in India. structured questionnaire method was selected to collect
The study was carried out at three different sectors, data because it provides the interviewer flexibility to add,
namely (1) information technology (IT) and electronics, (2) modify and omit questions during the time of the interview.
banking sector and (3) educational institutes. All these As E-waste management in India is reasonably an unex-
sectors are ‘bulk producers of E-waste’ in India (MoEF plored area of research, such kind of flexibility is indis-
2008, 2016) and thus require adequate addressing towards pensable for gathering reliable and purposeful data.
responsible management of E-waste in the country. While The interviews were informal and carried out with rel-
selecting the study samples, key representatives under each evant stakeholders such as IT professionals and adminis-
category are tried to be included. For instance, regarding trative staffs of academic institutes/banks to have their
the banking sector, the first five banks (see Table 1) rep- responses on E-waste management practices in their
resent major ‘public sector’ banks present in the city with respective institute. Informal or conversational interviews
headquarters of Canara Bank and the State Bank of Mysore allow the interviewer to converse and probe emerging
situated in Bangalore. The next three represent prominent concerns, or ask questions, in a naturalistic manner, on
‘private sector’ banks, and the last two represent ‘cooper- atypical events. The nature of such kind of interview
ative’ banks. The third largest IT company in India, technique is ‘casual’, and thus, it has the potential to be
Wipro,2 was considered as a major representative from the helpful in drawing highly candid accounts from the
IT sector. Similarly, Indian Institute of Management, respondents (Reeves et al. 2008). Overall, the study was
Bangalore (IIM-B), was considered as the key representa- essentially qualitative in nature with an aim to express the
tive of the educational sector in the city. views and voices of the associated stakeholders.
While collecting information, prior attention was given
4.2 Methods and execution of the survey to the specific requirements of the sector concerned. For
instance, we were aware that being high security zones,
Both primary and secondary sources of data were evaluated entry to the IT and electronics companies in Bangalore
to assess various E-waste-related issues such as its gener- would be highly restricted. Therefore in this sector, prior
ation, management strategies, disposal behaviour, publics’ appointments through e-mail were taken by contacting the
perception/awareness and so on. Secondary resources concerned officers/staffs dealing with E-waste/sustainabil-
include journal and newspaper articles, books, annual ity issues in the company. Although we attempted to get in
reports of various key representatives, blogs and other touch with a number of such companies, only a handful of
internet resources. An empirical study was conducted with them provided us access to collect relevant information on
the ‘bulk consumers’ of EEEs in the city of Bangalore in their E-waste management practices and preferences. As
order to evaluate the existing E-waste management struc- our attempts to take prior appointments in the banking and
tures, consumers’ disposal behaviour and associated educational sector resulted in no substantial success, we
awareness. Obsolete ‘computers’ were considered as the therefore chose to directly visit some of the representative
representative of E-waste because it is the most prominent institutes under each category. The largest branch or the
category of E-waste in the sectors considered for our study head office of the respective bank was tried to be visited.
Mostly, we interacted with persons from the IT department
2
http://www.Wipro.com/documents/The-Financial-Express-change-
3
management-a-hurdle-in-way-of-automation.pdf. http://www.assocham.org/newsdetail.php?id=5725.

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How well are we managing E-waste in India: evidences from the city of Bangalore

Table 1 The bulk generators of

A. Information technology and electronics
E-waste considered for the
study purpose 1. Wipro
2. A major multinational electronics giant (name withheld on request of the interviewee)
B. Banking sector
1. Canara Bank
2. The State Bank of Mysore
3. Bank of India
4. Indian Bank
5. The South Indian Bank
6. Kotak Mahindra Bank
7. HDFC Bank
8. ICICI Bank
9. Karnataka Bank
10. Apex Bank
C. Educational institutes
1. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B)

in these banks and educational institutes and tried to gather the concerned authority through the security stuffs present
purposeful information related to the procurement of at the gate who mostly spoke the vernacular language.
electronic items and disposal policy of E-waste in their Further complicating our challenges, barring a few,
organization. there was an inherent reluctance among the representatives
We also analysed the available E-waste management from each sector towards providing necessary information
policies of these organizations accessible through the host on their E-waste management processes. Even after repe-
websites. A number of policy documents on E-waste ated attempts through visits, e-mail and phone calls, a good
management initiatives, such as that of Wipro, were eval- number of major IT and electronics companies, educational
uated. Further, the compliance of the management initia- institutes and popular public and private sector banks did
tives of different sectors especially to the E-waste not either reply back or disclose any information on their
management (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 and current E-waste management practices.
the E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016 was critically
examined. Nevertheless, it has been a challenge to collect
relevant data from these sectors regarding their E-waste 5 Results and discussion
management practices. During direct approaches to the
banks and educational institutes, getting permission to inter 5.1 Current disposal practices and policies at the IT
the vicinity of such institutes and meeting the concerned and electronics sector
representative having knowledge about their E-waste
management procedures were major challenges. Language Necessitating effective implementation of responsible
was another barrier in conveying the purpose of our visit to management strategies, the result of our study reflects that

Table 2 Some of the representative questions from the semi-structured questionnaire

1 What is the average life of the computers at your institute?
2 Who is responsible for maintenance of the computers in your institute? Is it the dealer from whom computers were purchased or somebody
else?
3 Do you maintain ‘Annual Maintenance Contract’ or any such agreements with anyone towards maintenance of your computers and related
equipments?
4 How do you usually discard your outdated or unused computers and related equipments?
5 Who decides the process of discarding of the computers and related electronics?
6 Do you discard your obsolete electronics by giving them to the scrap vendors at a certain price?
7 Does your institute have an E-waste management policy?
8 What steps do your institute takes to comply with ‘the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011’?

123
 A. Borthakur, M. Govind

today, E-waste generated in each of the three sectors are responsibility of sustainable E-waste management to the
increasing at a fast pace. For instance, IT giants such as ‘Central Material Facility’ of the company.
Wipro takes up a ‘Tech Refreshing’ approach every Wipro maintains a mass-balance report where E-waste
3–4 years, where a lot of EEEs are declared obsolete and recyclers have to report back to the company about the
thus are being disposed off. Due to the rapid progress in the procedures adopted to dispose of the collected obsolete
area of IT and electronics, newer and modified versions of EEEs. In detail, reporting on the treatment and disposal
software are introduced every few months. Mostly, older mechanisms for hazardous and non-hazardous components
hardware is not compatible with the new software and of E-waste is a compulsory practice. The company seeks
purchase of a new device appeals more to the owner over proof of the disposal procedures that the recyclers claim to
modification of the older devices. A number of our adopt and thus cross-checks the data provided by the
respondents pointed out that considering the cost of mod- recyclers. Wipro even has its own recycling facility in the
ification or repair and the uncertainty involved thereafter, it city of Bangalore to promote recycling of obsolete lamps.
is wiser to purchase a new device with a warranty period In its recycling facility, heavy metals present in waste
than modifying or repairing the older electronics. lamps are segregated and reused. Mercury, present in the
On its customers’ front, Wipro has an effective take- lamp, is usually distilled and then used again.
back programme wherein it had collected 241 tons of Wipro has collaborated with Electronic Light Manu-
E-waste in 2010–2011 and 247 tons in 2012–2013 with a facturing Association, Bangalore, for responsible disposal
target of 100% recycling of E-waste through prescribed and recycling of waste lamps. In collaboration with an
methods by 2014–2015. Subsequently, the total volume of Australian NGO, InfoActiv, Wipro assisted in creating a
E-waste collected and recycled through authorized vendors common platform for responsible E-waste management in
in 2014–2015 was a significant 317 tons.4 This E-waste the Electronic City Industrial area in Bangalore. This area
also included some non-Wipro products sold as a part of hosts the majority of IT companies in the city and thus
integrated IT services projects. The gradually increasing produces considerable volume of E-waste. InfoActiv is
volume of E-waste collected by Wipro is a positive con- considered a major organization with key focuses on
tribution towards India’s sustainable E-waste management E-waste. The platform provided by the Wipro-InfoActiv
initiatives. All the E-waste collected by this IT giant is collaboration aids in streamlining the processes for E-waste
recycled by authorized recyclers. Wipro engages closely management from the bulk consumers. Wipro is currently
with government on E-waste policy advocacy, both working on an E-waste programme for the Electronics City
through industry networks and direct contacts. For Industrial Township Authority (ELCITA) cluster. Further
instance, Wipro was a convener of the working group of Wipro continues to be a part of the subcommittee on
the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Environment ‘Waste’ in the CII National Environment Committee.
committee on E-waste whose goal was to bring producers, Unlike Wipro, a talk with an official of a major global
customers, recyclers and government together to a common electronics giant (name withheld to secure the identity of
platform in order to discuss improvements in the E-waste the interviewee) provided a different picture. For instance,
(Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. a major concern for the electronics company is the disposal
It has been observed that at institutional levels of IT and of mobile phones meant for ‘trial’ purposes. Average 4–5
electronics sector, there are provisions to address the trials per month are carried out in different facilities of the
E-waste generated by their own facilities. For instance, company which involve the use of a large amount of trial
Wipro’s waste management strategies are centred on either mobile phones. In order to avoid duplication by the com-
(1) recycling the waste for further use or (2) arranging for petitors and other market-related concerns, these trial
safe disposal.5 Wipro pursues rigorous waste management phones are disposed off and subsequently destroyed in bulk
processes by segregating waste into various categories such once testing and experimentation are completed. As per the
as inorganic, organic, hazardous, biomedical, E-waste and information provided, the mobile phones (and cameras) are
packaging in order to operationalize its waste management just taken to landfill sites and crashed with the help of
strategies. These diverse categories of waste are subse- crashing machines or vehicles. This activity is carried out
quently either recycled internally in its in-house facilities in direct supervision of the concerned company’s autho-
or outsourced through vendors. Wipro provides the rized persons in order to avoid any manipulation or loop-
holes. In most of the cases, these are high-definition phones
4
eventually attracting high prices in the market. The person
Wipro Sustainability Report, 2014–2015 available at http://wipro
interviewed revealed that he had around 70–80 trial mobile
sustainabilityreport.com/14-15/Sustainability-Report-with-special-14-15.
pdf. phones under his control alone. Considering the size of the
5
Wipro Annual Report, 2015–2016 available at http://www.wipro. company and the number of people engaged in testing
com/microsite/annualreport/2015-16/natural-capital.html. activities, it could be postulated that huge quantities of

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How well are we managing E-waste in India: evidences from the city of Bangalore

waste phones are produced in different facilities of the that they follow a strict buy-back policy. With their dealer
company in different Indian cities. However, mobile Wipro, they have an agreement which says that Wipro
phones are not the only equipment that undergoes such a should replace their older computers, while the bank pur-
procedure. It is applied to many other EEEs before even- chases new computers from the company. However,
tually finding its way to the market. computer peripherals such as printers do not come under
On a positive note, both Wipro and the electronic this buy-back policy. Therefore, the bank has to discard the
company considered provide their employees the facility to printers through scrap dealers at certain price. IIM-B
drop off their E-waste in specified bins situated inside the declares that it obtains certificates from the recyclers
company’s premises. However, a discussion with a number regarding eco-friendly disposal of the E-waste produced in
of employees shows that they do not have much idea their campus.
regarding the whereabouts of the obsolete EEEs once they On a positive note, IIM-B has taken a number of com-
are discarded in those bins. mendable initiatives towards managing their E-waste. For
instance, a start-up named ‘Binbag’ was incubated at NS
5.2 Current disposal practices and policies Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL)
at the banking and educational sector at IIM, Bangalore, in 2014. The motto of Binbag is ‘Waste
is a resource—only when treated the right way; treated
Regarding the E-waste management practices in the wrongly it is an environmental burden’. Under the lead-
banking sector, popular public sector banks in Bangalore, ership of founder Mr. Achitra Borgohain, the start-up
such as the Canara Bank, stated that the maximum life of currently deals with all kinds of E-waste together with
computers in their various branches is 5 years. A respon- paper and plastic waste. The business model of Binbag is
dent at the State Bank of Mysore revealed that the dumping based on three pillars—awareness, access and assets (in the
tendency is more in the public sector banks as compared to form of physical infrastructure or recycling facilities). The
their private sector counterparts because of the popular company essentially works with an aim to fill up the gap
negligence among the citizens towards public resources in between the NGOs and recyclers. During our conversation
the country. Consequently, minimal efforts are being with Mr. Borgohain, we were informed that Binbag has
undertaken to repair the faulty parts of the EEEs and the aided in recycling of approximately 12 tonnes of E-waste
out-of-use EEEs almost immediately find their way to the and has provided its service to 4000 customers in the city
store house situated at the bank’s premise. This store house of Bangalore as of June 2016. He further stated that some
acts as a large base of obsolete computers waiting the customers have even provided 10–12 kg of waste per
disposal procedure such as passing of tenders and auctions. capita. Recently, the company has shifted its focus to ‘bulk
However, a premier educational institute in the country, consumers’ of EEEs and stopped picking up products from
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), individual consumers. The start-up has already been
affirmed that they always try their best to repair their faulty attracting major global attention and Mr. Borgohain shared
electronics in order to maximize the lifespan. This kind of with us the experience of the company being covered in
behaviour by a bulk consumer could be considered as a national and international media such as BBC News,6 The
positive state of affair in the current E-waste management Hindu7 and Business Insider. Further, he has been invited
regime in the country. Nevertheless, it has been observed as a speaker in several global platforms including United
that electronics such as mobile phones and computers are Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
discarded while still very much in their useful life. This Pacific (UNESCAP) in June 2016.
signifies a gradually declining lifespan of EEEs at each of Many branches of several public and private sector
the sectors considered. Once discarded, all these EEEs banks complained about obsolete computers and periph-
contribute to the E-waste stream of the country. erals lying unattended for several years awaiting tender
It has been observed that ‘auction’ is the most preferred calls. Usually, an annual maintenance contract (AMC) is
measure to get rid of the obsolete electronics in both the maintained with the dealer who looks after the computers
banking sector and educational institutes. For instance, during and after the warranty period. However, the period
there is no significant difference between E-waste disposal for which these EEEs are maintained after the warranty
practices among public, private and corporate banks and all period is gradually decreasing because of preferences to
abide by the rules of auction to manage their E-waste. purchase new EEEs instead of repairing or modifying the
While passing the tenders, only E-waste recyclers autho- old ones. Unlike Wipro and IIM-B, most of the banks
rized by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board are
called for bidding. Karnataka Bank was the only bank 6
See: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32339196.
which showed genuine interest in providing relevant 7
See: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/startup-offers-
information on their E-waste disposal practices and said gifts-in-exchange-for-etrash/article6473587.ece.

123
 A. Borthakur, M. Govind

considered for our study purpose were observed to be country. Awaiting tender calls, large volumes of E-waste
ignorant about the disposal procedure followed by the are lying redundant in several banks. The attempts to repair
recycling agencies. Here, an ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ old EEEs are almost absent because today, consumers
kind of an attitude was seemed to be largely prevalent. believe that it is wiser to purchase a new device with a
warranty period rather than repairing or modifying older
EEEs. This leads to rapid obsolescence of EEEs while still
6 Conclusion in their useful lives.
The global electronics major considered for our study
During the initial years of economic liberalization and IT purpose reflects the issues concerning ‘trial’ mobile phones
revolution in India, E-waste registered a significant growth. and other EEEs which are destroyed in bulks after testing.
It is particularly true for the last one decade. Today, Such disposal practices call for thoughtful and innovative
E-waste management is a challenging task especially in initiatives for sustainable E-waste management. On a
major Indian cities. As a rapidly emerging city and India’s positive note, leading IT companies in India like Wipro
largest IT hub, Bangalore is no exception. Bangalore pro- takes up some commendable initiatives towards responsi-
duces considerable amount of E-waste from the IT and ble disposal of their E-waste. The company keeps tracks of
electronics companies, banking sector and educational their obsolete EEEs not only during the disposal proce-
institutes present in the city. Thus, the city figures promi- dures within the company, but also after their E-waste
nently in domestic generation of E-waste through its bulk reaches the end of the recyclers by seeking proof of the
E-waste producers. Moreover, with a large literate popu- disposal procedures that the recyclers have claimed to
lation of around 88%, the penetration of EEEs in Bangalore adopt. Similarly, IIT-B mentioned that they always try to
households could expected to be higher than that of many maximize the life of their EEEs. Therefore, instead of
other Indian cities. Thus, the city is an E-waste hub of throwing their non-functional EEEs right away, the pre-
India, ranked third among the E-waste generating cities in ferred practice is to get them repaired or modified to the
the country as per government report. extent possible. Nevertheless, the lifespan of different
In the city of Bangalore, we find that the bulk consumers EEEs varies from sector to sector. On a positive note, IIT-B
like IT and electronic companies, banks and academic has incubated a start-up for initiating responsible E-waste
institutes adopt two different approaches to comply with management practices in the city and the effort, till date,
the new EPR guidelines as per the E-waste (Management) has been a success with huge volume of E-waste collected
Rules, 2016. These are: (1) IT companies like Wipro and national/international recognition received.
adopts a ‘take-back system’ where it is responsible for Nonetheless, a lack of transparency was observed in all
taking back the products originally produced in its various the sectors towards providing relevant information on their
facilities from consumers; (2) most of the banks and edu- E-waste management practices. Due to unavailability of
cational institutes take ‘auction’ as the measure by calling adequate information from a number of IT and electronics
tenders from authorized E-waste recyclers with one bank company, banks and educational institutes, it is very dif-
embracing an ‘E-waste exchange system’, or complying ficult to estimate the exact amount of E-waste generated
through producer responsibility organizations (PROs) and available for recycling. We argue that if such ambi-
towards responsible E-waste management in the city. guity persists across these bulk producers of E-waste, it is
Nevertheless, auction is still practiced by a number of IT rather intricate to formulate effective E-waste management
companies through state and central pollution control strategies and policy initiatives for the city. A transparent
board’s authorized recyclers. system across diverse sectors with adequate infrastructural
Nonetheless, E-waste management initiatives in the city provisions and administrative control is one of the key
are still inadequate and require major infrastructural and measures to address Bangalore’s E-waste apprehensions.
administrative considerations. For instance, most of the
banks included in our study provided a disappointing pic- Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, and Indian Council for Social Science
ture towards their E-waste management systems. Either Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, for the financial support provided.
they are reluctant to provide any relevant information or
mentioned ‘auction’ as the only key measure that they
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