Background

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with its burgeoning population of more than one billion. In the recent years the growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is unprecedented in India. Figure 1-1 gives a glimpse of this growth between 2004 and 2008 with the total number of  personal computers (PC) sold in half yearly trend. This growth is not only reflecting the improved GDP of India but also the  financial capacity of many of its citizens to improve their quality of life with the usage of electrical and electronic equipment. For instance, figure 1-2 shows the consumption of desktop computers by businesses and households. From the figure it is evident that the household consumers start to have significant amount of share in total number of desktop computers sold.

 With the advent of this higher rate of consumption by businesses and individuals, and shortening product life due to rapid advancement of technology, the electronic waste stream has emerged as the fastest growing waste stream. Electronic waste, which is also called waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), means electrical and electronic equipment  and its components, subassemblies and consumables which are part of the product at the time of discarding, that become waste (Council Directive 2002/ 96/ EC). For example: discarded television, mobile phones, computer and related equipment etc all comes under WEEE or e-waste. See Appendix A for the complete list of e-waste as per the WEEE Directive.

According to Widmer et al. (2005), though waste generation is estimated to be less than 1kg e-waste per capita, due to the high population of the country, the absolute quantities of e-waste generated is very huge in India and China. From a recent study of MAITGTZ (2007), it is estimated that the total amount of e-waste generated in India is 382,979 metric tons. This  amount only accounts  for computers, TV and mobile phones. Considering other  discarded electrical and  electronic equipment under  e-waste, this number is very conservative. E-waste quantity is expected to be more than 800,000 tons by 2012 (MOEF guidelines, 2008). It should be noted that this number is estimated from a different method than MAIT-GTZ study mentioned above. In India, more than 60% of its e-waste is generated from 65 cities. The top 10 cities that generate e-waste are Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Surat and

Nagpur (Chatterjee, 2007). Besides being generated in the country, e-waste from developed countries lands in India

as second hand goods and mixed metal scrap for recycling (Toxics Link, 2004). The main reasons for imports to India are its cheap labour cost and less stringent environmental laws (Ragupathy, 2006). Imports have been regarded as one of the major sources of PC scrap in India (IRGSSA, 2004). Though India is a signatory to Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal under which e-waste is also a component, it fails to stop the illegal imports to India. The main important reasons are listed below (IRGSSA, 2004).

1. Flexible rules have been formulated by Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) that allows customs authorities to take on the spot decisions. Custom authorities often fine the importer if he does not possess proper license to import but leave the possession of waste under his control thus the e-waste enters to India.

2. There is no separate export-import (Exim) code for new computers and second hand and junk computers. Importers often mix old computers with new shipments.

3. Imports that come under charity and donations are often classified as capital goods by the port authority due to the flexibility in rules. 

This gives free access and even tax benefits to the importer.In India, e-waste is mainly handled by people in informal sector. Informal sector entities are those which are not registered with government and have small operations that might not comply with environmental standards depending upon the type of operation such as collection and recovery of metals. There are a few authorized recyclers who conduct dismantling, recovery and recycling processes with environmental consciousness. There were four authorized recyclers until 2007 but a few new players have come in to the market in 2008 and the number is expected to increase in the future. It is interesting to see the amount of e-waste being handled by formal and informal sector in India. It is estimated that the total share of informal sector recycling of e-waste in India is around 95% (MAIT-GTZ, 2007). The formal sector is operating under capacity.