E-Waste EPR for Producers, Importers and Brands

The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, which came into force on 1 April 2023, place a recycling obligation on every producer of the electrical and electronic equipment listed in the rules. A producer includes a manufacturer selling under its own brand, a company selling under its brand goods made by others, and an importer. Each producer must register on the Central Pollution Control Board's e-waste portal, report the equipment it places on the market, and meet a yearly target by buying EPR certificates from registered recyclers. Manufacturers, refurbishers and recyclers must register too.

Unlike the earlier rules, which relied on producers setting up collection schemes, the 2022 rules work through a certificate market. The obligation is calculated from the quantity of equipment placed on the market in earlier years and its expected life, and the targets rise over time. Environmental compensation applies to shortfalls. A minimum price for EPR certificates introduced by later amendments has been challenged by some producers. This page explains who must register, how the obligation works, how importers are affected, and how to handle notices.

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E-waste EPR at a glance

How the target is calculated

The obligation is not simply a percentage of what you sell this year. The rules estimate how much of the equipment you placed on the market in earlier years has reached the end of its life, using the average life of each type of product, and set your target as a percentage of that estimate. For new products or new producers, the rules provide a different basis. The target percentage rises over the years: 60 per cent for 2023-24 and 2024-25, 70 per cent for 2025-26 and 2026-27, and 80 per cent from 2027-28 onwards.

Because the calculation depends on historical sales data and product life, errors in reported quantities or product codes carry forward. Producers should reconcile sales and import data with the portal's product categories each year, rather than relying on the portal's figures without checking.

Importers and customs

Importers of electrical and electronic equipment are producers under the rules and must register before placing goods on the market. In practice, customs and the CPCB have linked import clearance to EPR registration for covered equipment, and importers without registration have had shipments held. If you import samples, spare parts or components, check whether the items fall in Schedule I and whether any exemption applies; components and spares for repair are treated differently from finished equipment in some cases.

Importers who sell to other businesses, rather than to consumers, often assume the obligation lies with the buyer. Under the rules, the importer placing the equipment on the market is usually the producer. Contractual arrangements can allocate costs, but they do not shift the legal obligation.

How to register and comply

Certificate pricing and the court challenge

To prevent certificates being sold below the real cost of environmentally sound recycling, the government introduced a floor and ceiling price for e-waste EPR certificates through amendments to the rules. Several large producers challenged the minimum price in the Delhi High Court, arguing that it raises compliance costs and interferes with the market. Until the challenge is decided, the pricing provisions remain on the statute book unless the court orders otherwise, and producers should comply while their cases, if any, are pending. Check the current position before signing certificate contracts, and include price adjustment clauses that take account of the outcome.

Time and typical cost

Our fees are agreed in writing at the start, stage by stage. They are not linked to the outcome.

Who registers and for what

Documents usually needed

Laws that apply

How we work

We are a litigation and advisory practice led by Advocate BK Singh, with offices in Dwarka (New Delhi) and Vaishali (Ghaziabad). This is what you can expect:

• Product codes checked: so your target is right.
• Importer issues handled: including held shipments.
• Recycler due diligence: before you buy certificates.
• Notices answered: with reconciled data.
• Written fee terms: agreed stage by stage, never linked to the outcome.

Mistakes we see with e-waste EPR

Bulk consumers and offices

The rules also impose duties on bulk consumers: government departments, public sector undertakings, banks, educational institutions, multinational companies, and other organisations and offices that use electrical and electronic equipment on a large scale. They must ensure that e-waste they generate is handed over only to a registered producer, refurbisher or recycler, and must maintain records. Selling old laptops, servers and printers to an unregistered scrap dealer through an auction exposes the organisation to action.

If your organisation disposes of old equipment, use a registered recycler or a producer's take-back channel, keep the handover documents, and ensure data on storage devices is securely erased before handover. Many recyclers provide data destruction certificates along with the handover records.

Recyclers and refurbishers

Recyclers must register on the portal and can generate EPR certificates only for e-waste actually recycled, within their verified capacity. Refurbishers, who repair and resell used equipment, must also register and hand over waste generated during refurbishment to registered recyclers. The CPCB has audited recyclers and suspended registrations where claimed recycling exceeded capacity or records did not match. For producers, this means a recycler's registration alone is not enough; ask for evidence of capacity, inputs and outputs before relying on its certificates.

If you run a recycling business, keep careful records of every consignment received, the processing carried out, the fractions recovered and where they went. Your registration and your ability to sell certificates depend on those records holding up under audit.

Solar panels and new categories

The government has extended the rules to new kinds of equipment over time and has dealt with solar photovoltaic modules and cells under a separate chapter of the rules, requiring manufacturers to store waste solar panels and hand them over to registered recyclers, with reporting obligations. Other changes have adjusted the list of covered equipment. If you are entering a new product line, check whether it is covered and how, before launch, so that registration and reporting are ready from the first sale.