Circular economy transition and the Indian E-waste Market

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A recent report estimated that globally over five billion mobile phones will have been thrown away by the end of 2022, which, if stacked on top of each other, would reach into space (WEEE 2022). However, the real obstacle for responsible e-waste management is not the projected threat of magnitude but the fact that discarded electronics exist in a dispersed and piecemeal form. E-waste often enters global circuits of value recovery that escape regulations, fragmenting volumes and becoming sources of toxic pollution harming human health and ecosystems (BAN 2002; Forti et al. 2020). Yet as discarded electronics are not only toxic but also a rich depository of copper, gold, silver, platinum, and other metals, e-waste needs to be gathered in larger quantities to realise its potential as a mine (Knapp 2016). My ethnographic research and my writings to date integrate the socio-economic effects of making e-waste circular and the challenges to reconfiguring e-waste as a regulated, clean resource in India. The novelty of my research lies in examining ethnographically, through a one-year fieldwork, the challenges of holding polluters responsible by implementing legal frameworks (Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR). I take the case of EPR to ask the following questions. How to transfer the responsibility of pollution and waste to producers? Who should fund the setting up and running of costly logistical operations and infrastructures, which are indispensable for managing postconsumption e-waste? What are the contradictions of conceiving of such operations as money-making enterprises, conceived as opportunities rather than simply liabilities? In my PhD I followed the work of a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO), which I call Sahih Kaam (Hindi for "right work"). My interest was in understanding the contradictions at the heart of creating environmentally sustainable, responsible circular economy solutions to e-waste recycling. I followed the PRO's struggles to carve out a for profit business within the legislative framework that aims to hold producers responsible. They proved to be a curious ethnographic subject because they were intent not only on creating processes to implement the new law but also to initiate sectoral change in the way e-waste is recycled in India. I traced how Sahih Kaam buys up aggregated waste from scrap dealers using their aggregating capacities. However, the company's quest for viable, standardised secondary resources sourced from responsibly circulated e-waste is not only supported, but also undermined and challenged by already existing valuation practices in the informal sector. At the heart of the projects detailed in this application is the question: What does it mean to do right by things, people, and the ecology, and what are the contradictions lurking behind the promise of doing good by all through market incentives? The deepening environmental and climate crisis, and the steady rolling out of policies that are intended to solve it, requires studies that can shed light on how these play out on the ground. Such research could not only contribute to better policies but also reveal the social context of and the challenges to implementation. The introduction of the globally accepted policy of EPR (in e-waste and in plastics), which actions the "polluter pays principle," provides a particularly fertile case study to understand the challenges to a green transition. If awarded, I will use the fellowship to establish a track record through publications, extend professional networks by participating in conferences, widen non-academic impact through meetings with stakeholders, and apply for further research funding with a new project proposal.