Hazardous Wastes Management Regulations
Hazardous waste means any waste which, by reason of any of its physical, chemical, reactive, toxic, flammable, explosive, or corrosive characteristics, causes danger or is likely to cause danger to health or environment, whether alone or when in contact with other wastes or substances.
There are several legislations that directly or indirectly deal with hazardous waste management. The relevant legislations are the Factories Act, 1948, the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991, the National Environment Tribunal Act, 1995, and rules and notifications under the Environmental Act. Some of the rules dealing with hazardous waste management are discussed below:
Hazardous Wastes (Management, Handling and Transboundary) Rules, 2008, brought out a guide for the manufacture, storage, and import of hazardous chemicals and for the management of hazardous wastes.
Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, were formulated along parallel lines, for proper disposal, segregation, transport, etc, of infectious wastes.
Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, aim at enabling municipalities to dispose of municipal solid waste in a scientific manner.
In view of the short-comings and overlapping of some categories causing inconvenience in implementation of the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 as well as the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has formulated the draft Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2015 (Draft BMW Rules) and the draft Solid Waste Management Rules, 2015 (Draft SWM Rules) and sought comments on the draft Rules.
The Draft BMW Rules are to replace the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, and the Draft SWM Rules are to replace the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. The objective of the Draft BMW Rules is to enable the prescribed authorities to implement the rules more effectively, thereby, reducing the biomedical waste generation and also for its proper treatment and disposal and to ensure environmentally sound management of these wastes, and the Draft SWM Rules aim at dealing with the management of solid waste including it segregation at source, transportation of waste, treatment and final disposal.
E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 have been notified on May 1, 2011, and came into effect from May 1, 2012, with a primary objective to reduce the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment by specifying the threshold for use of hazardous material and to channelize the e-waste generated in the country for environmentally sound recycling. The Rules apply to every producer, consumer or bulk consumer, collection center, dismantler and recycler of e-waste involved in the manufacture, sale, purchase, and processing of electrical and electronic equipment or components as detailed in the Rules.
Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001 deal with the proper and effective management and handling of lead-acid batteries waste. The Act requires all manufacturers, assemblers, re-conditioners, importers, dealers, auctioneers, bulk consumers, consumers, involved in the manufacture, processing, sale, purchase, and use of batteries or components thereof, to comply with the provisions of Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001.
