The Govt. has notified E-waste Management Rules,2022, which shall come into force from the 1st day of April, 2023 .These rules shall apply to every manufacturer, producer, refurbisher, dismantler and recycler involved in manufacture, sale, transfer, purchase, refurbishing, dismantling, recycling and processing of e -waste or electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) listed in Schedule I of these rules, including their component, consumables, parts and spares which make the product operational.
Categories of EEE including their component, consumable, parts and spares covered under Schedule I of the rules are, Information technology and telecommunication equipment, Consumer electrical and electronics and photovoltaic panels, Large and small electrical and electronic equipment, electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large scale stationary industrial tools), Toys, Leisure and sports equipment, Medical Devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products), laboratory instruments.
Meaning of Manufacturer or producer under these rules: –
| Meaning of Manufacturer | Meaning of Producer |
| Person or an entity or a company as defined in the Companies Act, 2013 or a factory as defined in factories act 1948 or SMEs defined in MSME Development Act,2006 which has facilities for manufacture of EEE as specified, | Any person or entity who – · manufactures and offers to sell EEE and their component under its own brand or · Offer to sell under its own brand, assembled EEE and their component produced by other manufacturers/suppliers. · Offer to sell imported EEE and their components. who imports used EEE. |
| Meaning of Refurbisher | Meaning of Recycler |
| Any person or entity is repairing or assembling used electrical and electronic equipment as listed in schedule-I for extending its working life over its originally intended life and for same use as originally intended, and selling the same in the market | Any person or entity who is engaged in recycling and reprocessing of waste electrical and electronic equipment or assemblies or their component or their parts for recovery of precious, semi-precious metal including rare earth elements and other useful recoverable materials to strengthened the secondary sourced materials and having facilities as elaborated in the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board made in this regard. |
According to these Rules, responsibilities has been given to the manufacturer, producer, refurbisher, dismantler and recycler which are concise as under: –
- Registration as Manufacturer/Producer/Recyclers/Refurbisher
- Entities shall register on the portal (CPCB) under applicable category. If falls in more than one category then shall register under those categories, separately.
- No Entity shall carry out any business without registration and the registered entity shall not deal with any unregistered manufacturer, producer recycler and refurbisher.
- For registration, registration fee and annual maintenance charges shall be based on capacity of e -waste generated, recycled or handled.
- Filing of Annual and Quarterly returns by Manufacturers/Producer/Recyclers/Refurbisher
- Entities have to file annual and quarterly returns on the portal on or before the end of the month succeeding the quarter or year, as the case may be.
- Responsibilities for the Manufacturer
- Collect e-waste generated during the manufacture of any electrical and electronic equipment and ensure its recycling or disposal.
- Responsibilities for the Recycler
- Ensure that the facility and recycling processes are in accordance with the standards laid down by this CPCB.
- Ensure that the fractions or materials which are not recycled are sent to the respective registered recyclers.
- Ensure that residue generated during the recycling process is disposed of in an unauthorised treatment storage disposal facility
- Maintain record of e waste collected dismantled recycled and sent to the registered recycler on the portal and make available all records for verification or audit as and when required.
- Accept waste electrical and electronic components not listed in schedule-I for recycling provided that do not contain any radioactive material and same shall be uploaded on the portal.
- Create awareness through media publication advertisement posters by such other means of the communication.
- Account for upload information about any non-recyclable waste or any quantity which is not a recycled and disposed of.
- Take help of dismantlers for recycling purposes.
- Responsibilities of the refurbisher
- Collect e-waste generated during the process of refurbishing and handover the waste to registered recycler and upload information on the portal.
- ensure that the refurbished equipment shall be as per the compulsory registration scheme of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and standards of Bureau of Indian standards framed for this purpose
- Responsibilities of the Producer
- Creating awareness through media publications advertisement post survey any other means of communication.
- Fulfilling the extended producer responsibility targets as per schedule -III or IV as explained below.
Calculation of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
EPR for each product shall be decided on the basis of the information provided by producers on portal and the individual product’s life period as per schedule -III or IV as applicable (Sch. IV of rules applicable on those who have started sales operations recently, i.e., number of years of sales operations is less than average life of their products)
Schedule III
| Year (Y) | E-waste recycling target (By weight) |
| 2023-24 | 60% of the quantity of an EEE placed in the Market in Y-X, where “X” is the average life of that product. |
| For 2024-25 (60%), 2025-26 (70%), 2026-27 (70%), 2027-28 (80%), 2028-29 onwards (80%) *E waste recycling target shall be reviewed and may be increased after 2028-29 |
Schedule IV
| Year (Y) | E-waste recycling target (By weight) |
| 2023-24 | 15 % of the sales figure of financial year 2021-22 |
| 2024-25 | 20 % of the sales figure of financial year 2021-22 |
| 2025-26 onwards | 20 % of the sales figure of financial year two year back. |
The quantity eligible for generation of the extended producer responsibility certificate shall be calculated by the following formula:
*QEPR = Qp x Cf * (the QEPR is the quantity eligible for generation of the certificate, Qp is the quantity of the end product and Cf is the conversion factor (quantity of inputs required for production of one unit of output).
Fulfilment of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
- Producer shall fulfil their extended producer responsibility obligation as per above targetsand while doing so may take help of third-party organizations i.e., producer responsibility organizations, collection centres and dealers etc. however, EPR lie entirely on the producer.
- Producer shall fulfil their EPR obligation through online purchase of EPR certificate from registered recyclers only and submit it online by filing quarterly return.
- Details provided by producer and registered recycler shall be cross checked.
- In case of difference, lower figure shall be considered.
- Certificates shall be subject to environment audit by the CPCB.
- EPR obligation shall have to be fulfilled by producers, proportionately purchasing EPR certificates on quarterly basis.
- As soon as producer purchases EPR certificates, it shall be automatically adjusted against the liability and shall be automatically extinguished and cancelled.
- Refurbishing certificates: On production of the refurbishing certificates purchased from the registered refurbishers, the EPR of the producers shall be deferred by the duration as laid down by the CPCB for the corresponding quantity of e-waste and shall be added to the EPR of the producer upon expiry of the extended life of the refurbished product.
Example: – Suppose, producer has EPR obligation of 100 tonnes (in the year 2023-2024)
- producer purchases recycling certificate of 60 tonnes and
- refurbishing certificate of 40 tonnes
- concerned item has extended life of five years due to refurbishing.
In this case 60 tonnes of the EPR of the producer shall be achieved in the year 2023-2024 itself and 75% of the remaining 40 tonne i.e., 30 tonnes shall be carried over and added to the extended producer responsibility of that producer for the year 2028-2029 for that item.
7. Environmental compensation
In case of violation of any of the provision of these rules or non-fulfilment of obligations set out in these rules and transaction or use of false extended producer responsibility certificate environmental compensation shall be imposed on entity.
The environmental compensation shall also be levied on unregistered producers, manufacturer, refurbisher, recyclers and any entity which aids or abets the violation of these rules.
Encl: Schedule-I List of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE)
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