Smartphones To Be Major Contributor To E-Waste, Says Croma CEO Mitra

Not many people exchange their old phones while buying a new one, said Avijit Mitra, CEO & executive director of Croma, one of India’s largest electronic goods retailers. At Croma, only 5% of the e-waste collected is mobiles or smartphones.

Refusing to part with the old phone not only robs consumers of a good deal on the new one, the aging device is likely to end up in India’s fastest-growing trash stream, e-waste.

India generates about two million tonnes of e-waste annually, around 5% of which is recycled. The poor record in ewaste collection coupled with 15% annual growth in consumer electronics sales has the industry worried and thinking. “Smartphones will be a major contributor to e-waste in future, as this is the category where upgrade cycles are much shorter than other categories,” said Mitra.

Computer equipment currently account for around 70% of e-waste in India, followed by phones (12%), electrical equipment (8%) and medical equipment (7%) with the remaining being generated from households, according to an Assocham-KPMG study, titled ‘Electronic Waste Management in India’.

“This increase in quantity of e-waste is because of heightened consumption and the brisk pace at which consumers are upgrading to new gadgets,” said Mitra.

To tackle the menace of ewaste, retailers along with manufacturers need to make its disposal convenient for consumers, said Mitra. Croma, for instance, created a dedicated e-waste zone in 140 stores across 35 cities. The Tata Group-owned chain soon followed it up with a call-centre number, which a customer can use to arrange for doorstep pick-up of e-waste. The retailer’s website, too, is equipped to accept requests for ewaste pick-up.

“Companies have to develop an ecosystem to ensure ewaste disposal. Most retailers do not have an inward or reverse logistic channel and that makes this a key challenge,” said Mitra.

But companies have also realised that customers have an inbuilt inertia when it comes to parting with their old belongings. So, giving them a justifiable reason or an incentive helps.

“When we at Croma started off with this initiative, we promised to plant a tree for each customer who got rid of his/her e-waste. Till now, we have planted over one lakh trees,” said Mitra.

E-waste from the organised sector, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. A report revealed that India, Pakistan, Malaysia and China are the main destinations for largescale shipments of hazardous waste in Asia.

“India’s huge unorganised sector isn’t really governed by any norms or rules thus imposing any mandates is a challenging task. The problem isn’t just restricted to collection, it is also related to dismantling, if not done correctly and in a controlled environment it can be extremely hazardous,” said Mitra.―Times of India