What is EPR?
EPR is an acronym for Extended Producer Responsibility. The name tells it all. It is a strategy where the manufacturer of the product becomes/ is held responsible for the entire life cycle of the product he/she manufactures, as in, taking back the damaged goods/aftermath products back from the clients, recycle them or take proper steps to eradicate the wastes from it. This environmental protecting strategy was introduced by E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, in the year 2011 for the first time in India.
For the year 2016, out of the total e-waste generated in India, only 20% were documented to be collected properly and recycled, amidst there is no trace of record about the remaining e-waste.
This was an effective way of e-waste management to encourage manufacturers to design eco-friendly products by holding producers responsible for managing their products at the end of life because it changes the product design and marketing.
The amendment to the e-waste policy with the new E-waste management Rules, 2016 set strict targets for the producers to collect and recycle end-of-life products of their goods. This responsibility can be delegated by the company to a third-party too. This policy is all about equipment that is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields to be fully functional, and all forms of e-waste referring to waste electrical and electronic equipment, in one whole piece or part of repairs or rejects, intended to discard, thus it includes all IT and electronic equipment. It aims to reduce the usage of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment by intensifying the threshold of use of such materials, i.e., lead, mercury, and cadmium.
What is the informal recycling sector?
In India, it is responsible for handling over 90% of the e-waste. The name says it all, it is handled by independent players who operate using open scrap yard setups, where they use primitive and crude techniques like acid leaching and open-air burning to process the e-waste. During this process, it releases toxins into the air, soil, and groundwater, resulting in environmental pollution and bio-hazards. The men force consists of manual and unskilled labor.
How are organizations carrying out this process?
Many corporate companies including IT organizations still don't have any methods for eco-friendly disposal of their e-waste in place. Organizations in Producer Responsibility Organizations (PRO) take up half of the responsibility of the producer to physically take back the producer company's product, recycle or process and file compliance for them, which means, the producer has to pay the money for the deal and let the other organizations do the job, to enable the EPR compliance. Attero is currently working with uncountable corporate organizations and several others for recycling e-waste, including companies like Wipro, Samsung, and Voltas. It has established an offline/online collection pathway for e-waste from over 500 cities across 25 states. To make it in reality, every part of the country has been hustling for three years now. There are several companies in making and ready to handle the plastics and e-waste to make them reusable, buyback or recycling of their materials. Sometimes, the informal recycling economy comes out with major challenges due to the glitches in the quality of recycling material and the traceability of buyback. Whilst India generates about 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste per day and contributing only 8 percent of them in solid waste generation, only 60 percent of them is processed, EPR has enabled to manage the other 6000 tonnes using informal recycling into reality to eradicate the misleads and make it purely possible and clean for environmental.
PepsiCo India agreed to work on the PET plastic waste generated in Maharashtra, for a warmup. It has forged a partnership with a PRO called, Gem Enviro to set up an infrastructure for collecting and recycling. The PET bottles would be recycled to manufacture thermal wear such as jeans, furnishing fabrics, and carpets.
EPR is an acronym for Extended Producer Responsibility. The name tells it all. It is a strategy where the manufacturer of the product becomes/ is held responsible for the entire life cycle of the product he/she manufactures, as in, taking back the damaged goods/aftermath products back from the clients, recycle them or take proper steps to eradicate the wastes from it. This environmental protecting strategy was introduced by E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, in the year 2011 for the first time in India.
For the year 2016, out of the total e-waste generated in India, only 20% were documented to be collected properly and recycled, amidst there is no trace of record about the remaining e-waste.
This was an effective way of e-waste management to encourage manufacturers to design eco-friendly products by holding producers responsible for managing their products at the end of life because it changes the product design and marketing.
The amendment to the e-waste policy with the new E-waste management Rules, 2016 set strict targets for the producers to collect and recycle end-of-life products of their goods. This responsibility can be delegated by the company to a third-party too. This policy is all about equipment that is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields to be fully functional, and all forms of e-waste referring to waste electrical and electronic equipment, in one whole piece or part of repairs or rejects, intended to discard, thus it includes all IT and electronic equipment. It aims to reduce the usage of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment by intensifying the threshold of use of such materials, i.e., lead, mercury, and cadmium.
What is the informal recycling sector?
In India, it is responsible for handling over 90% of the e-waste. The name says it all, it is handled by independent players who operate using open scrap yard setups, where they use primitive and crude techniques like acid leaching and open-air burning to process the e-waste. During this process, it releases toxins into the air, soil, and groundwater, resulting in environmental pollution and bio-hazards. The men force consists of manual and unskilled labor.
How are organizations carrying out this process?
Many corporate companies including IT organizations still don't have any methods for eco-friendly disposal of their e-waste in place. Organizations in Producer Responsibility Organizations (PRO) take up half of the responsibility of the producer to physically take back the producer company's product, recycle or process and file compliance for them, which means, the producer has to pay the money for the deal and let the other organizations do the job, to enable the EPR compliance. Attero is currently working with uncountable corporate organizations and several others for recycling e-waste, including companies like Wipro, Samsung, and Voltas. It has established an offline/online collection pathway for e-waste from over 500 cities across 25 states. To make it in reality, every part of the country has been hustling for three years now. There are several companies in making and ready to handle the plastics and e-waste to make them reusable, buyback or recycling of their materials. Sometimes, the informal recycling economy comes out with major challenges due to the glitches in the quality of recycling material and the traceability of buyback. Whilst India generates about 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste per day and contributing only 8 percent of them in solid waste generation, only 60 percent of them is processed, EPR has enabled to manage the other 6000 tonnes using informal recycling into reality to eradicate the misleads and make it purely possible and clean for environmental.
PepsiCo India agreed to work on the PET plastic waste generated in Maharashtra, for a warmup. It has forged a partnership with a PRO called, Gem Enviro to set up an infrastructure for collecting and recycling. The PET bottles would be recycled to manufacture thermal wear such as jeans, furnishing fabrics, and carpets.
Gem Enviro is widely known for its technically advanced process of reverse logistics through automated reverse vending machines. Thus the quality of waste sourced out of this chain is also known to be of high quality. Europe, Sweden are some of the great examples to start this and make it more of a routine part of our country.
