In an exclusive conversation, Tarun Jami, Founder of GreenJams, breaks down the implications of the new EPR regime, the opportunities it presents for developers, and how waste-to-value innovations such as Novastone™ and Agrocrete® could help transform India's construction landscape.
Q1. What are the most significant changes builders and developers need to be aware of under the new EPR framework?
The C&D Waste Management Rules 2025, effective April 1, 2026, are a meaningful departure from the 2016 guidelines; the shift from advisory to statutory obligation is what builders need to internalise first. The headline change is EPR. For the first time, bulk generators entities undertaking construction projects with a built-up area of 20,000 sq. metres or more are now mandated to recycle and reuse their construction and demolition waste. Producers must register on a centralised online portal before project commencement and receive a compliance certificate within 15 days. They are required to maintain records of waste quantities and disposal methods whether storage, recycling, or transfer to registered recyclers. LawrbitLawrbit The recycling targets are stepped but move fast: 25% recycling in 2025–26, scaling to 100% by 2028–29. The rules also introduce EPR certificates waste generators can meet their targets by purchasing certificates from registered recyclers, with the requirement to do so in advance. CEEWMongabay Resalable materials like iron, wood, plastic, and glass are excluded from EPR calculations only debris-type waste such as cement, bricks, and tiles counts toward the obligation. That's a nuance many developers haven't fully absorbed yet. Corporate professionals Non-compliance carries real consequences: unmet obligations may be carried forward up to three years, and environmental compensation can be levied for shortfalls. TaxTMI
Q2. What practical challenges do you foresee builders facing, particularly in cities like Bangalore?
Three challenges stand out, and they're interconnected. First, the infrastructure gap. The rules require waste to be channelled through registered recyclers — but the registry of certified processors in most cities, including Bangalore, is still nascent. Builders who want to comply in good faith may find they simply don't have enough certified partners to route waste to. The regulation has moved ahead of the processing ecosystem. Second, the documentation burden. Builders must maintain records of quantities and disposal methods and report annually, with data submitted by May 15 each year. Most mid-size developers don't have waste tracking systems built into their project management workflows. This is going to require process change at site level, not just at the compliance team. Lawrbit Third, awareness. The threshold of 20,000 sq. metres captures a large proportion of organised developers in Bangalore — but many are only now beginning to map out what their waste streams actually look like, let alone what they're obligated to do with them. Experts have flagged that small generators, who contribute significantly to unmanaged waste, remain a key gap the rules don't fully address. The compliance burden is concentrated on the larger players, while a significant volume of informal waste generation remains outside the framework for now. Mongabay
Q3. How can partnerships between builders and waste processors help organisations meet EPR responsibilities while reducing environmental impact? The EPR certificate mechanism is actually quite well-designed for this it creates a clear transactional basis for builder-processor partnerships. A builder who generates debris on a project can either manage recycling themselves (expensive, operationally complex) or partner with a registered processor and receive certificates against the waste transferred. GreenJams is working towards becoming a registered C&D waste processor in Bangalore, and our model is built around making this partnership frictionless for developers. We work with BBMP-certified waste vendors to collect and process C&D debris, convert it into Novastone™ blocks and pavers through our contract manufacturing network, and channel EPR certificates back to the generating developer. The developer gets compliance documentation; the waste gets converted into a commercially useful product rather than going to a landfill. The added benefit is local sourcing. Novastone is manufactured within 30 km of project sites where our CM network is active — so the same developer who generates demolition waste can, in some cases, procure recycled-content blocks for their next phase of construction. That's a genuinely circular loop, not just compliance on paper. Partnerships work best when they're formalised early in the project lifecycle. Builders who rope in a processor at the design or pre-construction stage can plan waste segregation at source, which significantly improves the quality and recyclability of the material. That upstream coordination is where the real environmental value is captured.
Q4. How does converting construction waste into products like Novastone™ and Agrocrete® support circular economy principles — and what does it offer beyond compliance? Circular economy in construction has a simple test: does material leaving one building become material entering the next, rather than ending up in a landfill or a burning pile? Both Novastone™ and Agrocrete® are built around that principle, though through different waste streams. Novastone™ is a zero-cement concrete product powered by our proprietary BINDR™ technology. It uses industrial byproducts — fly ash and ground slag — as its primary inputs, materials that would otherwise be landfilled or stored in ash ponds. When construction debris is processed and incorporated into the Novastone mix, the loop closes further: demolition waste becomes a verified, performance-tested building material. It achieves 60–70% lower embodied carbon compared to OPC concrete, and meets structural performance standards across the product family. Agrocrete® takes a different waste stream — agricultural residue (paddy straw) combined with fly ash and slag, bound by BINDR™. The straw would otherwise be burned in fields, a major source of particulate pollution across North India. By capturing it in a building block, we eliminate that emission and replace a carbon-emitting material with one that is carbon-negative: -0.14 kg CO₂ per kg, EPD-certified and third-party verified. Beyond compliance, the value proposition for developers is practical. Both products qualify for IGBC, LEED, and GRIHA material credits — which can unlock green financing advantages and faster project approvals in some municipalities. And because neither product depends on OPC cement, they're insulated from cement price volatility, which has been a persistent procurement headache for Indian developers over the past two years.
Q5. Could the C&D waste EPR framework become a turning point for India's construction sector? What opportunities do you see emerging? It has the potential to be, but execution will determine whether it becomes a turning point or another well-intentioned rule that outpaces enforcement capacity. The structural opportunity is real. The rules introduce waste utilisation targets alongside recycling targets — requiring processed waste to be incorporated back into construction projects, starting at 5% in 2026–27. Public projects are being directed to incorporate 20–30% recycled materials, varying by project size. That's a demand signal for recycled-content products that didn't exist in policy before. It creates a pull market, not just a push from compliance anxiety. CEEWLexBuddy Blog For the sustainable materials sector, this is genuinely significant. Products that carry verified environmental data EPDs, third-party test reports, traceable waste inputs — will increasingly be differentiated not just on ethics but on procurement eligibility. Developers bidding on projects that require recycled content documentation will need suppliers who can actually provide that paper trail. The bigger opportunity, to my mind, is data. India has no reliable national baseline on how much C&D waste is generated, where it goes, and how much gets recycled. The CPCB is responsible for setting up and maintaining a centralised online portal to monitor EPR and waste utilisation frameworks. Once that data starts flowing even imperfectly it creates the foundation for carbon accounting in construction, which is where institutional procurement is heading. Mondaq GreenJams' longer-term thesis is that the embodied carbon of a building will become a financial variable, not just a sustainability credential. When that shift happens, driven by disclosure requirements, green financing conditions, and eventually carbon pricing, having a documented, low-carbon material supply chain will be a competitive advantage for developers, not an add-on. The C&D Rules are one step in that direction.
