Evolving an E-Waste Tracking System for India to Mitigate the Problems of E-Waste Management

Abstract

E-waste generally consist of electronic devices and household appliances which have either outlived their life or are no longer of any use. In the past two to three decades, the global market of industrial and electronic equipment has shown exponential growth. Asia has become the engine of world e-waste generation. The e-waste product cycle is not monitored at present leading to scattered non-structured management which poses a threat to economic development. Therefore, it is imperative that an approach for tracking e-waste from manufacturer/producers to the consumers is developed. The concept of tracking e-waste will not only help in keeping a check on the disposal of e-waste but will also help formulating sustainable linkages among the stakeholders and result in safe disposal of e-waste. The tracking of e-waste from the time of purchase until it is taken for recycling would give a clear perspective of supply chain strategies for managing e-waste. The tracking method would allow electronic manufacturers to follow the physical and economical fate of a particular product through appropriate monitoring mechanism. The approach behind this research is to develop a tracking system for waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE or e-waste), so that throughout their life cycle, e-waste can be tracked, monitored and recycled/ disposed effectively to mitigate the adverse impacts on the health and environment globally.

Conceptualisation of sustainable consumer behaviour: converging the theory of planned behaviour and consumption cycle

“…India is the third highest e-waste generator in the world, and its take back mechanism is very poor as it takes back only 0.92% of total e-waste generated (Forti et al , 2020). The ease of access and usage of electronic products in India has increased multifold in recent times due to globalised economy and rapid innovations in the technologies (Tiwari et al , 2018). This has resulted in the generation of huge amounts of e-waste.…”

Geographical and temporal analysis of bio-medical waste management in India

“…Reducing the bio-medical waste quantity will also help to improve its management. The general methods employed for bio-medical waste disposal are landfill, incineration, autoclaving, recycling, and reuse (Tiwari & Kadu, 2013 ). Incineration is the most used method for the treatment and disposal of bio-medical waste in India (Kharat & Sharma, 2016 ).…”