Article Title: India’s rising e - waste – the need to recast its management
13-05-2025
Environment & Ecology Current Affairs Analysis
Context
• Ranking among the world’s top e-waste generators (China, the United States, India, Japan, and Germany) India confronts a formidable challenge of managing e-waste.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mandates producers, importers and brand owners to manage waste from their products’ end-of-life.
• It holds them accountable for environmental impacts throughout the product lifecycle, promotes sustainable design, integrates environmental costs into pricing, and supports efficient waste management, reducing the burden on municipalities.
• The E-waste (Management) Rules, 2022 introduced a floor price for EPR certificates, a game-changer for India’s e-waste management.
• To comply with EPR rules, producers must obtain EPR certificates from registered recyclers to show that they have recycled a specified quantity of waste.
• This provision ensures fair returns for registered recyclers, curbing informal, hazardous recycling (practices that dominate 95% of the sector).
• Stable pricing incentivises formal recyclers to adopt safe, advanced technologies, unlocking e-waste’s valuable materials such as gold and copper.
• It prevents chaos seen in sectors such as plastic waste and drives investment in infrastructure, turning e-waste into a resource and supporting a circular economy
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