E-waste in India (Management, Challenges & Opportunities)(Volume I)

E-waste i.e., electronic waste, arising from the end-of-life electronic products, is one of the rapidly growing waste streams in the world today. E-waste produced annually is worth over $62.5 billion more than the GDP of most countries. According to the UN's Global E-waste Monitor 2020, the annual global production of E-waste is approximately 53.6 million metric tons (Mt) in 2019 which will exceed to 74 Mt till 2030. While, at present only 9.3 Mt (17.4%) of the total generated E-waste was collected and recycled globally. It means that many precious metals (gold, platinum, silver, copper, etc.) and other high-value recoverable critical materials (cobalt, palladium, indium, germanium, etc.) worth US $57 billion, dumped or burned in the E-waste every year. Besides in India, the rapid growing population and increased disposal of electrical and electronic products have instigated serious concerns to the environment and human health. India generated 3rd highest volume of E-waste (3.2 Mt) in 2019, behind China & USA. However, India's per capita (2.4 kg) E-waste generation is 1/3rd the global average (7.3 kg per capita) while it is 3-times the global average in the USA. Moreover, India a country with low recycling capacity (8 lakh tones annually) is an indication of big loss in terms of its inability to mine precious and critical materials from the E-waste. In addition, non-collected E-waste is also a serious health and environmental hazard as it contains several toxic substances. With the purpose of discretely collect, effectually treat, and efficiently dispose-of the E-waste, and divert it from conventional landfills and open burning, it is requisite to integrate the informal sector with formal sector. Hence, a proper E-waste management is a great challenge to all the developing countries including India. It is becoming gigantic public health and environmental issue and is exponentially increasing by the day.