Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Computers and electronics and Waste and recycling

Discarded phones, computers and screens are the feedstock for e-waste recyclers, and India's extended producer responsibility rules make electronics brands pay recyclers to take them back. The money link is small in input-output terms, but the rules, the certificate price and the metal content of circuit boards decide whether formal recycling can outbid the informal trade.

Computers and electronics (industry) and Waste and recycling (industry): 6 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Buys from

Physical flow · ₹0.9 per ₹100 · Waste and recycling buys from Computers and electronics

Recyclers buy sorting, shredding and control equipment and IT systems that contain electronics, and some processing lines are built around electronic sensors.

  • ₹0.9 of every ₹100 of Waste and recycling output, all rounds (India 2022)
  • ₹0.4 bought directly

This is a small cost line for recyclers. The more important flow is physical: end-of-life devices, which are not counted as purchases from the electronics industry in the input-output tables. US producer price indices for the two move together over a year (12-month correlation about 0.53, monthly 0.23), mostly because both follow metal prices and general demand.

Sources: OECD; Material Insights (World Bank, FRED, IMF data)

2. Buys from

Physical flow · ₹0.8 per ₹100 · Computers and electronics buys from Waste and recycling

Electronics makers pay for collection, disposal of factory scrap and, under India's rules, for recycling of the devices they sold.

  • ₹0.8 of every ₹100 of Computers and electronics output, all rounds (India 2022)
  • ₹0.1 bought directly

Most of the spending is indirect, through metals and plastics that already passed through recyclers. The 2022 E-Waste Rules, under which producers buy recycling certificates, came into force only on 1 April 2023, after the 2022 table year, so the table understates today's direct link.

Sources: OECD; Lokmat Times (IANS)

3. Industry input

Physical flow · Criticality 4 of 5 · Computers and electronics to Waste and recycling

Battery and e-waste recyclers depend on electronics because discarded devices are their main feedstock.

  • 62 Mt world e-waste generated, 2022
  • 22.3% share documented as properly collected and recycled, 2022

Generation rises by about 2.6 Mt a year and is projected at 82 Mt by 2030, and UNITAR and ITU say it is growing five times faster than documented recycling. Asia generates about half of it. For a recycler the constraint is not total waste but how much reaches formal channels.

Enterprise types that depend on it:

  • Battery and e-waste recyclers: source of e-waste (criticality 4 of 5)

Sources: Material Insights; UNITAR and ITU

4. Industry input

Physical flow · Criticality 2 of 5 · Waste and recycling to Computers and electronics

Device makers rely on e-waste collectors and recyclers to meet take-back duties and handle factory scrap.

The dependence is rated low because a missing recycler does not stop production; it creates a compliance cost or penalty instead. It becomes material where regulators enforce collection targets and charge compensation for shortfalls.

Enterprise types that depend on it:

  • Battery and e-waste recyclers: source of e-waste (criticality 4 of 5)

Sources: Material Insights; Mondaq

5. Metal recovery

Physical flow · Medium · Old devices back to metals

Circuit boards hold far more gold, silver and palladium per tonne than most ores, so recovering them is the main source of value in e-waste recycling.

  • US$ 91 billion value of metals in world e-waste, 2022
  • US$ 28 billion value recovered by urban mining, 2022
  • 0.02 to 0.20% gold content of a printed circuit board, by weight

Most of the value actually recovered is iron, and only about 1% of rare earth demand is met from e-waste recycling. Recovered precious metals go back into general metal markets rather than straight to device makers, so the loop is economic more than physical. Metal prices set what recyclers can pay for scrap, and low-cost informal operators often outbid formal plants.

Sources: UNITAR and ITU; The Daily Brief, Zerodha

6. EPR rules

Policy · High in India · Brands pay for recycling

India's E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022 make producers buy recycling certificates for a share of what they sell, which turns electronics sales into recycler revenue.

  • 13.97 lakh t e-waste generated in India, 2024-25
  • ₹22 per kg floor price for EPR certificates, set March 2024

The rules were notified in November 2022, took effect on 1 April 2023 and cover over 130 product categories, with environmental compensation for producers who miss their targets. Daikin, Samsung, LG, Havells and Voltas were among the producers that challenged the floor price in the Delhi High Court in April 2025. Attero's chief executive put the formal sector's share of e-waste recycling at about 25% in November 2024, against about 1% four years earlier.

Sources: Lokmat Times (IANS); The Daily Brief, Zerodha; Mondaq

For investors

Key learnings

  1. The money flow between the two industries is small, but EPR certificates make device sales a direct source of revenue for formal recyclers in India.
  2. Recycler margins depend on precious metal prices and on the certificate floor price, both of which can change quickly.
  3. Only about a fifth of world e-waste is documented as recycled, so supply is limited by collection, not by the amount of waste generated.

What to track

  • EPR certificate prices and the Delhi High Court case: A lower or removed floor cuts formal recyclers' revenue (As ruled · Delhi High Court, CPCB portal)
  • Gold, silver and palladium prices: Set the value of circuit board scrap and recyclers' bids (Daily · LBMA, LME)
  • Formal share of e-waste recycled: Shows whether listed recyclers are winning volume from the informal trade (Annual · CPCB reports)

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. India generated about 14 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2024-25, up about 11% in a year, so collection capacity must grow at least as fast.
  2. A certificate floor price helps formal recyclers compete, but brands argue it raises costs, and the court outcome will shape the scheme.
  3. Recovering gold, silver, palladium and copper from circuit boards gives India a domestic secondary source of metals it largely imports, provided collection moves into formal plants.

What to track

  • E-waste generated and recycled by state: Shows enforcement gaps and where capacity is short (Annual · CPCB, Parliament replies)
  • Registered recycler capacity: Signals whether formal capacity matches EPR targets (Quarterly · CPCB EPR portal)

India

India generated 13.97 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2024-25, up from 12.54 lakh tonnes a year earlier, and about three quarters is still handled informally (2024 estimate); the 2022 EPR rules and the ₹22 per kg certificate floor are meant to shift volume to registered recyclers.

Sources

  1. OECD Input-Output Tables 2025 edition, India 2022, OECD
  2. Price correlation, Material Insights, Material Insights (World Bank, FRED, IMF data)
  3. Industry map: Waste and recycling, Material Insights (2026)
  4. Industry map: Computers and electronics, Material Insights (2026)
  5. Global E-waste Monitor 2024: electronic waste rising five times faster than documented e-waste recycling, UNITAR and ITU (2024)
  6. 13.97 lakh tonne e-waste generated in 2024-25: MoS, Lokmat Times (IANS) (2025)
  7. How India's e-waste rules found their teeth, The Daily Brief, Zerodha (2025)
  8. Navigating India's e-waste regulation, Mondaq (2024)