Dutch firm asked to own up for e-waste in Mumbai

Mumbai: Greenpeace activists on Tuesday confronted a Dutch multinational with electronic waste (e-waste) in a bid to highlight what they called its double standards on the take-back of the brand's end-of-life products in the country.

Carrying out simultaneous protests in India, Russia, Denmark and the Netherlands, Greenpeace activists converged on the head office of Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips in Mumbai demanding that it introduce uniform voluntary take-back systems.

"Philips does not have the practice of voluntary take-back of its e-waste in countries like India where there is no mandatory law to this effect," said Abhishek Pratap, Toxics Campaigner, Greenpeace India.

Assurance sought

"Our environmental activists collected a small amount of e-waste, like old portable televisions, from Mumbai and Bangalore and took it to the Philips office in Chakala where the staff refused to accept it," Pratap told Gulf News.

"They turned hostile and refused to acknowledge it was their e-waste. Then, a company administrator told us he would forward the matter to Philips's country head, Murli Shivraman, in Delhi, who in turn would contact Greenpeace."

Greenpeace activists, however, are insisting on an "assurance" by Sunday.

Activists said, Philips, being a prominent market player, could not ignore the environmental and health consequences of its end-of-life products in countries where it operated in the absence of relevant laws.

In a recent opinion poll, 94 per cent of the public in the Netherlands backed Greenpeace's demand that electronics producers own up for their e-waste.

At present, most of it ends up in household waste or is exported, often illegally, for dumping or rudimentary recovery in the developing world.

The environmental group says that Philips, as a first step, should voluntarily set up a credible take-back system in all countries where its products are sold, particularly in Russia, India, Argentina and Thailand where national e-waste legislations are only being discussed now.

Philips, Greenpeace says, has contended that recycling is a shared responsibility for the customer, government and the producer and has been demanding that consumers pay for recycling.

"Companies such as Sony, Samsung and Nokia have put in place voluntary take-back schemes even in countries where they are not required to do so by law," one Greenpeace international campaigner pointed out.