Title: Consumption pattern, behaviour and awareness towards e-waste among mobile users in New Delhi

Authors: Geeta Bhatt; Manoj Khanna; Balaram Pani; Ashish Chaturvedi

Addresses: Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences (University of Delhi), Sector-2, Phase-I, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075, India ' Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences (University of Delhi), Sector-2, Phase-I, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075, India ' Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences (University of Delhi), Sector-2, Phase-I, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075, India ' Institute of Development Studies, Sussex House, University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9RE, UK

Abstract: The race of technological advancements across the globe has made the life of electronic products shorter, resulting into Waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and posing a threat to sustainable development. With the stupendous increase in usage of e-goods especially in developing nations, study on the consumption pattern of electronic gadgets has become important to researchers and policy makers as there are limited resources of some rare earth and precious metals, which are used in making of e-equipment. In India, economic boom of the last two decades added with rapid development of newer technology, fuelled consumerism resulting into buying and disposing off of electronic products at a rapid pace. As mobile phones are the fastest growing electronic consumables in India, this paper attempts to study the consumption pattern, behaviour and awareness of the people about e-waste among mobile phone users in the capital city of New Delhi.

Keywords: e-waste; mobile phones; cell phones; consumption patterns; cross tabulation; India; chi-square; consumer behaviour; consumer awareness; electronic waste; mobile users; New Delhi; waste electrical and electronic equipment; WEEE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEPDM.2016.080474

International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making, 2016 Vol.2 No.1, pp.28 - 40

Received: 02 Mar 2015
Accepted: 19 Feb 2016
Published online: 25 Nov 2016 *

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