MoEF in controversy over recycling licence
The ministry of forests and environment (MoEF) finds itself in the throes of a fresh controversy. The only e-waste company Attero Recycling, to which MoEF has allotted a licence, has been caught reselling the waste rather than re-cycling it.
This startling disclosure was made by undercover researchers from the Centre for Science and Environment who went to Roorkhie where the company is located and bought some “waste products” off them.
Statistics show that 90 per cent of waste is being refurbished while 10 is being recycled with most of the refurbishing being done by the informal sector in Moradabad and Seelampur in Delhi.
India generates about 350,000 tonnes of electronic waste every year and imports another 50,000 tonnes, giving it the dubious distinction of being the waste capital of the world.
The MoEF has framed a draft regulation which will allow only registered big investment companies to recycle e-waste, ignoring the fact that it is the unorganized sector which is recycling more than 90 per cent of this waste.
Organised and formal recyclers have welcomed the new e-waste rules. But Mr Kushal P.S. Yadav, head of CSE’s toxins and solid waste unit, pointed out, “The CSE’s undercover forays into the business dealings of attero recycling have exposed the double-talk — a company favoured by the government is not doing what it claims to specialise in.”
The CSE warns that developed countries are using free trade agreements (FTAs) to export their waste to the developing world.
Japan and the EU, for instance, are currently negotiating with India to dump their waste here which will have serious environmental consequences.
The commerce ministry has not made public details of about 30 such deals it is negotiating in which huge quantities of waste will be dumped into India.
The country possessing the requisite expertise to handle it.
According to the CSE, the cause for concern is the part of the draft text of an FTA between the EU and India, which was leaked. This leaked text coins a new name for waste, it says “non-new goods shall be understood to include notably used and remanufactured goods” and that “non-new goods” would not have any restrictions such as import or export tariffs.
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