Source Name: Yes Bank

Yes Bank and TERI BCSD Release a Thought Leadership Report on E-Waste Management in India – The Corporate Imperative

Oct 07, 2014   15:48 PM 
New Delhi, Delhi, India

YES BANK, India’s 4th largest private sector bank, along with TERI BCSD today launched a knowledge report on electronic waste management in India, titled “E-waste Management in India – The Corporate Imperative”, at the ‘Business as a Driver for Sustainable Development’ session of the Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development (LSSD). The report was launched by Dr R K Pachauri, Director-General, TERI along with Ms Namita Vikas, Senior President & Chief Sustainability Officer, YES BANK. This report brings out a multi-stakeholder perspective on the challenges, gaps and key drivers to achieve sustainable management of electronic waste in India.

 

Commending the joint efforts of TERI-BCSD and YES BANK, Dr R. K. Pachauri, Director-General, TERI said, “A larger share of economic activity in the future will be in the hands of business organizations. Hence, decision making in the corporate sector will have a major impact in the overall development that India as a whole pursues. Consequently,  if  the  nation  is  to move in the direction  of  sustainable  development,  business would have to be a major driver  for  bringing  this change. The Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development 2014   would focus on how business should exercise its responsibility in this regard.

 

Mr. Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, YES BANK and President, ASSOCHAM said, “Indian industry is mandated to look at E-waste disposal in a responsible manner given the new E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. The ‘E-waste Management in India - The Corporate Imperative’ report reiterates YES BANK’s commitment to provide high quality research insights for key environmental issues that Indian industry faces today. A recent ASSOCHAM report cited that less than 2% of India’s total E-waste gets recycled. There is an urgent need for all stakeholders in the E-waste value chain, to particularly engage with the entire E-waste eco-system to ensure proper end of life disposal of electrical and electronic equipments. The report aims to assess the situation of E-waste rules compliance by companies today and factors which are hindering the scientific disposal of the same. It is essential that the Government strictly enforces the E-waste rules and develop a mechanism to strengthen the process of penalizing defaulters.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Namita Vikas, Senior President & Chief Sustainability Officer, YES BANK said “Given the rising threats and risks that E-waste brings to human life the report highlights the perceived impediments towards compliance of these rules which were mandated in 2012. It is intended for all stakeholders within the E-waste value chain and portrays a holistic picture, followed by practical recommendations. The significant findings of the report suggest the urgent need of capacity building of state pollution control boards to monitor and evaluate compliance by companies, the need of PPP models for the state and electrical and electronics manufacturers to holistically manage e-waste, treating this as a business opportunity in the times to come.

 

The report reveals that lack of awareness figures among stakeholders on the mandatory compliance requirement of the rules and the negative effects of improper handling and disposal of e-waste are alarming. The study recommends mass public awareness campaigns by bulk consumers and electronic producers to sensitize people, as well as introduction of new business models to treat e-waste recycling as a profitable business opportunity, rather than a single stakeholders’ obligation.

 

About YES BANK LIMITED:

YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector Bank, is the outcome of the professional & entrepreneurial commitment of its Founder Rana Kapoor and his top management team, to establish a high quality, customer centric, service driven, private Indian Bank catering to the Future Businesses of India.

 

YES BANK has adopted international best practices, the highest standards of service quality and operational excellence, and offers comprehensive banking and financial solutions to all its valued customers. YES BANK has a knowledge driven approach to banking, and a superior customer experience for its retail, corporate and emerging corporate banking clients. YES BANK is steadily evolving as the Professionals’ Bank of India with the vision of “Building the Best Quality Bank of the World in India”.

 

About TERI BCSD:

TERI Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) is a strong industry body with membership of more than 100 leading corporates from diverse sectors across the country. The council engages with international bodies, government ministries/departments and other industry associations to address sustainability issues throughout the supply chains. TERI-BCSD evangelizes the Indian corporate Diaspora to mainstream sustainable development in their business planning and practice and engages with the Chief Sustainability Officers of leading corporates to collectively undertake business supported and justified sustainability projects which foster a sustainable economy.

 

Key Takeaways from the report:

Electronics industry is considered as the world’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry. There has been a rapid growth combined with rapid product obsolescence resulting in discarded electronics. This in turn has emerged to be the fastest category of waste material in the industrial and corporate world. Electronic waste, “E-waste” or “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” (“WEEE”) consists of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliances. India is experiencing rapidly increasing rates of consumption of electrical and electronic products. This, accompanied with high obsolescence rates, has led to higher rates of E waste generation. E-waste handling is a problem of increasing proportion, especially when crude methods are adopted for recovery of useful components from it. In India the current estimate projects 2.7 million tons of E-waste generation annually.

 

The E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 are based on EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) concept. Since the Rules came into force from May 2012, E-waste management infrastructure has slowly been on the rise in India. As of February 2014 there were a total of 98 number of registered recyclers and dismantlers having recycling/ dismantling capacity of 2, 93, 572 MTA for environmentally sound management of E-waste.

 

The objective of this knowledge report is to bring out insights that trigger sustainable management of E-waste. It is intended for all stakeholders within the E-waste value chain and portrays a holistic picture, followed by practical recommendations. The report includes detailed survey of top, senior and middle management professionals present across the

E-waste value chain in India. The report explores a shared responsibility model in which all three primary stakeholders - the producer, the generator (households and bulk consumers), and the local regulatory body (municipality) - share the E-waste management (primarily transportation and recycling) costs. The proposed institutional framework will be centred on the concept of a PRO (Producer Responsibility Organization) - an entity which is intended to have the physical responsibility for the E-waste recycling mechanism by providing forward and backward linkages with all other stakeholders involved in the process.

 

In order to finance the operation of the collection and recycling system by the PROs, it is suggested that the producers (manufacturers and importers) bear the part of the financial responsibility by contributing to a Producer Responsibility Fund that would finance the costs of the establishing and operating PROs. The fund would primarily cover the cost of hardware and operation and maintenance. It is expected that like other urban waste management projects, the required land to PROs would be provided by local government under long lease agreement. The Central Government also needs to relax the duty on the imported equipment to make the project financially attractive to the project developers.

 

The report identifies key aspects that would enable scientific and profitable E-waste management in India today. Efficient PPP models for waste management where public and private entities collaborate to manage E-waste profitably need to be created and replicated across India. In recent times, international funding agencies and venture capitalists have provided seed money to E-waste recycling companies in India, thus opening new opportunities in the sector. In addition, stricter enforcement of the E-waste Rules 2011 and steep penalties for non-compliance are the need of the hour. Capacities of state pollution control boards need to be augmented to create a robust database of compliant companies, and a targeted approach towards corrective actions needs to be established. Finally, enhanced public awareness must be on the policy makers’ agenda to ensure that consumers make informed purchasing decisions.

 

 For further information, please contact:

 YES BANK Limited

 Abhishek Issar

 Ph.: +91 9711205142         

 Email: abhishek.issar@yesbank.in           

 Adfactors PR

 Rama Krishna Prayag

 Ph: + 91 9811671163

 ramakrishna.prayag@adfactorspr.com