EPR stands for Extended Producer Responsibility. Indian waste rules define it as the responsibility of a producer for the environmentally sound management of its product until the end of its life. In practice, it means that a company that puts packaging, electronics, batteries, tyres, oil or vehicles on the Indian market must register with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and meet annual targets for collecting and recycling the waste those products become.
(EPR is also used for unrelated terms, such as electronic patient record in healthcare and electron paramagnetic resonance in physics. This post is about the environmental meaning only.)
If you need to register or plan your annual targets, our EPR registration service handles e-waste, battery and plastic packaging filings.
The idea behind EPR
Before EPR, end-of-life waste was treated as a municipal problem. EPR moves part of that cost back to the businesses that design, make, import or brand the product. The logic is simple: the company that decides what material goes into the market is best placed to pay for collecting and recycling it.
In India, EPR is created by rules made under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). CPCB runs the online systems, and State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Pollution Control Committees share enforcement. Most EPR regimes in India follow the same pattern:
- Register the obligated business on a CPCB portal before selling.
- Receive a target, usually calculated from what you placed on the market in earlier years.
- Meet the target by buying EPR certificates from registered recyclers or processors.
- File returns on the portal, quarterly or annually depending on the rules.
- Pay environmental compensation if you fall short.
Which Indian rules impose EPR
| Waste stream | Rules | Who registers | CPCB portal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plastic packaging | Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, with EPR guidelines in Schedule II (inserted 16 February 2022) | Producers, importers and brand owners (PIBOs); plastic waste processors (PWPs) | eprplastic.cpcb.gov.in |
| Electrical and electronic equipment | E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, in force from 1 April 2023 | Manufacturers, producers, refurbishers, recyclers | eprewaste.cpcb.gov.in |
| Batteries | Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022, notified 22 August 2022 | Producers (including importers), recyclers, refurbishers | eprbattery.cpcb.gov.in |
| Waste tyres | Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Amendment Rules, 2022 (G.S.R. 593(E), 21 July 2022) | Producers, recyclers, retreaders | eprtyres.cpcb.gov.in |
| Used oil | Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Second Amendment Rules, 2023 | Producers of base oil or lubrication oil, recyclers, importers of used oil, collection agents | eprusedoil.cpcb.gov.in |
| End-of-life vehicles | Environment Protection (End-of-Life Vehicles) Rules, 2025, in force from 1 April 2025 | Producers, bulk consumers, registered vehicle scrapping facilities (RVSFs) | eprelv.cpcb.gov.in |
CPCB lists all six portals, plus a single sign-on page for existing portals, on its All EPR Portals of CPCB page. Reach the portals from there. Look-alike domains exist, and some older documents point to sites that CPCB no longer runs.
EPR for plastic packaging: PIBO and PWP
Plastic packaging is the stream most people search for, because almost every consumer brand is caught by it. The Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2022 (G.S.R. 133(E), dated 16 February 2022) inserted the Guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility for Plastic Packaging as Schedule II of the 2016 Rules, with immediate effect.
PIBO stands for Producers, Importers and Brand Owners. The guidelines name four obligated entities:
- Producer (P) of plastic packaging;
- Importer (I) of plastic packaging, or of products in plastic packaging;
- Brand Owner (BO), including online platforms, marketplaces, supermarkets and retail chains, other than micro and small enterprises;
- Plastic Waste Processor (PWP), defined as recyclers and entities using plastic waste for waste to energy, waste to oil or industrial composting.
The guidelines split plastic packaging into four categories:
| Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
| I | Rigid plastic packaging |
| II | Flexible plastic packaging (single or multilayer of different plastics), plastic sheets and covers, carry bags, sachets and pouches |
| III | Multilayered packaging with at least one layer of plastic and at least one layer of another material |
| IV | Plastic sheets used for packaging, and carry bags, made of compostable plastics |
As notified in 2022, a PIBO’s EPR target is a percentage of the average quantity it placed on the market in the previous two years, category-wise, reaching 100% from 2023-24. On top of that, the guidelines set minimum recycling levels and mandatory recycled-content percentages that rise year by year. For example, the minimum level of recycling for Category I rises from 50% of the EPR target in 2024-25 to 80% from 2027-28. The plastic rules have been amended since, so check the current consolidated text and CPCB notices before calculating a target.
Registration of PIBOs operating in one or two states, and of PWPs, is done by the SPCB through the same central portal. Registered entities must not deal with unregistered ones.
EPR for e-waste, batteries, tyres, used oil and vehicles
E-waste. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022 (G.S.R. 801(E), 2 November 2022) apply from 1 April 2023. They define EPR as a producer’s responsibility for meeting recycling targets under Schedules III and IV, only through registered recyclers. The same rules contain India’s RoHS limits. We cover targets, certificates and returns in detail in our e-waste EPR checklist for producers, and the substance limits in RoHS full form and meaning.
Batteries. The Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 replaced the Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001. They cover portable, automotive, industrial and electric vehicle batteries. A “producer” includes anyone who sells batteries, or equipment containing batteries, under its own brand, and anyone who imports batteries or equipment containing them. That last point catches importers of laptops, power tools and toys, not just battery makers. For testing on the product side, see battery testing under IS 16046 and UN 38.3.
Waste tyres. CPCB’s waste tyre FAQ states that the 2022 amendment to the Hazardous and Other Wastes Rules brought tyres under EPR. Producers include tyre manufacturers, brand owners, importers of new tyres, importers of vehicles fitted with new tyres and importers of waste tyres. From 2024-25 onwards, a producer’s obligation is 100% of the new tyres manufactured or imported two years earlier, met by buying EPR certificates from registered recyclers.
Used oil. CPCB’s used oil FAQ explains that producers and importers of base oil or lubrication oil, and importers of used oil, must meet recycling targets by buying re-refining or energy recovery certificates from registered recyclers, under the Second Amendment Rules, 2023.
End-of-life vehicles. State boards have issued notices on the Environment Protection (End-of-Life Vehicles) Rules, 2025, which came into force on 1 April 2025. Producers, bulk consumers and RVSFs must register on CPCB’s ELV portal.
What an EPR certificate is
The EPR certificate (Extended Producer Responsibility certificate) is the unit of compliance. A registered recycler, refurbisher or processor processes waste, CPCB’s portal generates certificates for the quantity processed, and the producer buys them to set against its target.
The details vary by stream:
- E-waste certificates are expressed in recovered end products such as gold, copper, aluminium and iron, as explained in our e-waste checklist.
- Battery certificates are generated by CPCB through the portal, based on the quantities recycled or refurbished, and assigned to recyclers and refurbishers, who sell them to producers.
- Plastic packaging certificates are issued category-wise by registered PWPs in the name of the PIBO. A brand owner with a surplus can carry it forward, offset an earlier shortfall or sell it to another PIBO in the same category.
- Tyre producers can also buy retreading certificates, which defer the obligation for that quantity by one year.
A certificate is only as good as the registration behind it. Producers can buy only from recyclers registered on the relevant portal, and CPCB and SPCBs can verify certificates.
Environmental compensation
The main financial consequence of missing an EPR target is environmental compensation (EC), levied on the polluter-pays principle. Under the plastic packaging guidelines:
- CPCB levies EC on PIBOs operating in more than two states; SPCBs levy it on the rest and on PWPs.
- Paying EC does not remove the obligation. The shortfall is carried forward for up to three years.
- If the shortfall is made good, EC is returned on a sliding scale: 75% within one year, 60% within two years and 40% within three years. After three years, the whole amount is forfeited.
The Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 use the same 75% return within one year as the first step of their scale. For e-waste, CPCB has issued separate EC guidelines, summarised in our e-waste EPR checklist.
Common misunderstandings
- “EPR is a certificate you buy once.” No. EPR registration is a standing obligation with yearly targets and returns.
- “Only manufacturers need EPR.” No. Importers and brand owners carry obligations under every regime above, and online marketplaces are named as brand owners in the plastic guidelines.
- “One EPR registration covers everything.” No. Each stream has its own rules and portal, and plastic packaging requires separate registrations for each sub-category and each state where you have units.
- “EPR replaces BIS or other approvals.” No. EPR is environmental. A product may still need BIS certification, BEE star labelling or other approvals, which run in parallel.
How Aaditech can help
Aaditech is a private compliance consultancy, independent of CPCB and the SPCBs. We map your products and packaging to each EPR regime, prepare sales data in the form each portal expects, file registrations and amendments, plan certificate purchases against your targets and keep returns on schedule. Because we also handle BIS, BEE and RoHS work, the same product data serves every filing. See our EPR registration service.