DITAA 2026: India’s e-waste can become new source of raw materials for electronics makers, says Mayank Sinha, Business Head, Selsmart
Follow UsE-waste could help meet India’s growing demand for raw materials.
Recycling can support electronics manufacturing and reduce material shortages.
Easy take-back services could encourage more consumers to recycle old products.
Digit India’s Top Appliance Awards 2026 (DITAA 2026) recently concluded, bringing together some of the biggest names from the home appliance industry. The event was graced by guests of honour, including Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mr Brajesh Pathak and Chief Guest Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, PP/DoPT, Atomic Energy and Space. The evening wasn’t just about handing out trophies, though, as Digit also showcased to the audience how its appliances actually get tested in the lab before any award is decided. Moreover, the event has had a few panel discussions where the top minds in the industry talked about the new trends, emerging technologies, evolving consumer preferences, and the broader impact of the home appliance industry.
SurveyDuring a panel discussion on the future of manufacturing in India, Mayank Sinha, the Business Head at Sellsmart, said that the country’s growing e-waste problem could also become an important source of raw materials for electronic makers, rather than simply being a disposal challenge that manufacturers and consumers need to deal with once a product’s life ends.
Sinha said recycling can help India’s manufacturing a lot more, especially now that factories are facing supply problems and shortages of important materials. He also added that recycling shouldn’t be treated as a separate business. Instead, the materials recovered from recycling should be linked directly to what manufacturers actually need.
‘Companies like Sellsmart are able to extract 27 metals at 99.9 per cent purity, which means that they can be reused in original manufacturing,’ Sinha said during the discussion.
According to Sinha, this can become increasingly important as more electronics, batteries and appliances reach the end of their usable life. Once these products enter the recycling system, the materials recovered from them can potentially be used again by manufacturers, reducing the need to depend entirely on fresh raw materials.
He also pointed to changing consumer expectations as another reason why recycling and product take-back systems need to become easier. Consumers increasingly want convenience, including having old products picked up from their homes when they buy new ones.
‘They are looking for someone to plug the whole ecosystem of not only buying but quickly someone coming and picking up,’ Sinha said, adding that brands that build such services into their businesses could gain an advantage in a competitive market.
Sinha noted that this shift is already visible in practice in parts of South India, including Kerala. Even modest price reductions tied to take-back or exchange offers have counterintuitively driven higher order volumes, a sign that consumers respond strongly to convenience-driven recycling models.
Sinha further said the connection between recycling and manufacturing is already beginning to grow, with government support helping the ecosystem expand. If recyclers can provide materials in a form that manufacturers can directly use, those recovered resources become far more valuable.
