India hits 70% e-waste recovery under EPR regime, marks breakthrough year

INDIA — India has recorded its strongest year yet in managing electronic waste, with recovery rates climbing to 70.71% in FY 2024-25, up sharply from 61.94% a year earlier, according to new data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The milestone reflects the impact of the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, which introduced a single national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) portal to streamline registration, reporting, and certificate trading.

The reforms have accelerated a shift from informal recycling to traceable, accountable operations.

“What we’re seeing is a compliance turnaround,” said Shashi Shekhar Shahi, Founder of Foxx Compliance Services Pvt. Ltd. (FCSPL).

“Targets are clearer, the portal is doing the heavy lifting on traceability, and serious players are investing in capacity.”

Surge in volumes

Parliamentary filings show India generated 1.39 million tonnes of e-waste in FY 2024-25, up 11.5% from the previous year. Of this, nearly one million tonnes were routed through the formal recycling chain, an unprecedented 8.8-point jump in compliance in a single year.

CPCB reports registered recyclers are now operating in 19 states, with capacity clusters expanding in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Telangana.

Inter-state flows have become common, with recyclables traveling to facilities best equipped for specialized processing.

The CPCB recently extended the FY 2024-25 filing deadline for annual EPR returns being August 15, 2025, giving producers additional time to reconcile data. But Shahi warned the extension should not encourage complacency.

 “If your invoices, put-on-market numbers, and recycler certificates don’t reconcile, extra time won’t protect you from Environmental Compensation,” he noted.

Producers are being advised to secure EPR certificates early to avoid year-end scarcity and price spikes, diversify across recyclers, and expand refurbishment programs to reduce obligations while extending product lifecycles.

Recyclers, meanwhile, are upgrading facilities with mass-balance accounting, auditable dispatch trails, and downstream traceability to smelters and polymer re-processors. “The portal has made greenwashing much harder,” Shahi observed.

Despite challenges such as rising logistics costs and persistent informal sector leakage, experts say the reforms are laying the foundation for “urban mining” — the recovery of critical materials like copper, aluminium, and precious metals from e-waste.

“Every tonne we recycle here is import substitution,” Shahi stressed. “The EPR push isn’t just about compliance; it’s about competitiveness.”

Looking ahead, recovery is expected to climb gradually toward 75% in FY 2025-26, with the focus shifting from scale to quality and credibility.

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