India's Waste Rules Overhaul
India rewrote its waste rulebook in the first half of 2026. The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 retired the 2016 framework and, from 1 April, obliged homes and institutions to sort refuse into four categories rather than two. Soon after, amendments to the plastic-packaging rules forced recycled content in rigid plastic to climb toward 60% by the end of the decade. Beneath both sits a clean-up sprint: the Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme, begun in late 2025, is racing to flatten the country's legacy garbage hills and reach 'zero dumpsites' by October 2026. Taken together, the three moves nudge India away from collect-and-dump toward a circular economy anchored in producer responsibility.
- SWM Rules 2026
- MoEFCC
- Plastic Waste Management
- EPR
- DRAP
- SBM-Urban 2.0
- EBWGR
- dumpsite remediation
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