A director from the ministry of environment and forests today said that the government needs to pitch in money to improve the collection system for e-waste in the country. Speaking at the National Forum on Electronic Waste organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi, Saroj said, “Focus now has to be on collection of e-waste and the government could think of getting into the collection system. She said that the government needs concrete proposals to proceed with this.

Talking about the Draft E-Waste (Management & Handling) Rule, 2010 she said that the producers and dealers have lot of responsibility as far as e-waste is concerned. Saroj said that dealers will have to be registered with their State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and not adhering to rules will result in them getting blacklisted or unregistered. “Companies should give their products only to registered dealers,” she added. 

Vinnie Mehta, the executive director of Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) said that the informal sector will keep contributing to e-waste collection even once the draft rules are formalised. “They are doing a great job in collection and dismantling of e-waste,” he said. Mehta said that the informal sector also needs to be adaptive to new technologies.

There is a need to introduce more technology in management and handling of e-waste, said Satish Sinha of Toxics Link. “Systems should be online, accountable and transparent,” he added.

Sinha also said that regulation should have a review process. He said that mechanisms to keep check after regulation is formalised should also be established.  

“Apart from introducing producers’ responsibility, importers also need to be handled separately as they can get away easily,” Alok Bhardwaj of Cannon Private India Ltd. said. He also said that industry should establish common e-waste collection centres.

Bhardwaj said that the implementation of these rules should be done in phases starting with the most toxic cities as it would be difficult to implement it country-wide.

Shashi Bhushan Pandit, who was representing an association of informal recyclers, Harit Recyclers’ Association said that there was a need to involve the informal sector at the policy level. “We don’t have any competition with the formal sector and we can work jointly,” he said. Pandit added that the formal sector needed to promote, train and develop the skills of the informal sector so that the two could work together.