JAIPUR, Jan 22: India is losing waste recycling business opportunities worth thousands of crores due to poor processing capacity and inefficiencies in an informal scrap management sector, government think tank NITI Aayog has said.
The Aayog has assessed the potential of the country’s recycling industry in separate reports, covering e-waste, waste tyres, lithium-ion batteries and end-of-life vehicles.
The flow of electronic wastes (e-waste) is valued at Rs 51,000 crore, of which 60 per cent is extractable. However, the current waste recovery systems capture only 18 per cent of this potential, leading to the loss of a huge opportunity due to poor processing and inefficiencies in the informal sector, said the report on e-waste.
In the waste tyres category, the report said the country is losing Rs 7,500 crore of revenues due to the lack of standards for recycled products.
The think tank highlighted the potential of the recycling sector in the circular economy as well as challenges, while recommending certain measures for the government.
The reports — ‘Enhancing Circular Economy of End of Life Vehicles (ELVs) in India’, ‘Advancing Circular Economy of Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (E-waste), and Lithium-Ion Batteries in India and Waste Tyres’ — were released at the International Material Recycling Conference (IMRC) 2026 here.
The three-day event organised by the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) concluded on Thursday.
The reports, released by Priyavrat Bhati, Programme Lead, Green Transition, Climate Environment, NITI Aayog, observed gaps such as weak workforce systems and the absence of quality standards.
“The reports underline that India currently generates around 6.2 million metric tonnes (MMT) of e-waste annually, a figure projected to rise sharply to 14 MMT by 2030, even as formal recycling capacity remains limited to about 2 MMT and only 10 per cent of total e-waste is processed through authorised channels,” a release said.
The report on end-of-life vehicles said while India’s cumulative ELVs are expected to reach about 50 million by 2030, there is an “urgent need for a robust policy, regulatory framework”.
“India is now confronting a widening mismatch between the pace at which waste is generated and the capacity of formal recycling systems to absorb it. This disconnect is translating into a direct loss of economic value, industrial inputs and strategic resources at a time when global supply chains are becoming increasingly constrained,” Bhati said while releasing the reports.
In waste tyres, as per the report, India generates close to 3 million metric tonnes annually, of which around 1.6 MMT comes from domestic end-of-life tyres.
The NITI Aayog report proposes banning the pyrolysis of imported end-of-life tyres to prevent environmental damage and encourage higher-value recovery pathways within the domestic recycling ecosystem.
The report also highlighted the rapidly growing significance of lithium-ion batteries.
India’s Li-ion battery demand is projected to rise from about 29 GWh to nearly 248 GWh, while spent battery volumes are expected to increase almost ninefold to around 332 kilotonnes by 2025 from roughly 36 kilotonnes in 2020.
K Narayanan, Programme Director, Security and Law, Niti Aayog, said India’s recycling and resource recovery industry has evolved into a nationally relevant economic activity.
“India’s recycling and resource recovery sector has decisively emerged as a core contributor to national development,” he said, noting that the progress is increasingly being driven by industry-led adoption of ethics, transparency and responsibility.
Sanjay Mehta, President, Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI), said nearly 90 per cent of metal recycling in India is now organised, demonstrating that formalisation delivers scale, compliance and efficiency.
“The reports by NITI Aayog will set clear pathways for policy upheaval to drive further growth in the sectors,” he said, adding that waste in India is no longer a peripheral environmental issue; it is a strategic economic resource. (PTI )
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