Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. They are notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and apply across India. The obligations, the bulk waste generator thresholds, the CPCB portal and the 30 June annual-return date are the same nationwide; enforcement intensity and EBWGR pricing vary by city.

Non-compliance can attract environmental compensation levied by the State Pollution Control Board, as well as spot fines that local bodies notify in their bye-laws. The amounts depend on your state and city. See the SWM Rules 2026 guide for the detail.

An organisation in a listed category is a bulk waste generator if it meets any one of three tests: a building floor area of 20,000 sq.m. or more, water consumption of 40,000 litres a day, or waste generation of 100 kg a day. Unit or flat count is not a test.

Bulk waste generators must register on the CPCB portal, process wet waste on site or hold an exemption, discharge Extended Bulk Waste Generator Responsibility (EBWGR) through certificates from the local body, use only registered partners, and file an annual return by 30 June.

Being below the thresholds does not remove every duty. Every generator must segregate, and all RWAs, market associations, hotels and restaurants, and gated communities and institutions above 5,000 sq.m., carry additional duties under Rule 5(2) whatever their size. The free gap check asks for your floor area, water use and waste figures and tells you which tier you fall in.

No. Segregation is the starting point. Depending on your tier, you also need records showing where each stream went, registered collectors and processors, wet-waste processing or an exemption, EBWGR certificates, and the annual return. Most organisations also carry obligations outside waste, such as a sewage treatment plant consent, a fire NOC or a groundwater NOC.

The difficulty is rarely knowing the rules. It is keeping the evidence day after day, so that it exists when an inspector or the annual return asks for it.

Yes, for your other streams. On-site composting or bio-methanation meets the wet-waste duty, so wet waste drops out of your certificate quantity. EBWGR still covers the dry, sanitary and special care waste you hand over. EBWGR certificates are generated by the local body through the CPCB portal; a collector or processor can only issue them if the local body has authorised it to. See the EBWGR section of the SWM guide.

No. SWM Rules 2026 is usually the most visible obligation, but a typical organisation also has plastic, e-waste and battery waste duties, and often a sewage treatment plant consent, diesel generator norms, a groundwater NOC, fire safety, FSSAI or Shops and Establishments registration. EarthReheal WasteLedger tracks all of the rules that apply to your organisation type in one place. Pick your organisation type at the top of this page to see the list.

They do different jobs. The CPCB portal is where registrations are made and returns are filed. EarthReheal WasteLedger is where the underlying work is done and recorded every day: which staff did which task, what was collected and handed over, the photographs, and the approvals.

When a return is due or an inspector visits, the question is whether the figures can be backed by records made at the time. That is the gap EarthReheal WasteLedger fills. It does not file on the portal on your behalf.

A register or spreadsheet records what someone wrote down, often reconstructed at filing time. In EarthReheal WasteLedger:

• the completion time of each task is set by our server, not typed in (a task completed without a signal is stamped when it reaches the server);
• every completed task needs at least one photograph, stored with a digital fingerprint (SHA-256) and the time the phone reports it was taken; its location is checked against your site, and a photo without a location is flagged for review;
• once submitted, evidence cannot be edited or deleted: a correction is a new version, and the original stays in the history;
• each step of approval (worker, supervisor, manager) is recorded with who acted and when; and
• a rejected submission is kept, so the record shows what was sent back and why.

It also knows which rules apply to you, and reminds you before licences and filings fall due.

A facility management app schedules work. It does not usually know which environmental rules apply to your premises, which evidence each one needs, when licences expire or which filings fall due. EarthReheal WasteLedger starts from the rules applicable to your organisation type and builds the daily tasks, evidence and reminders from them.

If your facility management company already runs your site, its staff can use EarthReheal WasteLedger to record the work. Facility management companies that run several sites can see them together in one portfolio view.

No. EarthReheal Pvt. Ltd. is a private company. EarthReheal WasteLedger helps organisations meet their obligations and keep the evidence; it does not replace any registration, consent or filing with a regulator.

Start with the free gap check: pick your organisation type and choose Check your gaps. It takes about five minutes, and a summary of your gaps is emailed to you. From your report there are two ways in:

• Start free. Sign up for the free plan yourself, straight from the report. It keeps your licences, what applies to you and your documents in one place, with one Manager login. See "Can we sign up ourselves?" below.
• Licensed plan. Talk to us to start a free trial of the full product. We set up your organisation with you, including the rules that apply, your sites and your staff accounts.

Yes, for the free plan. Run the gap check for your organisation type, and on the report choose Start free. Confirm who should get the Manager login (name, email and mobile) and agree to the terms. There is nothing to fill in again: your free account is set up from the answers you gave in the gap check.

Scrap dealers and NGOs sign up the same way: run the gap check for a scrap dealer or an NGO and choose Start free.

Each request is checked by our team before the account is created, usually within one working day. The Manager then gets an email with the sign-in details for the EarthReheal mobile app, where the free plan runs. The licensed plan is set up with our team rather than by self sign-up.

• Licences and renewals: every licence and registration that applies to you, with its status. Where an expiry date is recorded, you get reminders before it runs out.
• What applies to you: the rules for your organisation type and why they apply, with a calendar of filings and renewals.
• Documents and sharing: a folder for your licences and certificates. You can share it with an inspector or auditor through a link that expires and that you can withdraw.

A scrap dealer also gets its buy side: post buy prices that citizens near your shop see, and answer 3 citizen sell requests a month (see "What is the monthly limit for scrap dealers?"). An NGO also gets its community work: events and volunteer sign-ups, donation points, picker schemes and a public NGO profile.

The free plan runs in the EarthReheal mobile app (Android or iOS), with one Manager login. Daily jobs, your team's logins, the web dashboard, reports and vendor checks come with the licensed plan.

Residential societies (RWAs), hotels, hospitals, schools, colleges, corporate offices, IT parks, malls, restaurants, material recovery centres, landfills and transfer stations, government bulk waste generators, scrap dealers and NGOs. If Start free does not appear on your gap-check report, your organisation type is not on the free plan yet: talk to us about a trial of the licensed plan instead.

So that every account belongs to a real organisation and the Manager login goes to the right person. The account holds your licences and documents, and it can be shared with an inspector, so we confirm the request before creating it. If something needs checking, we contact the person named on the request. If a request cannot go ahead, ask for a call back on your report and we will help.

Yes. Missing documents, registrations or data never block setup. They appear as open items on your path to compliance, in order of priority, with target dates and reminders you can set. Daily operations can run while those items are being closed.

A smartphone with the EarthReheal app (Android or iOS). Housekeeping and operations staff see only the tasks assigned to them for the day, and complete each one with a photograph. Supervisors and managers review and approve from the app or from the web dashboard.

Workers can complete their tasks without a signal, for example in a basement; the completions are uploaded automatically when the phone reconnects. Supervisors' reviews and completions need a connection.

Waste generation of 100 kg a day is one of the three bulk waste generator tests, so weighed records matter: they establish your status and support your annual return. We recommend weighing each stream rather than estimating. Where a collection is weighed, the weight is recorded against the day of collection, and the task photograph can show the scale reading.

Each premises is set up as its own organisation, because consents, registrations and licences are issued to a premises, not to a company. Two sites are two sets of consents and two annual returns, and combining them would produce records that are wrong while looking right.

Group owners and facility management companies can see all their sites together in a portfolio view. Workers and supervisors who work across several sites get one list of jobs covering all of them, and can view it grouped by site.

Workers, such as housekeeping or operations staff, complete their tasks on the app with a photograph. A supervisor reviews and approves or sends back each submission, and the manager gives the final approval. Committee members or owners see the approved record and the compliance position on the dashboard. The approval layers can be matched to how your organisation is run.

A task not completed on its day is marked overdue by the nightly check that runs after that day has ended, so a task due on Monday shows as overdue from Tuesday night. It stays on the record as overdue; it is not deleted or quietly rescheduled. A supervisor can complete it later with photographic evidence, and the record shows both the day it was due and the time it was actually done.

The supervisor sends the submission back with a reason. The original submission, including its photographs, is kept in the task history together with who sent it back, when and why, and the worker's corrected submission is recorded as a new version. The record therefore shows both the original and the correction.

Submissions awaiting approval are listed on the manager's dashboard and in the app, and the monthly compliance report shows how many of the period's tasks are not yet done. Licence renewals, filings and open items on your path to compliance also generate reminders ahead of their due dates.

Only the people in your organisation you give access to, each limited to their role. A worker sees their own tasks; managers see their organisation. Your records are not shared with other organisations. You can give an inspector or auditor time-limited access to your documents through a link that you can withdraw at any time. From the web dashboard you choose which documents to include and how long the link lasts (1 to 90 days); a link shared from the mobile app includes all your current documents for 7 days.

Yes. Managers can export reports and records as PDF, Excel, CSV or JSON from the reports page at any time while the subscription is active. We recommend exporting your records each year after the annual return is filed.

Your records are not deleted when a subscription ends; access is paused. If you subscribe again, your full history is available as it was. Open recurring jobs are cancelled while the subscription is inactive, and scheduled jobs restart when you subscribe again. Because access is paused while the subscription is inactive, export any records you need before it ends. If you ask us to delete your organisation's data, we will confirm with you before anything is removed.

Yes. Paid organisation types get a 30-day free trial with the full product. Material recovery centres and municipalities get 90 days. Ask for a trial.

The free plan is different from a trial: it covers licences, what applies to you and documents only, and it does not run out. See "Is the free plan really free?" below.

Yes. There is no charge and no payment details are asked for. It is not a trial, so it does not end after a set number of days. It stays limited to licences, what applies to you and documents, with one Manager login.

In the EarthReheal mobile app, open Licences & documents and choose Move to the licensed plan. Our team gets in touch to confirm your team (an email or mobile number for each person) and a few details about your site, which decide the rules that apply to you.

Our team reviews the request. Once it is approved, your licences, documents and dates carry over, your team get their own logins, you can sign in on the web as well, and daily jobs start from the rules that apply to you. The licensed plan's pricing applies from then (see "How is the price worked out?").

On the free plan a scrap dealer answers 3 citizen sell requests a month. Requests that are open or completed count; a request the citizen cancels or you decline does not, and donations never count. There is no fee per request.

From the 4th request in a month you still get a notification, but the request is locked: you cannot see who sent it, what or when until you move to the full plan. If one of your requests is cancelled or declined, the oldest locked request opens. A locked request that is not opened within 48 hours goes back to the citizen so they can choose another buyer.

The full plan has no monthly limit, adds your team's logins and the web portal. Ask for it from the app: tap Upgrade to the full plan on a locked request or on Requests this month.

Prices are set per organisation type and size, for example by number of flats for a residential society, rooms for a hotel or beds for a hospital. The Base package covers waste-management compliance; the Full package adds the general-compliance rules that apply to you. Prices are monthly and exclude GST at 18%. Paying annually costs ten months for twelve.

The gap check asks for your size, and our team follows up with a quote.

No product can guarantee a regulatory outcome, and we do not. What it gives you is a record made at the time, with photographs and approvals, that shows what was done and when. An organisation with those records is in a far stronger position at an inspection or a hearing than one reconstructing registers after the event.

Two things. First, your documents: consents, registrations, licences and certificates, which you can share through a time-limited link that you can withdraw (on the web you choose the documents and a validity of 1 to 90 days; from the mobile app the link covers all your current documents for 7 days). Second, your operational record: the monthly compliance report, which you can print or export as PDF, covering tasks, approvals, compliance gaps and renewals for the period.

Yes. An organisation that can show it identified its gaps, has a plan to close them and has kept daily records since is in a much better position than one with no records at all. EarthReheal WasteLedger keeps a history of your progress, so the improvement itself is on the record.

EarthReheal builds evidence infrastructure for environmental work, starting with waste. EarthReheal WasteLedger is for organisations. The EarthReheal App is for households. Waste is where we started, not where we stop.

The EarthReheal App is our mobile app for households. You can organise cleanup drives with neighbours, sell recyclables to listed buyers, learn what to do with household waste, and build a Green Passport over time. If no buyers are listed near you yet, tell us and we will reach out to waste handlers in your area.

Scrap dealers and local collectors sign up themselves: run the gap check for scrap dealers and choose Start free. After our team approves it, post your buy prices in the EarthReheal app and citizens near your shop can find you and send you sell requests (3 a month on the free plan). Licensed handlers (recyclers, composters, processors) can write to us and we set up your account with you.

Yes. Material Recovery Centres and urban local bodies record collection rounds, intake and dispatch, composting and processing, and produce their compliance reports from those records. Talk to us about your wards.

Yes. Organisations running cleanup drives, community composting or awareness work sign up themselves: run the gap check for NGOs and choose Start free. After our team approves it, your Manager gets one login for the EarthReheal app to post drives and events, pin donation points and keep your public NGO profile. For more logins or the web portal, write to us about the full plan.

Partnerships range from data sharing and joint fieldwork to co-designing modules for under-served waste streams such as e-waste. We are open to CSR co-funding, academic collaboration and ecosystem building. Write to us with a brief on your work.

In India. EarthReheal runs on Microsoft Azure in the Central India region, and data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Send us a note with your area of interest and we will add you to the relevant update list.