E-waste control: Axe that floor price and adapt to market reality

Replace market intervention with an effective programme to help this informal sector turn formal

- Adhnan Wani & Kunal Tyagi are, respectively, sustainability and manufacturing policy experts at Koan Advisory Group, New Delhi.

A wave of litigation by top electronics companies like Samsung, LG, Carrier, Daikin, Havells and Voltas has brought India's 2024 e-waste rules into the spotlight. At the centre of the dispute is a mandatory floor price of ₹22 per kilogram of e-waste that producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) must pay formal recyclers.

EEE producers argue that this raises compliance costs by up to four times compared to the pre-2024 norms, which did not mandate a floor price. Also, they argue, the policy will be environmentally ineffective, as it turns the 'polluter pays' principle into a blunt mechanism.

A March 2024 amendment to India's e-waste rules introduced a floor price as part of the system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) certificates. It allows the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to fix a price band within which EPR certificates can be traded between producers and recyclers. The lowest price in this range is set at 30% of the penalty for non-compliance, while the highest price is set at 100%.

The problem here is its attempt to bridge a supervisory gap in India's waste management ecosystem through intervention in the market price of e-waste.