India's e-waste problem: does buying refurbished help?
India is one of the world's largest generators of electronic waste, and a large share is still handled by the informal sector, where it's often burned or stripped unsafely.
How refurbished helps
- It delays e-waste: every year a laptop stays in use is a year it isn't waste.
- It reduces demand for new devices and all the manufacturing behind them.
- It keeps devices in formal channels, where they're more likely to be recycled properly at the end.
What else you can do
- Repair before you replace
- Sell or donate working devices
- Recycle through authorised e-waste handlers under India's E-Waste (Management) Rules
