On April 2, 2025, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (“MoEFCC”) issued the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2025 (“2025 Construction Waste Rules”), in supersession of the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016. The 2025 Construction Waste Rules will come into effect on April 1, 2026, and aim to promote the recycling and utilization of construction and demolition waste as well as to address the issues of air and water pollution caused by the generation of such waste.

Through the 2025 Construction Waste Rules, the concept of extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) for builders or developers undertaking construction activity on a built-up area of 20,000 square meters and above (“Producers”) has been introduced as a compliance obligation. Producers are required to meet recycling targets for each financial year beginning from the year 2025-26, and implement a waste utilization framework for the management of the construction and demolition waste generated from their projects. Producers achieving EPR targets will be eligible for extended producer responsibility certificates, which can be adjusted against their recycling target for the current year or used to complete leftover recycling obligations of preceding years. Producers may also transact in extended producer responsibility certificates in accordance with the certificate prices fixed by the Central Pollution Control Board (“CPCB”).

The 2025 Construction Waste Rules specify the responsibilities of the various stakeholders involved in the generation and management of construction waste, i.e., (i) waste generators; (ii) Producers and road project developers; (iii) contractors, service providers and authorized agencies; (iv) operators of waste storage facilities; (v) recyclers; (vi) the CPCB; and (vii) the Central and State Governments and administrative authorities.

Local authorities, i.e., agencies or bodies designated by the respective State governments for functions relating to sanitation at a local or municipal level, have been tasked with the implementation of the 2025 Construction Waste Rules, and are required to establish a system for the collection and storage of construction waste in their respective jurisdictions, and ensure that construction projects are enforcing the waste management framework in accordance with the standard operating procedure issued by the CPCB in this regard.