Barriers Affecting Formal Recycling of E-Waste in Indian Context

The electric and electronic industry has experienced tremendous expansion in recent years, which has resulted in a high rate of obsolescence and a drop in the End of Life (EOL) or End of Use (EOU) of the product. E-waste is the word used to describe these unwanted electrical and electronic devices. The management of the e-waste produced in developing nations, like India, currently faces a number of challenges and the only workable solution is to limit waste production and engage in recycling. In order to achieve recycling, it is necessary to identify the barriers affecting the formal recycling for effective e-waste management. The aim of the article is to identify the barriers with previous literature and expert opinion, then analyses of barriers have been done by using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique. Eleven barriers have been identified and developed contextual relationship between them. The result shows that lack of incentives, lack of customer awareness toward recycling, and lack of government policies are the key barriers affecting formal recycling of e-waste in India.