Foreword
Foreword
Author(s): Rajendra K Pachauri
Source: E-waste: Implications, regulations, and management in India and current global best practices Authored By Rakesh Johri
Abstract:
TERI carried out a pioneering project in 1995 to highlight India’s record of management of the environment and natural resources in the first 50 years of the country’s Independence. The first phase of this project was completed in 1997 and a detailed report was released on the eve of Independence Day that year, which marked 50 years of India’s existence as an independent nation. The results were startling, projecting a business-as-usual pattern of growth over the next 50 years, which provided an outcome that was truly shocking. Since then, the structure of Indian industry has been altered substantially with a larger share now being contributed by the electronics industry, which has mushroomed in several centres and clusters across the country. Consequently, the problem of e-waste has acquired very large proportions, the management of which presents a major challenge to policy-makers and society at large. However, this challenge throws up some generic issues, which require careful reflection on the manner in which we are dealing with the problems related to the environment. First, what we need is a judicious mix of market-based solutions and regulations that would ensure that we use the best means that are at our command for attaining desired objectives of environmental quality. At the same time, the problem of e-waste is unique in the sense that it represents problems emanating from an activity that is quite new and where systems and practices would lend themselves to new ways by which we do business and at the same time protect the environment. If we allow the problem of e-waste to grow unmitigated then to bring about change at a later stage would become much more difficult and far more costly, because attitudes, values, and infrastructure would be rigidly fixed without the possibility of any change.
Publisher/Organisation: TERI Press
Publication Date: 4 November 2010