Extended Producer Responsibility on E-waste Management in India: Challenges and Prospects

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an important strategy globally to streamline electronics waste (e-waste) for effective managing and disposing the end of life products. E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016 has provisioned the responsibility of every stakeholder in the e-waste value chain for effective EPR. The producers are, however, not adequately aligned to embrace EPR effectively. Implementation of EPR in India faces serious challenges including effective coordination between the producers and Central Pollution Control Boards (CPCB) for authorization and clearances, awareness generation and physical and financial responsibility of the producers. E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016 has introduced collection targets, however, possible solutions need to be brought out to integrate the robust informal sector currently engaged in handling e-waste, which poses serious challenges in effective implementation of EPR in India. Attempt has been made in this article to find out a solution of effective implementation of the EPR in India. The article has discussed various best practices around the world to understand the relevance to the issues concerning India and suggested some effective models for the country.