Circular economy transition and the Indian E-waste Market

循环经济转型和印度电子废物市场

• 批准号: ES/Y008243/1
• 负责人: Julia Perczel
• 金额: $ 16.07万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FY008243%2F1
• 关键词: Circular; economy; transition; Indian; waste

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.

最近的一份报告估计，到2022年底，全球将有超过50亿部手机被丢弃，如果堆叠在一起，这些手机将进入太空(WEEE 2022)。然而，负责任的电子废物管理的真正障碍不是预计的大规模威胁，而是废弃电子产品以分散和零散的形式存在的事实。电子垃圾经常进入全球价值回收循环，逃避监管，分散数量，成为危害人类健康和生态系统的有毒污染源(BAND 2002；Forti等人。2020)。然而，由于废弃的电子产品不仅有毒，而且是铜、金、银、铂和其他金属的丰富储藏库，因此需要收集更多的电子垃圾，以实现其作为矿山的潜力(Knapp 2016)。到目前为止，我的人种学研究和我的著作整合了使电子垃圾循环的社会经济影响，以及在印度将电子垃圾重新配置为受监管的清洁资源的挑战。我的研究的新颖性在于，通过为期一年的实地考察，对通过实施法律框架(生产者延伸责任或EPR)来追究污染者责任的挑战进行了人种学检查。我以EPR为例，提出以下问题。如何将污染和废物的责任转嫁到生产者身上？谁应该为建立和运营昂贵的后勤业务和基础设施提供资金，这些业务和基础设施对于管理消费后的电子废物是必不可少的？把赚钱的企业想象成机会而不是单纯的负债，有什么矛盾吗？在我的博士学位上，我研究了一个生产者责任组织(PRO)的工作，我称之为Sahih Kaam(印地语中“正确工作”的意思)。我感兴趣的是理解为电子垃圾回收创造环境可持续、负责任的循环经济解决方案的核心矛盾。我关注了专业人士在旨在追究生产商责任的立法框架内开拓营利性业务的努力。它们被证明是一个令人好奇的人种学主题，因为它们不仅致力于创建实施新法律的程序，而且还致力于在印度发起电子垃圾回收方式的部门变革。我追踪了Sahih Kaam是如何利用他们的聚集能力从废品商那里购买聚集的废物的。然而，该公司寻求可行、标准化的二次资源，这些资源来自负责任地循环使用的电子垃圾，不仅得到了支持，而且受到非正规部门现有估值做法的破坏和挑战。在这份申请中详述的项目的核心是一个问题：什么是对物、对人、对生态的正确对待，通过市场激励人人向善的承诺背后潜藏着什么矛盾？日益加深的环境和气候危机，以及旨在解决危机的政策的稳步推出，需要进行研究，以揭示这些危机在实地是如何发挥作用的。这类研究不仅有助于制定更好的政策，而且还能揭示执行工作的社会背景和挑战。EPR(在电子垃圾和塑料领域)全球公认的政策的引入，体现了“污染者自付原则”，为理解绿色转型的挑战提供了一个特别丰富的案例研究。如果获得奖学金，我将利用奖学金通过出版物建立跟踪记录，通过参加会议扩大专业网络，通过与利益相关者的会议扩大非学术影响，并通过新的项目提案申请进一步的研究资金。