Assessing the disposal practices and urban mining potential of e-waste among the ranked engineering institutions in India to achieve sustainable developments

Abstract

Engineering institutions in India contribute significantly to the rapidly growing e-waste. E-waste management within higher education institutions enables to achieve the goal of becoming a sustainable organisation. The objective of this research is to assess the disposal practices, in-use, and hibernating stocks of mobile phones and information technology (IT) equipment among the students of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked engineering institutions in India. An online survey was conducted among the students, and the number of devices (million units) in hibernation and the materials (metric tons) presented in them are estimated. From the results, it is found that nearly 0.37 million devices are in hibernation, of which mobile phones account for 38%. The quantity of common metals, precious metals, and plastics present in the hibernating stocks is estimated to be 385, 3.2, and 203 metric tons, respectively. Suggestions to exploit urban mining in engineering institutions to promote sustainability are also provided.