E-waste Management

AMSTRAD BELIEVES IN CONSERVING THE ENVIRONMENT AND SAVING THE PLANET FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

E-waste Guideline from Amstrad

What is E-Waste or Electronic Waste?

Electronic waste @ e-waste is a term which refers to unusable, discarded and old, electric & electronic appliances such as refrigerators, LED/LCD/CTV, microwave oven, washing machines, home air conditioner, etc. As per E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2016 e-waste ‘e-waste’ means electrical and electronic equipment, whole or in part discarded as waste by the consumer or bulk consumer as well as rejects from manufacturing, refurbishment and repair processes.

E-waste has been categorized into three main categories, i.e., Consumer Electronics/Home appliances and IT & Telecom. Refrigerators, washing machines, home air conditioner LED/LCD, etc. represents Consumer Electronics /home appliances.  On the other hand, computers, desktop, laptop mobile phones, etc. and its component represents Telecom & IT.

E-waste contains many valuable, recoverable materials such as aluminium, copper, gold, silver, plastics, and ferrous metals. In order to conserve natural resources and the energy needed to produce new electronic equipment from virgin resources, electronic equipment can be refurbished, reused, and recycled instead of being land filled.

E-waste also contains toxic and hazardous materials including mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium, chromium, and chemical flame retardants, which have the potential to leach into our soil and water.

E-waste broadly covers waste from all electronic and electrical appliances and contains different hazardous materials which are harmful to human health and the environment if not disposed of carefully. While some naturally occurring substances are harmless in nature, their use in the manufacture of electronic equipment often results in compounds which are hazardous for example chromium becomes chromium VI. Thus, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India had listed issued directions for the reduction in the use of hazardous substances in the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment and their components or consumables or parts or spares.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India in furtherance of its effort to reduce the hazard occurring from rapid growth in the Consumer durable and IT-Telecom market had made rules called as E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2016 under Environment Protection Act.

HAZARDS OF IMPROPER HANDLING AND/OR IMPROPER RECYCLING OF ELECTRONIC WASTE

Electronic equipment contains many hazardous metallic contaminants such as lead, cadmium, and beryllium and brominated flame-retardants. An improper handling and/or improper recycling of the Electronic Waste results in these hazardous metals/substances getting released into our eco and biological system, thereby leading to various health hazards. The Hazardous contents in the electronic equipment include:

Health:- The informal method of recycling extended health hazards. For example, primary and secondary exposure to toxic metals, such as lead, results generally from open-air burning used to retrieve valuable components such as gold. Incineration from burning e-waste creates fine particulate matter, which is linked to pulmonary and cardiovascular disease.

Environment:- The informal method of recycling extended environment hazards too. For example, when different e-waste is burnt to extract metals from it, toxic chemicals are released into the air, damaging the atmosphere.

• Lead     •   Brominated Flame Retardants   •   Chromium   •   Mercury •     Beryllium   •   Cadmium   •   Barium   •   Carbon Black   •   Phosphor

E-Waste Toxic Components and their Damage to Human Health

Without safe recycling, most of these toxic components will end up in landfill – poisoning the soil and water

The Dos of Electronic Waste Recycling:

1. Give the discarded Electronic Equipments only at the authorized collection centers so that the same can be properly recycled
2. Drop the discarded Electronic Equipments only in the bins meant for the Electronic Waste
3. Consult the authorized service center as to whether the Electronic Equipment can be repaired or not, before discarding the same
4. Tell your neighbours and other persons about the hazards of improper disposal or handling or improper recycling of the Electronic Waste
5. If the unwanted Electronic Equipment still work or can be repaired then consider donating them

The Don’ts of Electronic Waste Recycling:

1. Don’t dump the discarded Electronic Equipment’s in open or in any Land Fill Site as the same will result in contaminating the Soil and the groundwater

2.  Don’t dispose of the discarded Electronic Equipment’s in household bins or Municipal Bins
3. Don’t sell or give your discarded Electronic Equipment’s to any Trash Dealer or Kabadiwala
4. Recycling Electronic equipment helps to save natural finite resources and also reduces the environmental and health risks associated with improper handling/disposing of the Electronic Waste
5. To minimize our impact on the earth and to protect the environment for future generations return your discarded Electronic Equipment’s here for safe recycling:

Why proper handling and management of e-waste is required?

According to MoEF, the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) have valuable materials and hazardous/toxics substances in their components. The electronic products and electrical equipment after their useful life may not cause any harm if it is stored safely in households/stores. However, if the E-waste is opened-up and attempts are made for the retrieval of useful components or material in an unscientific manner or if the material is disposed of in open, then it may cause health risks and damage to the environment. E-waste can be considered as a resource that contains useful material of economic benefit for recovery of plastics, iron, glass, aluminium, copper and precious metals such as silver, gold, platinum, and palladium and lead, cadmium, mercury, etc. However, at the same time presence of heavy metals (As, Cd, Hg, Pb, etc.) and other toxic substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), etched chemicals, etc. may pose risk to health and environment during handling and recovery operations. E-waste is a problem of increasing proportions especially when crude methods are adopted for the recovery of useful components from E-waste.

Thus, there is a need to encourage the recycling of all useful and valuable material from e-waste so as to conserve the ever-depleting natural resources. The electronic component is increasingly made from recycled materials, for example for making new LCDs, more than 50% of indium is sourced by recycling used LCDs. The E-waste thus presents a scenario of urban mining for recovery of ferrous/non-ferrous/ rare earth metal and precious metal in addition to plastics and glass. However, the presence of hazardous and toxic substances in the component of e-waste necessitates environmentally sound management of e-waste including collection and recycling/treatment in an environmentally sound manner.

Management and Effect on sustainable future:-

Sustainable development as defined by Brundtland Commission is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The e-waste since a long time had been seen as an easy and cheapest source of metals. However, due to the lack of proper consideration for such a source of metals as well as proper methods of recycling in India, we sent our e-waste to the improper channel and thereby participated in degrading the environment. Moreover, through this improper method of extraction of metals we till date had wasted at least forty percent of the precious metals and simultaneously caused damage to our environment. If we opt the proper way to extract metals through proper channels of recycling then we can achieve Ninety percent of the extraction rate of our metals as well as a better way to save our environment. However, if today while selling off our material to the improper channel we will not think about our sustainable future then it is for sure that the coming generations will be facing crisis of the metals.

Customer/End-User Responsibility

1. Consumers shall ensure that their end of life product/e-waste is channelized through collection center or dealer of the authorized producer or dismantler or recycler or through the designated take-back service provider of the producer to authorized dismantler or recycler;
2. Consumers shall ensure that such end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment are not admixed with e-waste containing radioactive material;

Bulk Consumer Responsibility:-

1. Bulk consumers of electrical and electronic equipment shall ensure that e-waste generated by them is channelized through collection center or dealer of authorized producer or dismantler or recycler or through the designated take-back service provider of the producer to authorized dismantler or recycler;
2. Bulk consumers of electrical and electronic equipment shall ensure that such end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment are not admixed with e-waste containing radioactive material as covered under the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (33 of 1962) and rules made thereunder;
3. Bulk consumers of electrical and electronic equipment listed in Schedule I shall maintain records of e-waste generated by them in Form-2 and make such records available for scrutiny by the concerned State Pollution Control Board;
4. Bulk consumers of electrical and electronic equipment listed in Schedule I shall file annual returns in Form-3, to the concerned State Pollution Control Board on or before the 30th day of June following the financial year to which that return relates;
5. In case of the bulk consumer with multiple offices in a State, one annual return combining information from all the offices shall be filed to the concerned State Pollution Control Board on or before the 30th day of June following the financial year to which that return relates.

Amstrad’s Responsibility

Amstrad being a responsible and trustworthy brand is taking all the necessary and expected steps for the betterment of the environment as well as living beings. Amstrad had joined hands with a number of recyclers to ensure environment-friendly recycling of the electronic items, such as refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, etc. that are either achieved their end of life or are old, unusable, etc.

Apart from above, Amstrad had taken the following steps for proper recycling of e-waste of its customers:-

1. M/s Reteck Envirotech Pvt. Ltd. has been included as a PRO & Dismantler and M/s Rapidue Technology Pvt. Ltd. as a Recycler for managing Extended Producer Responsibility of M/s OVOT Pvt. Ltd & M/s Next Generation Manufacturers Pvt. Ltd.
2. Collection and Channelization of e-waste:- Amstrad had setup toll free Number where the customers can call and registered their products for recycling. As soon as e-waste pick up is registered by the customer a representative will come to collect the product.
3. Dismantling & Recycling of e-waste: Amstrad has appointed a number of recyclers who are the leading name in the recycling industry to responsibly and in an environment-friendly manner recycle the e-waste generated in India.
4. Awareness for e-waste: Amstrad is actively sharing Infographics & engagement posts on its social platforms to create more awareness about e-waste and its hazards. In addition Amstrad is also conducting awareness programs in Schools, RWA’s, Office Clusters etc to create awareness.

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