Recycling is getting into the picture as India begins to recognise the strategic value locked inside e-waste and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. Beyond waste management, recycling is now being viewed as mineral recovery, especially as demand for electric vehicles, consumer electronics and clean energy continues to surge.
India generated an estimated 1.1 million tonnes of e-waste in 2025 and lithium-ion battery consumption is expected to exceed 250 GWh by 2030, according to a report by the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) and Accenture, making scientific recovery of materials a national priority.
This shift is also being driven by the growing need for critical minerals like nickel, cobalt and rare earths, most of which remain heavily import dependent. Urban mining offers a faster and cleaner pathway to strengthen mineral security, reduce landfill burden and retain material value within domestic manufacturing. With EVs, electronics and storage industries expanding in 2025, recycling is becoming central to how India plans to build strategic supply chains.
To support this change, a new Rare Earths and Advanced Materials Research Centre was inaugurated on Tuesday in Wada, Palghar, near Mumbai. The facility aims to accelerate recovery pathways from e-waste and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries by improving yield, purity and scientific process efficiencies. The research agenda includes rare earth recovery, advanced separation and purification, battery materials optimisation and scalable process development.
Spread across 5 acres, the centre has been designed as a long-term research platform that will evolve over the next five years. Its research will strengthen the company’s rare earth initiatives as it aims for a 20,000 MT processing capacity. RECYCLEKARO currently operates 24,500 MT of e-waste capacity and 10,000 MT of lithium-ion battery recycling capacity, supporting responsible resource recovery at scale.
To build sustained capability, the company will invest around Rs 500 crore by 2030 in a phased manner to strengthen research infrastructure and hire specialised talent across materials science, metallurgy, chemical engineering and related disciplines. The company is expanding industry-academia collaborations with IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad and other institutions, while also partnering with overseas companies for globally benchmarked research.
Meanwhile, Rajesh Gupta, Founder and Managing Director of Evergreen Recyclekaro, said, “India’s mineral security must be strengthened not only through imports or mining, but also through what we can recover. This centre will advance the science of urban mining by improving material understanding, recovery pathways and process efficiencies, so end-of-life products can become a more reliable resource for a circular and self-reliant India.”
With over 13 years of experience, the company has worked with leading consumer electronics brands and operates around 1,200 touchpoints across India.
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