On March 21, 2023, India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) released a draft proposal for average life of the notified Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) items under the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, which came into force on April 1, 2023.
The Rules set up e-waste recycling targets from 2023 onwards, which take into account of the average life of an EEE item in its calculation. Producers are required to reach designated recycling rate as follows:
| Year (Y) | E-Waste Recycling Rate |
| 2023 | 60% |
| 2024 | 60% |
| 2025 | 70% |
| 2026 | 70% |
| 2027 | 80% |
| 2028 onwards | 80% |
Note: E-waste recycling target shall be reviewed and may be increased after the end of year 2028.
The draft proposes average life for 85 categories of EEE items. Here are several examples:
| Categories | Items | EEE code | Average life in years (X) |
Information technology and telecommunication equipment | Tablets, I-PAD | ITEW19 | 5 |
Scanners | ITEW21 | 5 | |
| Routers | ITEW22 | 10 | |
Consumer Electrical and Electronics and Photovoltaic Panels | Radio sets | CEEW7 | 8 |
| Video cameras | CEEW9 | 5 | |
| Audio amplifiers | CEEW12 | 7 | |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
As per the Rules, the e-waste recycling target is calculated by:
E-waste recycling rate × Sales volume of an EEE in year Y-X
For example, the recycling target for the above EEE item "Scanners" in 2023 can be calculated as follow:
E-waste recycling rate in 2023 is 60%;
The average life of a scanner is 5 years;
The sales volume in 2018 (2023-5) is 1500kg;
E-waste recycling target for the scanner is 1500kg × 60%=900kg.
