Starting from April 2025, Indian automobile manufacturers will have to mandatorily recycle eight percent of steel from vehicles sold in 2005-2006, according to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), as notified by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) on Tuesday, January 14.
The percentage of recycling will be gradually increased to 18 percent by 2035-36, the notification said.
The mandatory provision of steel recycling has been linked to automobiles sold 20-21 years ago, considering the end of life of the vehicles.
As per the Environment Protection (End-of-Life Vehicles) Rules, automobile manufacturers must ensure safe collection and recycling of end-of-life vehicles in compliance with annual targets. They must purchase EPR certificates from authorised scrapping facilities to prove their compliance, the notification said.
“They will also need to create awareness for consumers and have schemes for buy back, and register their activities on a centralised portal to be managed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Every producer shall take measures for sustainable production of vehicles, including in accordance with guidelines issued by the central board,” the notification added.
Officials said these provisions will help contribute to vehicle scrapping at formal settings known as Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs). At present, there are 82 RVSFs in the country and the government aims to increase the number of them to 100 in the next three months.
The new rules state that the CPCB will issue EPR certificates through a centralised online portal in favour of RVSFs. It will develop a mechanism for such an exchange on the portal and the EPR certificates will be generated on the basis of the weight of steel recovered from ELVs processed at the RVSFs or other steel scrap materials related to the automobile sector processed at these facilities.
Automobile companies can purchase ERP certificates generated by a RVSF through the portal to meet obligations under the rules.
