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

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, studyon the consumption pattern of electronic gadgetshas 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 consumerismresulting 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.