Bridging India’s informal waste collectors and the legal system

Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social enterprises in India are bridging the gap between legal recognition under the country’s formal e-waste rules and informal waste collectors, according to report by Mongabay-India (MI) report.

India is the world’s third largest producer of e-waste, yet the informal waste collectors have no substantial legal recognition, says the MI report. The efforts are on by NGOs and social enterprises by training waste pickers, connecting them to formal recyclers, and securing them better pay, but these efforts remain small-scale and patchy across the country. India’s e-waste is estimated to hold critical minerals and metals worth an estimated $4.9 billion, much of it currently lost to unsafe, inefficient informal dismantling. Since the early 2000s, electronic waste has entered the very same stream in hordes — landing in the laps of informal waste collectors who dismantle devices at grave personal risk.

Informal waste collectors are part of a lucrative industry. As per the India Waste Management Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence, the India Waste Management Market size was valued at USD 13.58 billion in 2025 and is estimated to grow from USD 14.29 billion in 2026 to reach USD 18.94 billion by 2031 during the forecast period (2026-2031).

Since the early 2000s, electronic waste has entered the very same stream in hordes – landing in the laps of informal waste collectors who dismantle devices at grave personal risk, the MI report adds. It points out that despite playing an outsized role in India’s waste management, informal workers lie outside the country’s formal recycling governance framework. A big reason why e-waste collection and processing stay with the informal sector is because formal facilities lack the capacity to process the sheer volume of e-waste generated in the country. Typically, waste collectors pick up solid waste and segregate it and sell to various scrap aggregators.

The MI report states that according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India has 7226 e-waste producers, who manufacture, sell or import electrical and electronic equipment under their own brand name. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) under the E-Waste Management Rules makes it mandatory for producers to register themselves on a central portal, fulfil specific e-waste collection and recycling targets, and file compliance returns. For these 7000-odd registered producers, there are 295 official recyclers, who dismantle and extract metals and minerals from e-waste, and 53 refurbishers who repair and renovate the used item for reuse. Together, they process just 5-10% of the total e-waste produced by the country. Since the informal sector has a higher reach and a larger functioning network of cheap labour, the formal sector depends on actors like the informal workers for the collection and segregation of e-waste. But the EPR process excludes them. With no direct benefit from the formal system, these informal workers prefer to sell to informal recyclers and find working outside the system to be more lucrative, as they are not required to keep a paper trail. Working outside the system gives them operational anonymity while avoiding banking costs. Cash transactions also give them immediate liquidity while buying or selling.

Certain NGOs, the MI report highlights, like Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group of Delhi and SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling) of Pune have been working with waste collectors and informal workers to divert e-waste to a formal recycling chain. However, such initiatives are rare in the country. The lack of legal recognition of the role informal waste collectors play is a hurdle. Also, besides being a health and environmental hazard, dismantling e-waste without proper equipment and tools could lead to the wastage of minerals and metals that are gaining increasing importance in the circular economy. E-waste is a ready source of critical and rare earth minerals, like lithium and cobalt, which are used in EV batteries, renewable energy systems and other electronic items. According to some estimates, India’s e-waste contains precious metals and critical minerals worth $4.9 billion. The Indian government has launched a critical mineral mission incentivising extraction from e-waste recycling. Increasing skills in these workers and integrating them into the process could not only help build the country’s formal recycling capacity but also unlock the value in e-waste.