The Importance Of Enhancing Digitization In Circular Economy

Environmentalists, PROs, and government organisations around the world are talking about EPR in waste management. How little are you familiar with EPR? EPR, or extended producer responsibility in India, defines the lawful obligations of entrepreneurs and manufacturers to responsibly undertake the treatment and disposal of products. The producer-focused mechanism coalesces the environmental costs associated with a product, encouraging manufacturers to use recyclable raw materials, collect post-consumers products that reach their end of life, and treat and dispose of the waste rightfully in an environmentally-friendly fashion. If you are not already aware, waste, especially electronic waste, crops up as a significant concern of present times. While much has been said and done in the areas of plastic waste management, the focus on e-waste seems bleak and dim.

Let’s look at a few stats before we read further.

• In 2022, the world generated over 53 million tonnes of electronic scrap

• The predicted count of e-waste by 2030 is expected to be 74.7 million tonnes

• The current status of e-waste creation in India is 3.4 million tonnes. As per the reports by the ‘Central Pollution Control Board,’ the number is expected to rise by 3% every year

• India is one of the leading contributors of electronic waste in the world.

• The country bags a 3rd position after China and The United States.

The stats mentioned above are enough to clarify that electronic waste is an alarming concern that demands immediate address. Irrespective of the increasing environmental hazards and health consequences, the designated dump zones for e-waste keep stretching. While there are many recyclers and PROs stepping up in action, it is surprising to witness that almost 95% of the e-waste is illegally handled by the untrained and informal sector. This certainly puts circular economy sustainability in question.

Why is digitisation of data important in circular economy?

How to ensure fair trade practises for a circular economy model?

It is no surprise that organisations and businesses are constantly competing to provide high standards of services in the fields of recycling and waste management. And why not? EPR services make it mandatory for businesses to handle the ins and outs of a product’s lifecycle. However, what’s missing is visibility. For example, there’s hardly any understanding of how the waste is being processed or where the waste materials are being stored. Besides, a circular economy model speaks of repurposing waste materials for longer use. Do you have any clue about the kind of collection channels being set up? In short, hundreds and thousands of data sets are generated at every step. It is certainly true that without proper data, it is impossible to track the amount of salvaged resources from treated waste. However, what’s worth considering is whether the governments and authorities have the necessary manpower to examine and analyse this data.

Decision-making and circular economy rely strongly on the created data sets. A lack of transparency and understanding of data affects the real-time implementation of circular economy. Despite data being at the core of monitoring waste recycling and recovery rates, the opacity of data restricts authorities on more than one front.

Hence, the time is undeniably right to make digitisation of data essential. An accurate virtual monitoring system, driven by data, is beneficial for innumerable reasons. For instance:

• Data help authorities understand how recyclers and organisations are treating waste, as per the norms

• The inventory of refurbished materials post the treatment of waste

• Where the discarded electronics are being stored, and more.

The need for an online tool to harmonise the calculation of recycled and treated waste is critical. It ensures fluid communication between authorized recyclers and the governments about the nitty-gritty of waste management.

It is not unknown that the informal sector is greatly involved in the treatment and management of e-waste. However, do we truly have estimates of how much material is recovered out of the trash or what goes back into the landfills? Not really! Every year there are declarations about how much waste India has successfully collected or recycled. The question that pops up here is – how legitimate is the data? Moreover, where’s the data about the extracted secondary materials? In short, the harmony in data is truly missing. Introducing a tech-powered tool or a dashboard ensures that the created data is visible in the public domain, easily comparable, and ensures fair play.

Global corporations or manufacturers in the country are bound via EPR services to utilise recyclable contents. Digitisation of data will surely ensure that companies are either abiding by the regulations or are non-compliant. To sum up, data without digitisation is a slow rise to a more sustainable circular economy.

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