Legislating e-waste management: progress from various countries

Deepali Sinha-Khetriwal, Rolf Widmer, Mathias Schluep, Martin Eugster,

Xuejun Wang,Ray Lombard, Lene Ecroignard

Abstract

Electrical and electronic equipment pervades modern lifestyles and its usage is growing rapidly around the world. Quick obsolescence and newer functionalities are resulting in huge quantities of these products become waste. This fast growing waste stream has been subject to regulations based on the concept of extended producer responsibility in several countries, mainly in Europe. This paper looks at the progress of legislating this particular waste stream with special emphasis on the three countries, namely China, India and South Africa, within the framework of the Swiss global e-waste programme, after looking briefly at the status of transposing the WEEE Directive (waste electrical and electronic equipment) in Europe.

Legislation in Europe

While the Basel Convention’s focus is the control and monitoring of the flows of e-waste as one type of hazardous waste, several countries, mostly in Europe, have specific legislation for the collection and disposal of e-waste. In 1991 the European Union designated e-waste a priority waste stream and began the process of drafting legislation for better e-waste management. However, it was only in August 2004 that the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive14 came into force. The legal basis for the WEEE Directive is article 175 of the treaty establishing the European Community (EC Treaty) which is concerned with measures for the protection of the environment. Cooper15 writes that the legislation represents a highly significant advance in environmental policy, provided there is effective implementation. It is noteworthy because waste-related environmental costs would be internalized into the price of electrical and electronic products.

A sister directive with the WEEE is the RoHS Directive16 which aims at reducing the environmental impact of EEE, by forbidding certain quantities of specified hazardous material in certain products. While the WEEE Directive targets the end-of-pipe the RoHS Directive clearly targets the beginningof- pipe of the EEE life cycle.

Status of e-waste legislation in China

China has emerged as not only the world’s manufacturer of electrical and electronic products, but also the hub for the end-of-life disposal of these products. Following investigations by NGOs, there is greater awareness on the need for national legislation to improve the e-waste management practices currently employed. China is a signatory to both the Basel Convention as well as the Basel Ban Amendment, and has officially banned the import of e-waste. However, as yet there is no comprehensive e-waste legislation in China, though stipulations

on e-waste management can be found in national legislations, such as the Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law, and the Cleaner Production Promotion Law. These interrelated laws define the basic waste management principles for municipal and industrial solid wastes and formulate the concepts of pollution reduction and circular economy. Both laws remain quite general and no specific stipulations on the implementation of an ewaste management system are in place yet.

Imports of e-waste are banned by the Notification on the Import of the Seventh Category of Waste issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) since 2000. In 2003, SEPA issued the Notice on Strengthening the Environmental Management of e-waste with the goal to reduce the overall volume of e-waste, to increase the reutilization rate and to reduce negative environmental impacts. Since then, various national regulations, policies and standards related to e-waste management are under drafting. The Ordinance on the Management of Waste Household Electrical and Electronic Products was drafted in 2004 by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and submitted for approval to the State Council in early 2005. The goal of the ordinance is to define roles of different actors in the recycling system, to regulate the financing of the system, to encourage the establishment of e-waste recycling enterprises and to implement the concept of EPR. The ordinance would come into effect only after the ongoing consultations with the affected actors is completed. The Measures for the Administration of Prevention and Treatment of Pollution by Electronic Information Products was issued in early 2006 by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), NDRC and five other ministries and is expected to be enacted in March 2007. The goal of this regulation is to control the flow of e-waste and reduce its pollution. It covers all electronic information products in the Chinese market, including imported products. Key stipulations are: (1) environmentally friendly production methods shall be applied in the design and production of electronic information products; (2)the toxic and hazardous materials content and relevant reuse/recycle information shall be labelled on electronic information products entering the market; (3) for those products listed in the Pollution Control List of Key Electronic Information Products, the usage of six kinds of toxic and hazardous materials33 shall be prohibited or restricted. SEPA is also drafting the Waste Home Electronic Appliance and Electrical Pollution Prevention and Control Technical Policy and the China Electronics Engineering and Design Institute (CEEDI) is drafting on behalf of SEPA the Technical Standards for the Treatment of e-Waste34. In early 2006 the Environmental Protection and Resource Conservation Committee (EPRCC) of the National People’s Congress (NPC) began drafting a national e-waste law. The drafting process is supported by the Swiss Programme “Knowledge Partnerships in e-Waste Recycling”. This law will regulate the behavior of producers and consumers, as well as the administrators on e-waste production, collection, recycle and disposal.

Status of e-waste legislation in India

Toxics Link, in association with the Basel Action Network, published the landmark report in February 2003, on the transboundary movement of e-waste from the developed countries to India and the hazardous practices associated with recycling ewaste35, especially highlighting the need for legislation to ban the import of e-waste as well as ensure environmentally sound disposal of the domestically

generated e-waste. Even though India is a signatory of the Basel Convention, there is no specific legislation regulating the import/ export or the collection and treatment of e-waste in India as yet (in 2006). There are however several existing environmental legislations which are of importance and useful in the context of e-waste.

Status of e-waste legislation in South Africa

There is no specific legislation that deals with ewaste in South Africa. However, various legislations can be read to impact on e-waste. A sustainable approach to waste management in general, echoed in both the National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) of South Africa and the Polokwane Declaration43, moves towards reducing

the waste stream.

The NWMS was initiated in 1997 by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), with financial support from the Danish Co-operation for Environment and Development (DANCED) organisation. The overall objective of the NWMS is to reduce the generation and environmental impact of all forms of waste and to ensure that the health of the people and the quality of environmental resources are no longer significantly affected. In line with the Integrated Pollution

and Waste Management (IP&WM) approach, the NWMS addresses all elements in the waste management hierarchy. E-Waste is now considered as a priority waste stream by DEAT as part of the NWMS.