Development of strategic framework for effective E-waste management in developing countries

The E-waste management has become a global threat all over the world. As estimated the global E-waste management treated under formal route is only 17.4%. The rest 82.6% of E-waste is treated under backyard recycling methods. As very serious health and environmental hazards are associated with the E-wastes, it becomes necessary to manage this particular type of waste through proper channel and adopting the safety measures. Due to poor monitoring system and lack of strict implementations of green laws, the companies responsible for effective E-waste management are lagging behind the benchmark. Therefore the government has to bear the greatest responsibility on policy making and their strict monitoring and implementations. The purpose of this chapter is to develop a strategic and efficient E-waste management framework to handle the collection, transportation, recycling, disposal, and monitoring of discarded electronics products flow in developing nations including India. For the same, strategic framework has been developed for effective collection and recycling of E-waste in context to the developing countries. Namely, four factors have been emphasized which play a crucial role in collection and formal recycling of E-waste. These factors are awareness, regulations, collection, and recycling. The existing policies are also compared and suggested to increase the level of awareness of the end users along with some additions in the legislation. The capacity of E-waste collection has also been increased and focused, as it is a primitive step toward formal recycling of E-waste in India and many other countries. More ways have been suggested to increase the formal collection like attractive exchange offers, pick-up facility from home, etc.