Beyond the frame; a dopting the polluter pays principle to regulate the e- waste in Sri Lanka,nation secured from e -waste

Abstract

Development of technology paves way to a drastic usage of e-waste in day to day lives of the human beings worldwide. Thereby it gradually becomes an issue of growing concern worldwide about how to dispose this e-waste. It is important to pay special attention on this regard since improper ways of disposing e-waste able to cause a drastic impact to the public health and to the environment. In this backdrop Sri Lanka which nourishes from biodiversity treating to the e-waste under the category of solid waste and uses it for landfilling or to incinerate. This improper treatment of e-waste is a huge threat to the countries? biodiversity and to the public health in next decade. Most of the developed countries overcome this issue by establishing recycling plants, thus Sri Lankan economic context is not in a possession to facilitate e-waste recycling plants due to its high amount of constructing and maintaining costs. Pathetically Sri Lankan legal context is still in a primitive stage in this regard. National policy in this regard is still in drafting process and currently addressing this issue based on the Basel Convention. In such a circumstances objective of this research is to evaluate the importance of adopting the polluter pay principle to facilitate the optimal responsibility between the e-waste consumer and the retailer about the usage and disposal of e-waste and put forward recommendations for further development of law in this field in the light of relevant international standards. Research question is, how to apply the polluter pays principle to regulate the e-waste accumulation in Sri Lanka. Research will be qualitative based on the books with critical analysis, journal articles, conventions, statutes, case law and data collected from policy making authority. Underline principle of the polluter pay principle is those who pollutes must bear the cost of it. In this backdrop this paper suggests to regulate the e-waste in the country by adopting the polluter pays principle by imposing liability to the e-consumer. Through that it promotes the reuse of electronic and electrical equipments which come under 3R principle on waste prevention approach. This study concludes an essentiality of a legal framework based on this principle and it highlights how this process minimize the amount of accumulate e-waste directly to the environment, further it will affect positively to create a nation secured from e-waste and ultimately it grants an ecofriendly environment to every Sri Lankan.