The Indian Federation of Reverse Logistic (IFRL) has lamented that the proposed draft E-waste Management Rules of 2022 totally disregard the role and responsibilities of dismantlers or Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs).

“The policy should recognise their position in the Extended Producer Responsibility value chain and not rid them of their livelihoods,” they said at a seminar held here to deliberate on the draft policy.

The body is a federation of companies active in the reverse logistics domain that seek to develop a green supply chain across the country to facilitate collection and channelization of e-waste and contribute towards creating a circular economy.

Stating that they play a pivotal role in developing a green supply chain to enable collection and channelization of electronic scrap from the informal sector and end- consumers for environment friendly disposal, the stakeholders said that PROs perform a very important role in assisting producers engage and carry out several functions, including achieving collection targets; establishing collection mechanism such as door to door collection, implementing buy back/take back, establishing collection centres/points.

Dismantlers on the other hand contribute largely towards sorting, segregating and dismantling scrap – technically acting as pre-processors before scrap E-Waste reaches recyclers for end-to-end recycling and extraction of precious earth metals, said the organization. Further, the IFRL said that the new guidelines seem to consider only the recyclers. “This disregards the efforts and investments by organizations engaged in developing a network of structured and formal collection and dismantling centres.”

“The ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) has been defined in the Draft E-Waste Management Rules 2022 for meeting recycling targets only through registered recyclers.

But there is a need for sustaining the integrated reverse value chain comprising consumers, PROs, collection centres, dismantlers to support the producers, importers, brand owners and recyclers with quality sourcing and better collection mechanism across the country only then there can be better recyclability,” Vijai Singhal, an office bearer of the Federation enlisted the works/jobs that the PROs carry out.

Pointed out Nisha Banth, spokesperson of the Federation, “It clashes with the monopoly laws and also with the right to lawfully earn a living. The draft rules have left us in lurch.”

“The PROs can continue acting as catalysts in the E-Waste value chain and help make the developed collection mechanism far more robust and integrated reverse value chain,

besides supporting the SPCBs and CPCB in E-waste data inventorisation, capacity building exercises aimed at promoting collections from residential colonies, dealers, retailers, bulk consumers, households, office clusters, and informal sector,” Banth added.