In this era of technologically-advanced educated world, products developed considering ecological aspects have more mileage than the regular products. Consumers’ awareness of proper disposal of exhausted products is the need of the hour. The products demanded by the customers could be recalibrated to be used further as homogenous or differentiated products. Meanwhile, the products which cross the bar of recalibration could be disposed by the manufacturer. However, product disposal, is yet to find a prominent ground in India. The culture of corporate organizations trying to bag the sensible customers by providing the right kind of product with a tag line of ‘eco-friendly’, has just kick started. At this juncture one may think, is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a good initiative only in papers?

Shall we surrender to our surroundings or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land and to our water?

– Richard Nixon
(1913-1994), 37th US President,
State of the Union Message, 22 Jan 197

Marketing Begins with Customers and Ends with Customers – Is It So?

We live in the era of technologicallyadvanced educated world. Ignor-ing nature is considered to be a sin; this knowledge on the part of the customers makes the manufactures or the companies to think twice before they release any product into the market. Electronic waste or e-waste is one of the rapidly growing environmental problems of the world. In India, electronic waste management assumes greater significance not only due to the generation of our own waste but also because of dumping of e-waste, particularly computer waste, by the developed countries. With extensive use of computers and electronic equipments and people dumping old electronic goods for new ones, the amount of e-waste generated has been steadily increasing. At present, Bangalore alone generates about 8,000 tons of computer waste annually and in the absence of proper disposal, it finds its way to scrap dealers. It is estimated that the superseded computers number to two millions in India. They are disposed-off by corporate organizations, government offices, households, educational institutions, etc. It is worthy of mentioning that the electronic scrap generated by the manufacturers and assemblers amounts to 1,200 tons.1 The consumers find it convenient to buy a new computer rather than upgrade the old one due to the changing configuration, technology and the attractive offers from manufacturers. Due to the lack of governmental legislations on e-waste, standards for disposal, proper mechanism for handling these toxic hi-tech products, these e-wastes mostly end up in landfills or partly recycled in unhygienic conditions and partly thrown into waste streams. The Government of India banned import of used computers and other electronic wastes coming from developed nations. This decision was taken by Economic Intelligence Council Meeting led by Finance Minister, Pranab Mukerjee2 which took place after the heavy dumping done by developed countries in the developing countries.

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