By Trina Tan
India is proposing significant amendments to the country’s 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules, with a stronger emphasis on stricter Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the use of recycled plastics in packaging across various categories this year and next.
On 3 June, the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) issued a draft notification that proposed key amendments to the existing Plastics Waste Management Rules, to ‘prove statutory framework for plastics waste management in the country in an environmentally sound manner’, adding that ‘in order to further strengthen the effective implementation of guidelines on EPR on plastics packaging, amendments are being proposed to remove certain difficulties’.
The key amendment calls for the mandatory use of recycled plastics in packaging. For rigid packaging, for instance, brand owners and packaging manufacturers have to ensure 30 per cent of their packaging contains recycled plastics by 2026. By 2027, the recycled plastics content has to be 40 per cent, 50 per cent by 2028, and 60 per cent from 2029 onwards.
For flexible plastics packaging, brand owners and packaging manufacturers will have to ensure such packaging contains 10 per cent of recycled plastics content by 2026-2027, and 20 per cent thereafter.
Multilayered plastics packaging – in other words, packaging with at least one layer of plastics and at least one other layer of non-plastics material – will need to have 5 per cent recycled plastics content by 2026, and 10 per cent thereafter.
Importer targets
Importers of plastics packaging have different targets to meet. For rigid packaging, the recycled plastics content has to be 30 per cent by 2026, 40 per cent by 2027, 50 per cent by 2028, and 60 per cent from 2029 onwards. For flexible packaging, it is 10 per cent by 2026 and 20 per cent from 2027 onwards, while for multilayered plastics packaging the recycled content has to be 5 per cent by 2026 and 20 per cent from 2027 onwards.
Additionally, for importers, recycled content already present in imported plastics packaging products will not count towards compliance. Importers will have to purchase a ‘certificate of equivalent quantity from such producers, importers and brand owners that have used recycled content in excess of their obligation’, via a centralised online portal that the Central Pollution Board (CPB) will develop to enable such trading certificates and reporting.
For all brand owners, packaging manufacturers and importers, where it is not possible to meet the above obligations due to statutory or technical requirements – for instance, in food-contact packaging, exemption may be granted by the CPB on a case-by-case basis. This pertains to statutory requirements ‘where the use of recycled content is not allowed by any other law in force’.
At the same time, recognising the difficulties that could arise from meeting these obligations, MOEFCC noted in its draft notification that the entities ‘may be allowed to carry forward any shortfall in fulfilment of mandatory use of recycled plastics in plastics packaging for the year 2025-2026, for a period of three years starting 2026-2027, over and above the target mandated for those years’.
With this most recent draft notification in June, we can now better understand why the Indian government amended its regulations earlier in March this year to allow for the use of rPET in food-contact packaging in its published updated regulations: Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) First Amendment Regulations 2025.
However, following the MOEFCC announcement that mandatory recycled content targets could be carried forward over a period of three years, the Association of PET Recyclers issued a stark warning that such a change could disrupt demand and undermine confidence in the market.
According to the coalition of Indian recycling firms, that proposal has prompted many brand owners to delay purchasing rPET, with some anticipating that enforcement may ultimately be further weakened or postponed altogether.
The industry has so far invested an estimated INR 75-80 billion ($900-960 million) in rPET infrastructure, with a planned capacity of 400,000 tonnes. Of that, 150,000t is already operational and authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, and another 150,000t is close to receiving authorisation.
Industry voices warn that this mismatch between policy goals and brand-owner action threatens to undo years of progress towards a circular economy. They argue that without firm enforcement and clarity, India risks falling behind on its climate targets and sustainable packaging commitments.
Brand-owner obligations
Under the proposed amendments, brand owners will have to meet minimum reuse obligations for rigid packaging they use. For products of packaging volume or weight of between 900ml or 0.9 kilograms to under 4.9 litres or 4.9 kilograms, brand owners will need to reuse 10 per cent by 2026, 15 per cent by 2027, 20 per cent by 2028, and 25 per cent from 2029 onwards.
Specifically for drinking water products of packaging volume 4.9l or above, brand owners will need to reuse 10 per cent by 2027, 80 per cent by 2028, and 85 per cent from 2029 onwards.
For other liquid products (anything that’s not drinking water) of packaging volume 4.9l or above, brand owners will need to reuse 10 per cent by 2026 and 15 per cent from 2027.
This reuse quantity will be calculated by deducting the quantity of virgin plastics packaging manufactured/imported/purchased in that year from the brand owners’ sales. Brand owners will need to declare such to the same online portal set up by the CPB. Shortfalls in reuse targets for 2025 and 2026 can also be carried forward over the next three years.
The Plastic Waste Management Rules were created by MOEFCC back in 2016 to provide statutory framework for plastics waste management in India in an environmentally sound manner. They underwent multiple amendments from 2018 to 2025 – one of the most significant changes being in 2022, when guidelines on EPR on plastics packaging were introduced.
This draft notification by MOEFCC was available for public comment until 7 August 2025, after which the new requirements were submitted to India’s central government for consideration. When passed, the new rules will be titled ‘Plastics Waste Management (Second Amendment) Rules, 2025’ and come into force on the date of their publication in the official gazette.
Additionally, on 2 July of this year, India’s Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs announced a new rule that requires importers of plastics raw materials to present proof of registration on the country’s Centralised EPR Portal for Plastic Packaging before their shipments can clear customs.
This covers importers of ‘plastics raw material including in the form of resin or pellets, or intermediate material to be used for manufacturing plastics packaging such as films or preforms’. In other words, any import business that has anything to do with plastics packaging, products that use plastics packaging, or plastics raw materials, or even intermediate materials for the manufacturing of plastics packaging.
Not only do such importers have to register on the EPR portal, they will also have to submit category-wise data on all imported plastics, adhere to annual EPR targets and keep records for annual returns filing.
This rule on importers is seen as the India government’s move to thoroughly cut off any loopholes that businesses might try to be creative with, in order to appear compliant with the stricter sustainability regulations lawmakers are trying to pass and execute.
