e-Waste Management Practices in Developing Countries: A SWOT Analysis Page Page 1
e-Waste Management Practices in Developing Countries: A SWOT Analysis
Dr. Rajeev Srivastava1
ABSTRACT
The amount of e-waste is growing day by day in India as well as in many developing countries. Informal practices followed by collectors, dismantlers and recyclers of e-waste are also growing, which are very harmful for the environment and human health. The aim of this paper is to investigate the e-Waste situation in various developing countries. This study presents an analysis of the implementation of the e-waste management, presenting Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) as well as challenges and opportunities encountered in each phase. Thus the paper aims to develop sustainable e-waste management system in developing countries.
KeywordsDismantling, Refurbishing, e-Waste Management, SWOT, Developing Countries
I. INTRODUCTION
Old appliances which have reached their end-of-life may not be very useful to their owners; however they still need to be disposed properly. In the past few years tremendous growth has been seen in the field of information technology. This has increased the consumption of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) both from the institutional users and households. The main reasons for the growing volume of e-waste are higher rate of consumption, shortened product lives, lack of collection, recycling facilities and rapid advancement of technology.
A study conducted by MAITGTZ (2009) found that India generated 382,979 metric tons of e-Waste which includes only computers, TV and mobile phones. It was also found that about 60% of e-Waste is generated from 65 cities. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Surat and Nagpur are the top ten e-waste generated cities (Chatterjee, 2007).
Waste is regarded as a resource which should and
could be reclaimed (Lindhqvist, 2000). Though disparate in their composition, electronic and electrical products contain valuable metals such as gold and silver as well as hundreds of other materials.
Apart from recycling e-Waste, reducing e-Waste should also be a priority because the manufacture of these products is extremely resource intensive. A study showed that the manufacturer of one desktop computer required 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals and at least 1,500 liters of water (Williams et al., 2003).
e-Waste contains many hazardous substances such as antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury, selenium, beryllium, and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). As a result, there are risks to human health associated with placing such products into landfills or incinerators where these hazardous elements can enter the air and water streams.
These substances do not only affect the environment but also the health of people if not properly treated at the end of life (Eol). In India e-Waste is mainly handled by people in the informal sector. Informal sector uses crude techniques such as burning of cables and acid bath to recover precious metals. Effluents from these techniques pollute environment and cause harm to the health of the people.
Upon contact with these toxic elements in humans can have health problems such as breathing difficulties, respiratory irritation, coughing, choking, pneumonitis, tremors, Neuropsychiatry problems, convulsions, comas and even death (Halluite et al., 2005). In a study conducted by Steiner (2004) in Delhi it was assessed that open burning of PWB and cables release dioxins and furans and chronic exposure to them could lead to a higher-than-average risk of cancer in people in the vicinity of fire sites.
Initially, there was no separate law on e-Waste management in India. e-Waste is interpreted under Hazardous Waste rules and the present recycling facilities are licensed under these rules. On 11th May, 1.Associate Prof. and Head, School of Computer
Applications, IMS Unison University, Dehradun Email:[email protected]
9927959665
e-Waste Management Practices in Developing Countries: A SWOT Analysis Page Page 2 2011 a document with Guidelines for
Environmentally Sound Management of e-Waste was released by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
While India is a signatory of the Basel Convention it has not ratified the Ban Amendment which prohibits the shipment of e-Waste among other hazardous substances from developed to developing countries.
However a Supreme Court directive of 1997 prohibits the import of hazardous waste into India (Agarwal et al., 2003). However, there is ambiguity in the policy because the Customs Tariff Act does not provide any provisions for old computers, whether working or waste. Furthermore, second hand imports of computer equipment are allowed in certain cases, such as charitable donations to educational institutes, but after getting required clearances from the government. It is felt that under the guise of such imports, scrapped computers are imported for recycling.
The one reason for the growing volume of e-waste in India is the import of e-Waste from developed countries as second hand goods and the main reason for the import is low labor cost and less stringent environmental laws (Toxics Link, 2004 and Ragupathy, 2006). In India e-Waste is mainly handled by the informal sector, which is not registered with the government. The practices followed by these informal sectors are not safe for the environment and health of the human beings. In India still there are a few authorized recycling companies of e-waste, who conduct environmentally safe dismantling, recovery and recycling.
II.COMPONENTS OF E-WASTE
MANAGEMENT
On the basis of the literature review six many components are identified which will influence the effective e-Waste management in developing countries. These components are: „Collection and Recycling‟, „Rules and Regulations‟, „Government Support‟, „Awareness‟, „Initiatives‟ and
„Responsibility‟. The details of these components are:
A.Collection and Recycling
Collection and recycling means collecting back, used electronics devices for the purpose of recycling, reuse and safe disposal of e-Waste. Take back system is an
important factor for e-Waste management (Jinglei et al., 2009). Time delay (Ali and Chan, 2008), lack of collection points (Shih, 2001) and cost of collection (Shanshan and Kejing, 2008) are the main drivers for collection of e-Waste. Complexity of the take - back system is also one of important factor (Yang and Xu, 2008).
A paper discussed that real quantity of discarded e- Waste in urban China is not recycled or disposed by formal recyclers (Liu et al., 2007). Low recycling rate (Gullett, 1992) is main drivers of formal recycling.
The most challenge faced by formal e-Waste recycling sectors is that they cannot get sufficient e- Waste to maintain normal operations (Jinglei et al., 2009). Due to high costs of recycling and lack of consumer incentives, only a very small fraction (Yoon, 2006) reached to formal recycling. A Trans - boundary system for the 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) management of electronic waste (Suzuki et al., 2008) is an important driver for reuse. e-Waste management can be improved by donating e-Waste to charities or schools, remanufacturing and by use of upgradeable electronic devices (Hanks et al., 2008).
B. Rules and Regulations
Rules and regulations refer to the type of legal system required for effective e-Waste management. Adequate rules and regulations is one of the important factors in the management of e-Waste. By making final treatment and landfill last stage of the disposal process (Shih, 2001) e-Waste management can be improved. In the absence of legislation, e-Waste recycling systems have been limited to private recycling of high-value waste with only limited consumer participation (Susan et al., 2008). Trans- boundary movements of huge amount of e-Waste from developed counties to developing countries (Wen et al., 2006), lack of legislation around e-Waste (Roa, 2007), dumping e-Waste into landfills, terrible working conditions for workers (Hanks et al., 2008), rigorous controls to prevent the illegal import and export of e-Waste (Sinha-Khetriwal et al., 2005) and lack of relevant laws to adjust or control the selling behaviors of waste electric and electronic equipments (Wen et al., 2006) are some important drivers in effective e-Waste management.
C.Government Support
Government supports refer to the support required from government at various levels for effective e-
e-Waste Management Practices in Developing Countries: A SWOT Analysis Page Page 3 Waste management. It is suggested that recycling
facilities to manage e-Waste should be supported by the government (Gupta, 2012). The informal sector as a crucial and emerging issue which is needed to be well understood and better governed (Tienhua and Yenming, 2008) by the government. Inadequate technical infrastructure for handling and managing the waste, movement of e-Waste dismantling from the formal to the informal sectors (Jain and Sareen, 2006) are important drivers in effective e-Waste management. e-Waste can be a potential product for secondary markets (Kahhat et al., 2008), so government needs to develop second hand markets for electronics devices. The system creates incentives for collectors and recyclers to over-report the amount of collecting e-Waste in order to gain extra subsidies from the fund (Kojima et al., 2006). Under the support of government e-Waste from the government must be compulsively sent to formal Recyclers (Liu et al., 2007).
D. Awareness
Making end consumer of electronic devices aware about various activities and services of e-Waste. Lack of relevant information as support to the disassembly (Yang and Xu, 2008), Information about recycling services (Huang and Truong, 2008), consumer awareness regarding environmental issues (Sinha- Khetriwal et al., 2005) and lack of programs that will enable consumers to reduce reuse and recycle greater volumes of this growing category of waste (Cairns, 2005) are some important drivers for effective e-Waste management.
E.Initiatives
Initiatives refer to programs or schemes required to promote effective collection, recycling and disposal of e-Waste. It is important for the government and manufacturers of electronics devices to take various types of initiatives to promote e-Waste management.
Several initiatives have also been launched by electronic product manufacturers or government to collect WEEE (Jinglei et al., 2009), begun efforts to collect and recycle the e-Waste from residential and business sectors (Kahhat et al., 2008), enterprises and
individual consumers choose to send owned e-Waste to formal recyclers (Liu et al., 2007). Promoting renewal and reuse (Hanks et al., 2008) are some
important drivers for effective e-Waste management.
Legislation and initiatives intended to help manage these growing quantities of e-Waste (Rolf et al., 2005).
F. Responsibility
Responsibility means all stakeholders of e-Waste should understand and play their role in a responsible manner so that e-Waste can be managed effectively. It is important to clear definition of roles and demarcation of responsibilities (Sinha-Khetriwal et al., 2005). Consumers may bring their e-Waste to designated drop-off collection points (Susan et al., 2008). Manufacturer to reduce toxicity in material used for making electronics equipments (Thiel and Neeli, 2006). By making manufacturers entirely responsible for the collection and disposal e-Waste management can be improved, however other participants in the chain of electronic products such as consumers and government could also take partial responsibility for e-Waste management. The manufacturer may provide a financial incentive for consumers to turn in their equipment (Kahhat et al., 2008). Retailers and repair shops have an obligation to accept discarded appliances and hand them over to formal recyclers (Kojima et al., 2006). An ambiguous responsibility for e-Waste recycling among consumers, retailers, and manufacturers (jungle et al., 2009) is also an important factor.
III.SWOT ANALYSISOFE-WASTE MANAGEMENT
A SWOT analysis was conducted to understand the current e-waste management practices in developing countries. During analysis Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are identified, so that future direction for managing e-waste in an effective manner can be done. The Table 1 highlights a SWOT Analysis of the e-waste management indeveloping countries:
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The facts available from literature and reports related to e-waste management, the status of e-waste on the base recycling, government support,
awareness, inititiative& responsibility factors.
During SWOT analysis it was found that tranboundary movement, responsibility of recycling, informal recycling, lack of awareness, low consumer
e-Waste Management Practices in Developing Countries: A SWOT Analysis Page Page 4 participation, space for safe disposal, inadequate
linkages to procure e-waste, high recycling cost, low cost of secondary material after recycling, and weaken improvement of performance are threats for recycling industry. While environmentally sound recycling, fast change in technology, low price of electronic equipments, and employment are
opportunity for recycling industry. It was also found that among all threats and opportunities informal recycling and inadequate linkages to procure e-waste are two major threats for recycling industry. While fast changes in technology and low price of electronic equipments are two major opportunities for e-waste management.
TABLE I
A SWOT ANALYSIS OF E-WASTE MANAGEMENT
\
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
Collection centeres are already offering basic e-waste collection services
Employment opportunities can be created in e-waste recycling
Waste-collection improves overall-situation
sell e-waste for recycling
Clean up the public environment
e-waste collection offers direct lessons on hazardous impact of dumped waste
Clean-up activities strengthen awareness on health and environment
Lack of access to technologies
Lack of transportation facilities
Lack of knowledge to properly handle e-waste
Lack of designated proper dumpsites
Lack of tools and equipment Lack of external funding
Lack of knowledge to recycle e-waste
Lack of space for storing and sorting
Hazard to health and environment
Unprotected contact with garbage and hazardous items
Uncontrolled dumping
Pollution of rivers and environment
Burning of all kinds of e- waste
Creation and increase of jobs and income through
formalization of informal employment
Fast change in technology
Improvement of working- conditions
Low price of electronic equipments
Increase of income through collection of larger amounts of recyclable and sellable e- waste
Possibility for municipality to improve living
Reduction of dumped e-waste Integration into process chains Improvement of health situation
Possibility for municipality to alleviate poverty and to improve environmental and health situation
Clean-up of hazardous dumpsites
Lack of income
Economic constraints weaken improvement of performance
Bad management e-
wastes scarce resources
Lack of economic sustainability
Bad management leads to ineffective work and threatens the existence of the groups
Neglect of community activities might widen the gaps between formal and informal sector
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