The rulebooks governing what happens to India's garbage, plastic, e-waste and medical waste.
These rules replaced the 2000 rules and, for the first time, brought rural areas and industrial townships within their scope (earlier rules covered only municipal areas). They mandate segregation at source into wet, dry, and hazardous waste, and shift responsibility onto waste generators.
First notified in 2016 and repeatedly amended, these rules progressively banned identified single-use plastic items (from 1 July 2022) and introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) — making plastic producers, importers and brand owners responsible for the collection and environmentally sound management of plastic packaging waste they introduce into the market.
The E-Waste (Management) Rules also apply the EPR principle to electronic manufacturers. The Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 govern the segregation, collection and disposal of waste generated by hospitals and healthcare facilities, using a colour-coded bag/container system.
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