At least 16 out of 50 leading companies (31 multinational and 19 national) do not fulfill their responsibilities under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as per the E-waste Rules of the country. This includes some of the top brands such as Akai, BPl Group, Blackberry and HCl.
The findings have come in a study, “Time to Reboot”, conducted by Toxics link (works on working on E-Waste management ). The E-waste Rules were notified in 2011 and implemented in 2012.
The study elaborates that 16 brands, including some leading mobile phone companies, have not set up any take back system even after two years of the rules coming into effect. “The take back mechanism — which is a system to collect e-waste from the consumers — is blatantly ignored by a number of companies; one third of the brands assessed had no take back mechanism at all, and more than half of them did not provide any information on physical collection points,” the study said.
The brands were rated on basis of five criteria. These include sufficiency of information on website; ease of accessibility of information; take back system; number of collection points; and information on customer care or helpline provided. The study further found that 46 of the 50 brands included in the study had less than 100 collections points across the nation. “This is woefully inadequate for the amount of e-waste generated in India,” said Priti Mahesh, Chief Programme Coordinator, Toxics link.
Not a single brand has made any serious efforts to create awareness among its customers. Websites of many leading brands have very little information on E-waste Rules, especially on the take back systems. Even when the information is available, it is not easily accessible, notes the study.
E-waste contains a variety of toxic chemicals, metals and materials such as mercury, lead and brominated flame retardants, known to cause major health and environmental damage, she added.