Despite the huge quantity of electronic waste generated in India, the collection and recycling rates in the country are remarkably low (0.93% as of 2016). The informal sector has a crucial role in managing India’s e-waste. However, informal collectors direct the majority of the collected e-waste to informal recyclers leading to poorer resource recovery. Integrating informal e-waste collectors into the formal system could optimize e-waste value chains. The study aims to understand the challenges encountered by informal e-waste collectors when attempting to integrate into India’s formal e-waste management system.
Insights were captured through a series of in-depth interviews with 23 informal e-waste collectors across high-density areas in Delhi such as Karol Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, etc. The qualitative data were thematically analyzed to identify critical barriers, which were then examined for their interconnections through a causal framework developed using System Dynamics Modeling.
The analysis of collected data revealed a range of codes that were organized under distinct subthemes, eventually culminating in three broad systemic barriers: Barriers related to government (such as lack of awareness about the existence of any policies and inconsistencies in the regulations), barriers faced by informal collectors in dealing with formal recyclers (such as lack of awareness on registered recyclers and competitive pricing challenges) and barriers intrinsic to informal collectors (such as limited operational capacity, primary focus on monetary gains and lack of awareness regarding the environmental consequences).
The study provides a novel perspective by focusing on the integration of informal e-waste collectors into the formal system through a causal framework, addressing a gap in the existing e-waste management literature in the Indian context.
