Draft E-Waste (Management) Amendment Rules 2022

India published the formal set of rules for Electronic waste management in 2016 which were further amended in the year 2018. India being the 5th largest E-waste generating country, there is always a scope for implementing new rules and amending the old ones to tackle the rapid increase in waste generation.

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Hence on 19th May 2022, the Ministry of Forest and Climate Change came out with a draft E-Waste (Management) Amendment Rules and placed it in the public forum for feedback from the industry stakeholders. On the basis of the feedback received from the stakeholders, the necessary amendments will be made in the draft and the final rules are expected to release by August 2022.

The Key Highlights of the Draft rules:

• All the goods companies and producers of electronic goods have to ensure that at least of 60% of their produced electronic waste is collected and further recycled by the year 2023 with targets to further increase them to 70% and 80% in the year 2024 and 2025 respectively.
• Now the PIBO (Producer, Importers and brand owners) have to register themselves on the online portal with the Central pollution control board and have to specify their annual production and e-waste collection targets.
• In case the company fails to meet the annual targets as specified in the draft, then the company is liable to pay a fine or an environmental compensation to the central pollution control board. However, the draft does not confirm the quantum of the said fines.
• Even after three years, companies that fall short of their goals can meet a year's goal. Those who accomplish their targets with a year's delay will be repaid 85 per cent of their fine after two years, 60 percent after the second year, and 30 percent after the third year.
• The EPR also mandates that makers establish e-waste exchange facilities to assist collection and recycling, as well as assigning explicit responsibility for safe disposal to bulk consumers of electronic devices.
• The notification covers a wide range of electronic devices, including computers, landline and mobile phones, cameras, recorders, music systems, microwaves, refrigerators, photovoltaic cells and medical equipment.
• The EPR also mandates that makers establish e-waste exchange facilities to assist collection and recycling, as well as assigning explicit responsibility for safe disposal to bulk consumers of electronic devices. The responsibility for earmarking industrial space for e-waste dismantling and recycling facilities, undertaking industrial skill development, and establishing measures to protect the health and safety of workers engaged in e-waste dismantling and recycling facilities has been entrusted to the state governments.

EPR Framework

The Chapter II of the draft rules consists of an EPR Framework which is applicable for the following entities:

• Producer: means any person who, irrespective of the selling technique used such as dealer, retailer, e-retailer, etc.; 

1. manufactures and offers to sell electrical and electronic equipment and their components or consumables or parts or spares under its own brand; or 
2. offers to sell under its own brand assembled electrical and electronic equipment and their components or consumables or parts or spares produced by other manufacturers or suppliers; or 
3. offers to sell imported electrical and electronic equipment and their components or consumables or parts or spares; 
4. Who imports used electrical and electronic equipment.

• Manufacturer: means a person or an entity or a company as defined in the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) or a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948) or Small and Medium Enterprises as defined in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (27 of 2006), which has facilities for the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment 
• Refurbisher: for the purpose of these rules, means the entity repairing used electrical and electronic equipment as listed in Schedule I for extending its working life over its originally intended life, and for the same use as originally intended, and selling the same in the market.
• Recycler: means and person who is engaged in recycling and reprocessing of the waste electrical and electronic equipment or assemblies or their components or their parts for recovery of precious, semi-precious metals including rare earth elements and other useful recoverable materials to strengthen the secondary sourced materials and having facilities as elaborated in the guidelines of Central Pollution Control Board; 

The above-mentioned entities are required to register themselves on CPCB centralized portal.

Schedules

The draft rules consist of three schedules mentioned below:

• Schedule I: It contains a list of categories of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) covered under the rules. This list is further categorized into the following:

1. Information technology and telecommunication equipment (ITEW1-25)
2. Consumer Electrical and Electronics and Photovoltaic Panels (CEEW1-18)
3. Large and Small Electrical and Electronic Equipment (LSEEW1-29)
4. Electrical and Electronic Tools (With the exception of large-scale Stationary Industrial Tools) (EETW1-8)
5. Toys, Leisure and Sports Equipment (EETW9-14)
6. Medical Devices (With the Exception of All Implanted and Infected Products) (MDW1-10)

• Schedule II: Applications which are exempted from the requirements of the rules
• Schedule III: E-Waste Recycling Target
• Schedule III(A): EPR Targets for Producers who have started sales operations recently

EPR Regime

• All the producers are required to fulfil their EPR obligations which will be decided based on the information given by the Producers on the centralized online portal.
• The Producer will purchase EPR Certificates from registered recyclers and submit them online while filing quarterly returns in order to fulfil their EPR obligation.

EPR Certificate

• CPCB will be generating the EPR certificate for the Registered Recyclers through the portal.
• The EPR Certificate will remain valid for 2 years after which it will be extinguished automatically.
• The EPR Certificates will be of 100, 200, 500, and 1000 kg denominations.
• The Producer will purchase EPR Certificates as per its EPR liability of the current year plus any leftover liability of the previous year plus 10% of the current year’s liability.
• The adjusted EPR certificates will get automatically extinguished and cancelled.

Environmental Compensation

• If Producers are not able to fulfil their EPR obligations then Environmental Compensation will be imposed on them by CPCB.
• The EPR obligations that were unfulfilled will be carried forward to the next year up to 3 years. 85% of EC will be returned to the Producer if the unfulfilled EPR obligation is addressed after 1 year. 60% of EC will be returned to the Producer if the unfulfilled EPR obligation is addressed after 2 years. 30% of EC will be returned to the Producer if the unfulfilled obligation is addressed after 3 years. After 3 years no EC will be returned.

Government Fees

CPCB might charge a registration fee and annual maintenance charges from the entities as per the capacity of e-waste generated/recycled/handled by them.

The draft rules are open for feedback from all the industry stakeholders and the final rules are expected to come in the month of August 2022.