Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022 which shall be in effect from the 1stApril, 2023. The official notification contains chapter-wise rules and regulations, responsibilities, procedures, modes and ways to tackle e-waste management.
Specifically, the rules shall adhere to every manufacturer, producer rebuilder, dismantler and recycler indulged in the manufacture, sale, transfer, purchase, refurbishing, dismantling, recycling and processing of e-waste or electrical and electronic equipment including their components, consumables, parts and spares which make the product operational.
The executing committee shall be liable for all-inclusive implementation, monitoring and supervision of these rules so that decisions are based upon the disputes caused from time to time and shall refer to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The e-waste shall also take a permit for refurbishing and the refurbisher have to get registered on the portal based on the data available and a refurbishing certificate shall be produced in favour of a registered refurbisher in the format.
A section in a document are the guidelines applicable to the solar photo-voltaic modules or panels or cells. The recycling schedules are administered by attributable certificates – which is in consent with the recycling obligations of solar PV manufacturers. The module prices are anticipated to rise to the extent of the cost of recycling and the cost of compliances abiding these obligations.
Every manufacturer and producer of solar photo-voltaic modules or panels or cells shall be obliged. Firstly, ascertain the registration on the portal and also retrieve solar photo-voltaic modules or panels or cells waste generated up to the year 2034-2035 as provided by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Secondly, ascertain that the stockpile of solar photo-voltaic modules or panels or cells shall be placed on portal consent with standard methods and policies provided by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Thirdly, a recycler of solar photo-voltaic modules or panels or cells shall be required for the recovery of material as provided by the Central Pollution Control Board.
These regulations shall not be adhered to waste batteries as covered under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022, and packaging plastics as covered under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. The government has prohibited the utilization of hazardous and toxic substances in manufacturing electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) following deaths due to exposure to radioactive matter. The rules authorize to turn down the use of lead, mercury, and cadmium among others in the manufacturing of electronic equipment that has an injurious impact on human health and the environment.
