Professional Documents
Culture Documents
S. M. Zaki Ahmad
Submitted to:
National Centre for Advocacy Studies, India (Pune)
2008
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CONTENTS Page
INTRODUCTION 1
HAZARDOUS WASTE 2
B. Sources 4
C. Storage 6
D. Treatment 6
G. Conclusion 15
H. REFERENCES 16
India is the first country that has made constitutional provisions for
protection and improvement of the environment. In the Directive Principles of
State Policy of the Constitution, Article 48-A of Chapter IV enjoins the state to
make endeavour for protection and improvement of the environment and for
safeguarding the forest and wild life of the Country. In Article 51 A (g) of the
Constitution, one of the fundamental duties of every citizen of India is to protect
and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life
and to have compassion for living creatures. Inspite of that there is no proper
secured landfill facility available in India to dispose of Hazardous Waste (HW) till
1997. Very few industries in India, mostly in large scale and a few in medium
scales, own proper treatment and disposal facilities. Few Guidelines issued by
Ministry of Environment and Forests under Hazardous Wastes (Management &
Handling) Rules, 1989 promulgated under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 are
available in India for selection of best site for Treatment, Storage and Disposal
Facility (TSDF) TSDF. Finally in 2007 India makes rule on hazardous waste
management the rule known as “The Hazardous Materials (Management, Handling
and Trans-boundary Movement) Rules, 2007.” But this rule does not fulfil the
norm of the basal convention because India signed the basal convention agreement
in 1990 on hazardous and other waste.
HAZARDOUS WASTE:-
on hazardous waste, the definition of hazardous waste is “A waste will fall under
the scope of the Convention if it is within the category of wastes listed in Annex I
of the Convention and it does exhibit one of the hazardous characteristics
contained in Annex III [1]. In other words it must both be listed and contain a
characteristic such as being explosive, flammable, toxic, or corrosive.” This
definition includes any product that releases hazardous substance at the end of its
life, if indiscriminately disposed off.
The hazardous waste can be classified into- (i) Solid wastes (ii) Liquid wastes (iii)
Gaseous wastes (iv) Sludge wastes. The Hazardous Waste needs to be disposed off
in a secured manner in view of their characteristic properties. Severe pollution of
land, surface and ground water may occur if the options available for Hazardous
Waste Management (HWM) are not being efficiently utilized by the waste
generators. As per the ideal industrial sitting criteria in India, the industry should
have enough land available within its premises for the treatment and disposal and
or reuse/recycling of the wastes generated from it. However, very few industries in
India own proper treatment and disposal facilities. According to hazardous waste
management rule, the hazardous wastes are divided into 18 categories. These are in
the following table:
Waste Waste Type Regulatory Quantities
Category
sulphides and ammonia nitrogen. Sludge from filtration processes may contain
volatile compounds such as benzene, as well as phenols and poly-aromatic-
hydrocarbons (PAHs). Trace metals, including iron, chromium, lead, mercury,
zinc, copper, and vanadium, may also be present.
Chemical: - The chemical industries are also the source of the hazardous waste. It
contain Compounds include both conventional and persistent toxic contaminants
originating from the raw materials used, reactants, the end products and bi-
products and occur in varying concentrations. Conventional pollutants include
acids, bases, suspended solids, oil and grease, organic carbon and nitrogen. Toxic
pollutants may include metals, phenols, chlorinated hydrocarbons and PAHs.
Pulp and paper: - Pulp and paper is one of India’s important industries. Each
tonne of paper requires approximately 100 m3 of water. The waste water produced
in pulp and paper mills may contain wood fibers, finely divided solids, and a
complex mixture of chemicals and compounds derived from wood and the
chemicals used in the production process. Chemicals such as dioxins and furans
produced from the chlorine used in the bleaching process are quite toxic.
Consumers: - Consumers also generate hazardous wastes whenever they discard
paint, solvents, old batteries, pesticides, cleaners and a number of other household
products. It has been estimated that the average consumer generates 2.5 kg of
hazardous waste a year.
C. Storage:-
“Storage” as discussed here refers to temporary containment of a hazardous waste
for transport, or while awaiting treatment and/or disposal. Environmental and
health hazards can arise during such storage, as has been sufficiently demonstrated
by the large number of reported spills and leakages of PCBs in recent years.
Detailed guidelines for the storage of hazardous wastes in India have been
presented in hazardous waste management rule 2007 2. As well, guidelines for
storage building designs and container designs for specific substances are outlined
and include information on the proper handling of these substances. Recognition of
the incompatibility of some wastes is important for proper storage in order to avoid
violent, explosive reactions and/or toxic fumes.
Monitoring at storage facilities should involve in-plant surveillance and
inspection, together with thorough record-keeping that can account for all qualities
and quantities of wastes being stored. According to this rule “All hazardous
materials upon leaving the premises of the occupier shall be stored in licensed
storage facilities for a maximum period of ninety days, at the end of which such
2
The Hazardous Materials (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2007, Ministry of forest
and environment government of India.
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stored material shall be sent to licensed facilities for recycling, or in the event that
these are hazardous wastes these shall be sent to licensed facilities for disposal3.”
D. Treatment:-
According to the 2007 rule the definition of treatment is “a method, technique or
process, designed to modify the physical, chemical or biological characteristics or
composition of any hazardous material so as to reduce its potential to cause harm.”
Current practices are moving toward best use technology, which attempts to reduce
the amount of hazardous waste produced in the first place. Any that is produced is
most commonly destroyed or detoxified by a number of methods with the resulting
residues then disposed of Hazardous wastes may be treated to minimize their
volume and make disposal easier, to render the waste less toxic or hazardous, or to
enhance or facilitate the recovery and re-use of the waste components of a solution.
Treatments can be classified as physical, chemical, biological or thermal
these are follows:
Physical treatments:
Physical treatments are used to separate solids from liquids through the use of
physical forces and mechanical devices.
Chemical treatments:
Chemical treatments are used to neutralize (e.g., by mixing acids and bases),
precipitate, oxidize or reduce chemical components, or to cause a chemical
alteration of a liquid phase to produce a solid, vapour or altered liquid phase.
Biological treatments:
Biological treatments are used to biodegrade diluted organic wastes and
biomedical wastes.
Thermal treatments:
Thermal treatments are used to cause the vaporization, oxidation or other
destruction of liquid or solid phase components.
Generally, more than one process is used for waste treatment, with some
physical/chemical process often applied first to reduce the volume of dilute
aqueous solutions. No single process is suitable for all categories of hazardous
wastes and frequently several processes are linked in a series or in a parallel
configuration to form a waste-specific treatment. The methods for waste treatment
are listed below.
Physical: air stripping, carbon adsorption, centrifugation, dialysis, distillation,
evaporation, pond filtration, flocculation and precipitation flotation, freeze
crystallization, high gradient magnetic separation, liquid-liquid extraction, resin
adsorption, reverse osmosis.
3
Ibid.
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4
The State of India's Environment, Part I, National Overview, The Citizens Fifth Report, Centre for Science &
Environment, 1999
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3. India has among the lowest per capita availability of forests in the world,
which is 0.11 ha as compared to 0.50 ha in Thailand and 0.8 ha in China
minimisation and resource recovery. Within the chemical industry group, major
segments such as pesticides and pesticide intermediates, dyes and dye
intermediates as well as bulk drugs and intermediates would require special
focus. In these industry categories, wherever laboratory scale demonstrations
have been completed as in the case of H-acid manufacture wherein suitability of
catalytic hydrogenation has been well established, pilot plants would need to be
set up to enable speedier adoption by the industry. In cases wherein techno-
economic feasibility of cleaner production process has been well established
and already adopted by some units such as adoption of cyanide-free
electroplating, a dialogue should be started forthwith with the concerned
industry associations for switch-over within a specified time period.
In the petrochemicals, pesticides and dyes and dye intermediates sectors,
product-wise opportunities available for recovery of resources such as solvents,
other reagents and by-products as well as re-generation of spent catalysts have
been well documented. This exercise needs to be followed up by setting up
dedicated task forces under the guidance of concerned CSIR laboratories and
such task forces could serve as an inter-face between industry associations and
CSIR laboratories to carry the work forward for actual application in field
conditions.
6. All liability for these facilities shall also rest with the integrated waste
management facility.
7. After the first integrated facility reaches satisfactory level of capacity
utilization (50% of estimated waste) further integrated facilities can be planned.
8. New bio-medical waste treatment facilities, both common and individual,
should not be allowed within forty kms of an integrated facility since bio-
medical wastes can also be handled at the integrated facilities.
(v). Custom & Laboratory Strengthening:-
Customs play an important role in regulating import of hazardous wastes into
the country. Cases of illegal imports of hazardous wastes have clearly indicated
the need to plug existing loopholes. Priority areas for action include training of
customs staff engaged in inspection as well as sampling and also upgradation of
customs labs.
Appraisers carrying out inspection of goods received and having discretion
to pick up samples need to be trained to pick up representative samples to
achieve the best results. In addition to sampling techniques, assessors should be
made aware of current hazardous wastes regulations, documentation
requirements etc. Equally important is the need to upgrade laboratory facilities
at all major ports of entry. Difficulties faced recently by customs authorities in
distinguishing between used oil and waste oil serves as a case in point to
identify the gaps. Lack of laboratory facilities for analysis of trace organics
such as PCBs could either result in holding up of supplies for long periods of
time merely on grounds of suspicion or lead to illegal imports of waste oil
under the garb of used oil. As a first step, a through assessment of laboratory
facilities available at all the ports, in particular, facilities available both in terms
of equipment and trained man-power and equipment for analysis of all
important heavy metals and trace organics, should be taken up and a time-
bound plan prepared for their upgradation. Till such time all the ports are
upgraded both in terms of equipment and training of laboratory personnel, it
would be necessary to consider channelisation of all hazardous wastes through
selected ports well equipped to handle them and for this purpose, ports may be
categorised suitably. As an interim measure, outsourcing of laboratory related
work to laboratories recognised under the EP Act in respect of all relevant
parameters may be considered.
Synchronising Customs categorisation of wastes with amendments in the
Hazardous Wastes Rules should be made automatic so that the customs lists
need not be amended every time there is a change in the lists of various waste
categories in the HW Rules. Incidentally, this would also help in eliminating the
time gap between amendments in the HW Rules and the Customs waste lists
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centralized disposal facilities and lack of technical and financial resources have
led to the unscientific disposal of hazardous wastes posing serious threat to
human, animal and plant life. A High Power Committee on hazardous waste
management, constituted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in 1997, made
similar observation and conclude that the hazardous wastes situation in India is
fairly grim. Thus, there is an urgent need for formulating proper hazardous
waste management strategies, implementation of hazardous wastes management
regulations and establishment of proper hazardous waste treatment and disposal
facilities for controlling the unscientific disposal of hazardous wastes This is
now being done in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court which was
issued on October 14, 2003 under the supervision of the Supreme Court
Monitoring Committee. The government make rule in 2007 for hazardous waste
management but this rule not fulfill the basal convention agreement. We need to
established such kind of alternative hazardous waste management system that
reduce our pollution and improve our environment and also generate the
livelihood of marginalized people, because these people always left by the
policy maker. Finally I can say if the policy maker and our civil society
organization and people who influence the policy of government can tried to
make a policy on hazardous waste management in which the environmental
security and marginalized people’s livelihood security included, it is better
ways to solve the problem.
H. REFERENCES
• The wealth of waste: Sandhya Venkateswaran
• Hazardous waste management: Canadian direction: Stephanie Meakin.
• Hazardous waste management in India: B.V. Babu and V. Ramakrishn
• The Hazardous Materials (Management, Handling and Transboundary
Movement) Rules, 2007.
• Status Report on Management of Hazardous Waste in India: T.
Chakrabarti, M.P. Patil & Sukumar Devotta
• Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
S.M.ZAKI
AHMAD