Draft Notification on E-Waste (Management) Amendment Rules, 2017
The Environment Ministry has proposed to relax the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) plan by reducing the e-waste collection targets for industries. With 1.7 million tonnes of e-waste generated annually (2014 record), India is the fifth largest generator of e-waste globally with an unorganised market of about 95 per cent dealing with e-waste. As per the current E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, firms concerned are supposed to ensure collection of 30 per cent of generated e-waste during the first two years of the implementation of the rules (2016-17 and 2017-18), and 40 per cent during 2018-19 and 2019-20. The new proposed rules (E-Waste(Management) Amendment Rules, 2017), according to the draft gazette notification, relax the existing norms to make industry liable to collect only 10 per cent of e-waste during 2017-18, 20 per cent during 2018-19, 30 per cent during 2019-20 and 40 per cent during 2020-21 and so on.