With this, the country intends to shift from being a passive exporter of e-waste and secondary materials to becoming a domestic supplier of vital resources such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements. 

While the global demand for these minerals is surging due to their essential role in clean energy technologies, electric vehicles and electronics, India currently depends heavily on imports, leaving it vulnerable to global price swings and supply chain disruptions. The new scheme seeks to change this equation by nurturing an advanced domestic recycling industry capable of recovering these high-value materials from discarded electronics, batteries, magnets and catalytic converters. 

According to B. K. Soni, Chairman and Managing Director of Eco Recycling Ltd, India’s e-waste recycling ecosystem has made “reasonable progress in the collection, dismantling and recovery of base and precious metals.” However, he points out that large-scale extraction of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements still demands far more advanced hydrometallurgical and analytical capabilities. “A few leading houses are already investing in such technologies, and the proposed government scheme could significantly accelerate this transition while also helping smaller players gradually scale up and become more competitive,” he says.

Soni believes that if the initiative is implemented with clear technical standards and predictable policy support, it could transform e-waste, lithium-ion batteries, catalytic converters and magnets into valuable domestic sources of strategic minerals. Yet he cautions that the sector faces two major bottlenecks: inconsistent feedstock and limited access to affordable technologies. Without addressing these, he warns, the full potential of critical mineral recovery in India will remain unrealised.

Attero, one of India’s most technologically advanced recyclers, represents what is possible when science and scale meet. Its CEO and co-founder, Nitin Gupta, describes the current landscape as “broad and uneven.” He notes that while many recyclers still focus only on dismantling, “a few companies have advanced to the next level of deep-tech recovery.” Attero, he adds, “is the only player in India capable of extracting lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements surpassing the globally benchmarked levels of purity and efficiency. We currently operate at 98% recovery efficiency and 99.9% purity, producing output that matches virgin-mined material in quality.”

The technology, Gupta insists, exists in India. What the sector now needs is scale, stable policy support, and a strong formal collection network. In his view, the ₹1,500 crore incentive scheme could be “a real turning point” for the country’s e-waste and critical minerals ecosystem. “With this policy push, recycling can supply a significant share of domestic demand, reduce landfill dependency, and create a local loop for valuable minerals. It could mark India’s transition from an importer to a reliable domestic supplier of critical minerals, strengthening our clean energy goals and industrial resilience,” he explains.

For Shubham Vishvakarma, founder and chief of process engineering at Metastable Materials, the government’s decision reflects “serious intent.” He says the move will trigger capital deployment into refining critical minerals and make domestic processing viable. “The government will underwrite part of the capital and operational risk for recyclers who process black mass into finished lithium, nickel, and cobalt metals or salts, as well as for end-to-end recyclers handling everything from dismantling to final products. This could shorten the value chain, reduce black mass exports, and attract partnerships and offtake agreements for recyclers,” he says. Vishvakarma believes the policy could shift the industry’s focus from pre-processing to refining, supporting the broader clean energy ecosystem while also allowing recyclers to secure higher margins.

Still, the road ahead is not without challenges. For one, much of India’s e-waste continues to move through informal channels. Gupta points out that more than 80% of e-waste still passes through unsafe and unscientific handlers. “Incentivising high-efficiency, compliant recycling will naturally encourage formalisation,” he says. “Over time, this will also lead to consolidation, as serious, technology-driven recyclers scale up and smaller informal players get integrated into organised collection and pre-processing networks.”

Vishvakarma agrees that feedstock quality and collection remain major pain points. “Feedstock quality determines refining efficiency. The material we get is often mixed and inconsistent, which makes hydrometallurgical processing more complex. High purity and high recovery rates require uniform feedstock,” he explains. “Technology and capital are also critical concerns since many recyclers stop at producing black mass because refining to metals or metal salts requires expensive infrastructure and the ability to handle multiple chemistries.”

Regulatory clarity, too, has been an obstacle. Existing rules such as the Battery Waste Management Rules have created some demand-side pressure, but enforcement is patchy. Soni notes that approvals and clearances for new facilities take longer than necessary, slowing legitimate expansion, while unscientific operators continue to distort the market. Gupta echoes this view, emphasising the need for “stronger oversight to weed out unscrupulous recyclers who operate without compliance.”

Beyond finance, experts agree that the sector needs a more stable and transparent regulatory framework. Soni believes fast-track approvals, stronger enforcement of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) norms, and strict checks to ensure that only authorised recyclers operate are essential steps. Recognising recycling units as part of India’s green infrastructure, he adds, would also attract long-term investment. Equally important is the creation of assured domestic offtake commitments so that recovered materials are directed into Indian manufacturing industries.

"Large-scale extraction of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements still demands far more advanced hydrometallurgical and analytical capabilities.”

Vishvakarma proposes the creation of centres of excellence and accredited technology-validation labs that can help recyclers scale up quickly. He argues that the government should establish clear recycled-content specifications in manufacturing, accreditation standards so that recycled outputs qualify for procurement more easily, and market guarantees through priority procurement by public agencies. “We also need matching grants for process optimisation, for example, impurity control or recovery improvements, so that technologies to do recycling better keep evolving,” he adds.

A crucial test for the new scheme will be how inclusive it is. While large recyclers such as Attero can achieve high-purity recovery at scale, small and medium recyclers play a vital role in local collection and dismantling. Integrating them into the formal system is key. Gupta says that “small and medium players are essential for local collection and dismantling. Integrating MSMEs into the larger ecosystem of organised recyclers like Attero can help create a robust, end-to-end value chain.” Vishvakarma adds that the government can democratise the benefits by funding training and formalisation pathways for informal collectors so they can become licensed suppliers to larger refining plants, along with offering hassle-free fast-track certifications for smaller facilities.

Ultimately, Soni argues, the export of valuable e-waste and end-of-life products must be minimised. “If such material continues to flow out of the country, the success of any domestic incentive scheme will remain largely on paper,” he warns. “Recipients of government support must keep national interest at the core — ensuring that India’s own requirements are met and that our recycling efforts contribute to GDP growth and the strengthening of foreign exchange reserves.”