India tackling e-waste with organised recycling, recovery of rare materials

New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) Although India remains among the top global generators of electronic waste, owing to increasing digitisation and a rapidly growing electronics ecosystem, the government is tackling the sustainability challenge with organised recycling and recovery of precious and rare materials, according to a media report.

From informal dumps, the e-waste is being shifted to organised recycling, circular-economy models, and recovery of precious materials in India, GeoPolitico, a Greece-based news website, reported.

The initiatives are leading to an increase in “the synergy between innovation, environmental responsibility, and economic opportunity”.

One such is a landmark five-year project, launched in October, to foster circular economy practices in the country.

The initiative will ensure that discarded gadgets are no longer simply toxic refuse, but sources of critical raw materials -- such as gold, silver, copper, lithium, and other rare materials.

It is creating opportunities for sustainable industry as rare materials are “being recovered and reintegrated in supply chains, reducing dependence on fresh mining”.

As per data from a leading compliance firm, national e-waste recovery rose from 61.94 per cent in FY 2023-24 to 70.71 per cent in FY 2024-25.

This signals that formal and organised recycling is gaining ground over informal dismantling, the report said.

This shift has been supported by digital tools, stricter regulations, and growing corporate and consumer awareness.

Parallelly, “India is also seeing breakthroughs in plastic and packaging recycling, reuse, and upcycling -- a sign that the circular-economy mindset is spreading beyond electronics into many sectors,” the report said.

In addition to innovative enterprises and circular-economy startups, formal recycling infrastructure is also scaling up rapidly.

This includes the Delhi government announcing plans to build its first major e-waste Eco-Park -- a 10.5-acre facility designed to handle large volumes of discarded electronics through a public-private partnership model.

Further, in Andhra Pradesh, the biomedical- and electronics-waste facility in Visakhapatnam’s MedTech Zone has begun operations under a zero-waste model.

“By 2030 and beyond, if current momentum continues, India could emerge not just as one of the world’s largest users of electronics, but as a global benchmark in circular electronics production and recycling,” the report said.