Exclusive: India’s e-waste mirage, ‘crores in corporate fraud’ amid govt lapses, public suffering

What happens to your old phone or fridge once you’re done with it? Maybe you sold it, maybe passed it on, or maybe it’s just gathering dust. When it finally breaks down, you’d hope it’s recycled responsibly: its toxic parts removed, with no harm to the environment or human health. But that’s not what’s actually happening.

A Newslaundry investigation into 41 government-approved e-waste recycling plants across four states has found that 75 percent of these, or 31 facilities, either don’t exist, or appear to be running ghost operations. 

Consider these:

In Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district, three plants could not be located at their addresses. But officially, they have been “inspected” and “approved” twice by central and state governments. Around 50 km away in Meerut, an industrial cluster of 15 plants has no sign of industrial activity. Chimneys are silent. A few labourers are in sight.

In neighbouring Haryana, two plants manufacture auto components and bus body frames while another seems to be running only trucks in the name of recycling. A fourth one in Uttarakhand has received the government’s approval to recycle way above what its infrastructure allows.

On paper, these 31 plants are recycling lakhs of metric tonnes of e-waste, making them eligible for tradeable extended producer responsibility (EPR) credits. 

These are similar to carbon credits, but targeted at waste management. They are granted to plants when they declare real recycling by submitting documents, invoices, and photographs of their operations to the Central Pollution Control Board, under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. These EPR credits, worth hundreds of crores, are then sold by recyclers to electronics brands to help them meet legally mandated recycling targets. 

Collectively authorised to recycle up to 8.49 lakh MT a year, these 31 plants run by 24 companies can generate EPR credits worth over Rs 1,800 crore through CPCB. 

The companies running these plants have sold EPR credits to top electronics brands. Among the buyers were top names such as LG, Samsung, Carrier, Hitachi-Johnson Controls, Havells, and Daikin. 

Transactions that were often curiously cheaper than what formal recycling usually costs or government floor pricing allows. 

What fuels this shadow economy is near-absent or compromised inspections by central and state governments.

This is the preview of Newslaundry’s investigative series on India’s e-waste underworld, which will unravel corporate malpractices, regulatory failure, and questionable gains for electronics manufacturers. To piece together this investigation, Newslaundry has relied on ground verification, corporate and judicial filings, internal records and government replies under the Right To Information Act. 

Newslaundry went to 10 cities across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan to trace a total of 41 recycling facilities. Of these, only two had legitimate operations while the credentials of eight could not be ascertained for lack of access or documents. 

The remaining 31 plants, on paper, were scattered across industrial hubs in Hapur, Bulandshahr, and Roorkee, around agricultural fields, or along major highways. Most were mid- to large-sized, with capacities ranging from 10,000 MT to over 1,00,000 MT per year. Bulandshahr’s Pegasus Environment LLP (1.29 lakh MT), Eatmos Recycling Pvt Ltd in Roorkee (1.2 lakh MT), Greenscape Eco Management Pvt Ltd in Alwar (1.16 lakh MT), and Ecoverva E-waste Recycling Private Ltd in Gurgaon (98,805 MT) were the biggest among them.

These 31 plants can share 85 percent the burden of the formal sector and were among a total of 353 plants registered on the CPCB portal as on April 10.

Weak link in govt targets

With India’s e-waste generation estimated to double in the next five years, risks to the environment and people are set to escalate – especially since the real extent of formal recycling falls short of the government’s claims, as seen in the plants mentioned above in this report.

Why this is also significant is because the Narendra Modi government has been counting on the formal sector for a circular economy under which recycled material is introduced into the market, reducing the country’s dependence on rare earth mineral imports. Of 1.4 lakh MT of e-waste generated by producers in 2024-25, around 70 percent was recycled by the formal sector, as per conservative CPCB estimates shared with Parliament. 

Given ghost operations at several plants, the dream for a circular economy will continue to fall short of expectations. 

Recycling remains a weak link even when the government has mandated benchmarks for firms. Since 2022, under the E-Waste Management Rules, electronics companies are assigned annual recycling targets – called EPR obligation – depending on e-waste introduced in the market every year. 

These targets may be met only on paper. Either because of lax monitoring or because recyclers are gaming the regulatory framework at the first stage: by exploiting the self-declaration process within CPCB regulations to earn EPR credits.

Dubious plants in several states

Of the 31 suspicious facilities, seven don’t exist or are permanently shut. 

Two of these seven, owned by Pegasus Environment LLP in Bulandshahr, have even curiously increased their recycling capacity on paper, with a nod from the Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board.

The rest are engaged in seemingly dubious operations.

For example, five factories in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana could be mistaken for logistics or trucking plants. 

At usual recycling factories, trucks are used for two types of transportation: pick-up of e-waste and dropping of processed material for sale. This involves travelling long distances. But during visits to these plants in these states, Newslaundry could not see any visible operations except trucks shuttling between their premises and weighbridges (dharmkanta) within a 1-km radius. There were no labourers cutting or shredding e-waste at these plants; no vehicles came from distant areas either. Workers were seen either photographing trucks and material at the gate or just loading and unloading goods. This truck movement, with no visible recycling, raises questions if these plants were uploading dummy photos and invoices to the CPCB portal. But Newslaundry has learnt that CPCB has generated EPR credits for these plants.

In Rajasthan, an Alwar-based plant, run by Greenscape Eco Management Pvt Ltd, appears to be inflating its sourced e-waste quantity by counting recycled material (meant to be sold). To conceal such malpractice, trucks arriving at this plant carry processed e-waste masked with a layer of e-waste such as discarded AC, refrigerators and washing machines thrown in.

Regulatory blind eye and EPR rates

The CPCB is empowered under the E-Waste Management Rules, 2022 to periodically audit and carry out surprise inspections of recyclers via state pollution control boards or third-party agencies. But Newslaundry’s investigation indicates that the government inspection is either absent or compromised. 

In an affidavit filed in the National Green Tribunal this month, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board said it had inspected all recycling plants in the state and found them compliant. Interestingly, Gurugram-based Ecoverva E-waste Recycling Pvt Ltd’s three plants, two of them permanently shut, have not been part of the state-wide inspection. Another ghost plant, run by Endeavor Recyclers India Pvt Ltd, in Rohtak was last inspected three years ago.

Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh boards also filed similar petitions but did not reveal if they found any registered facilities non-compliant in their jurisdiction.

Weak regulation is likely to have indirectly benefitted top electronics brands. How? This allows them to buy EPR credits at much lower rates than those charged by genuine recyclers. 

Recycling industry bodies – the Material Recycling Association of India and the Recycling and Environment Industry Association of India – have frequently informed the CPCB that recyclers with questionable practices were involved in underselling EPR credits, undercutting genuine players in the market. But these pleas have achieved a little.

Crucial around the debate on EPR credit payout to recyclers is a 2024 amendment to the E-Waste Management Rules. To promote formalisation of the industry, the CPCB in September last year had directed e-waste producers that they needed to pay higher to recyclers for EPR credits. In the consumer electronics segment, e-waste producers have to pay at least Rs 22 per kg of e-waste. The price was arrived at after the government’s consultation with two recycling associations that had suggested Rs 23 per kg based on collection, transportation and recycling costs.

Newslaundry has come across instances where major brands have paid some recyclers anywhere between Rs 6 and Rs 8 per kg. Among top e-waste producers, LG pays the highest at Rs 15 kg for consumer electronics. 

Miffed with the government’s floor and ceiling for EPR transactions, major brands – LG, Samsung, Havells, Carrier, Voltas and Daikin – have challenged the 2024 amendment in the Delhi High Court, arguing that market forces should decide the EPR rates. The case is sub-judice.

Newslaundry has reached out to all electronics majors, recyclers, MoEFCC, CPCB and state pollution boards of the four states named in this report. This piece will be updated if they respond.

With research inputs from Vibha Rajeev.

Stay tuned for the next part to trace the story of seven non-existent plants still authorised to recycle lakhs of tonnes of e-waste.

Power this series here.

Update at 7.25 pm on July 30: This report mentions Pegasus Environment LLP, an e-waste recycling company based in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. After the publication of this article, Pegasus Waste Management Pvt Ltd, a separate company registered in Gurugram with operations in Haryana and Karnataka, sent a clarification request stating that it is not affiliated with Pegasus Environment LLP. The two companies are distinct legal entities with no connection to each other.