Understanding e-Waste Management in Developing Countries: Building Sustainability in the Indian ICT Sector

Management of e-waste is a growing problem for developing countries; one that may undermine the sustainability of ICT use if not addressed. In this paper, we focus on a somewhat under-emphasised group that contributes significantly to developing country e-waste: local organisational consumers of ICT. Although thought to create the majority of e-waste, the factors shaping the e-waste decisions of this group are not well understood.This paper therefore builds a model of e-waste strategies and e-waste strategy determinants from the environmental management literature. It applies this model to a key e-waste producer – the ICT services sector in India – drawing qualitative fieldwork-based case studies from a mix of very large and small/medium firms.While the former have been proactive in their e-waste strategy, the SMEs are characterised as indifferent to e-waste; a divergence explained by the very different strengths of determining factors to which they are subject. In turn, those factors relate to the size of these ICT consumers and the nature of value chains into which they are placed. Understanding these determinants can help us plan better e-waste interventions; a point illustrated through critique of recently-introduced legislation.