Article Preview
TopIntroduction
Continuous innovation, advancement in technology, abundance production, easy availability, and affordability in the field of Electrical & Electronic Equipments (EEEs) has spurred demand for these goods. A short lifespan of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) resulted in a high obsolescence rate, increasing the volume of discarded Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment (WEEE), also known as e-waste (Baldé et al., 2017). “Electronic waste (e-waste) refers to end-of-life electronics, include all components, subassemblies, and consumables, such as IT and communications equipment, small, large, and temperature exchange equipment, lamps, and screens that are discarded by users with no more intention to re-use” (Wang et al., 2017). According to the “E-Waste Management rule, 2016 published by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India e-waste includes electrical and electronic equipment, whole or in part discarded as waste by the consumer or bulk consumer as well as rejects from manufacturing, refurbishment, and repair processes” (Krishnamoorthy, Vijayageetha, & Sakthivel, 2018). As per the Annexure I of the European Union WEEE directives 2012/19/EU, E-waste is categorized into ten categories.
Table 1. EU directive for categorization of e-waste (Akram, 2019)
| S. No | CATEGORIES |
| 1 | Large household appliances |
| 2 | Small household appliances |
| 3 | Information technology and telecommunications Equipment |
| 4 | Consumer equipment |
| 5 | Lighting equipment |
| 6 | Electric and electronic tools, but excluding large scale stationary industrial tools |
| 7 | Toys, leisure, and sports equipment |
| 8 | Medical devices |
| 9 | Monitoring and control instruments |
| 10 | Automatic dispenses” |
As per “Global E-waste Monitor report (2017), worldwide 44.7 million tonnes (MT) of e-waste produced in 2016 and expected to go upto 52.2 million tonnes (MT) by the year 2021, out of which India alone produced 2 million tonnes (MT) the size of which is equivalent to 4500 Eiffel towers. Every single inhabitant produces almost 6.1 kg of e-waste in 2016, which might increase to 6.8 kg by 2021” (Balde et al., 2015). “The fastest generation and accumulation of e-waste have become a global, national, sub-national, and regional level problem because of its adverse impact on the environment and health” (Gangwar et al., 2019).