™ Pollution Control Implementation Division - III

Charter on Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection (CREP)

The Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) has launched the Charter on “Corporate Responsibility for
Environmental Protection (CREP)”in march 2003 with the purpose to go beyond the compliance of
regulatory norms for prevention & control of pollution through various measures including waste
minimization, in-plant process control & adoption of clean technologies. The Charter has set targets
concerning conservation of water, energy, recovery of chemicals, reduction in pollution, elimination of
toxic pollutants, process & management of residues that are required to be disposed off in an
environmentally sound manner. The Charter enlists the action points for pollution control for various
categories of highly polluting industries. The Task Force was constituted for monitoring the progress of
implementation of CREP recommendations/ action points.
ACTION POINTS UNDER CREP FOR TANNERY SECTOR

1. Chrome Recovery

i. All the chrome-tanning units in the country will have the Chrome Recovery Plant either on
individual basis or on collective basis in the form of Common Chrome Recovery Plant and use
the recovered chrome in the tanning process.
ii. Common Chrome Recovery Plant is to be installed and commissioned at Kanpur , for which
the Feasibility Report has already been prepared.
iii. Recovered Chromium is to be utilized in tanning process

2. Waste Minimization Measures

i. Waste minimization circles will be formed in all the clusters of tanneries in the country to
implement waste minimization measures and for adoption of clean technologies.
ii. Efforts should be taken to implement the waste minimization measures in all the tanneries in
the country and gradually made obligatory with time to the tannery units.

3. Reduction of Water Consumption in Tannery Units

i. All the tanneries should install water meters and flow meters to measure actual consumption
and waste water discharge.
ii. Water consumption rates will be brought down to 28 m 3 /tonne of hides by taking waste
minimization measures.

4. Compliance of standards

All CETPs and ETPs should take the following measures:

i. Employ qualified and well trained staff for O & M of the ETPs/CETPs.
ii. Installation of automatic monitoring instruments.
iii. Interlocking of manufacturing processes with ETP operation
iv. Separate Energy meters for ETPs/CETPs by December 2003.
v. Open anaerobic lagoons should be converted into closed systems with gas recovery
vi. For health & safety of worker in the industry & ETP/ CETP the guidelines developed by CPCB
should be implemented.
vii. All major tannery units should take-up environmental auditing on annual basis.
viii. Major tannery units & CETPs should attempt to obtain ISO-14000 certification
ix. Tannery units &CETP management should take-up modification/up-gradation of the
CETPs/ETPs wherever necessary
5. Management of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

All tannery units to adopt the following

i. Manual/mechanical desalting.
ii. Use of cleaner technology for less use of salt.
iii. Refrigerated transportation of hides
iv. High Rate Transpiration system for effluent treatment
v. Treated wastewater will be mixed with the sewage & the treated effluent be used on land for
irrigation.

6. Solid Waste Management

All the tannery units to adopt the following:

i. Utilization of Process sludge for by-product recovery.

ii. Resource Recovery from process sludge and ETP sludge in the form of Biogas.
iii. Chromium recovery from tanned leather shavings.
iv. Safe disposal of hazardous sludge and non-hazardous solid wastes.

7. Salts from Solar Evaporation

All the tannery units to adopt the following:

i. Reuse of recovered salt.

ii. Quality improvement of recovered salts for reuse
iii. Safe land disposal
iv. Sea disposal

8. Use of Boron bearing compounds will be dispensed with. By: December 2003

9. Ground water quality monitoring to be strengthened.

10. Sulphur recovery from sulphide bearing effluents to be explored.

11. The implementation of recommendations of the Task Force on leather tannery units constituted by
the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India in a phased manner.

Development of Minimal National Standards (MINAS) for Rubber products Manufacturing

Industries

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) intends to develop Minimum National Standards (MINAS)
for all types of industries with regards to their effluent discharge (water pollutants), emissions (air
pollutants), noise levels and solid waste. The proposed model for evolving industry specific standards
envisages specifying limits of pollutants to protect the environment. The standards thus developed will
be applicable to the concerned industries throughout the country. The present study, in this series is on
rubber products industries. Consulting Engineering Services ( India ) Limited, New Delhi has been
engaged to assist co-ordinating agency Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for carrying out this
study.

The rubber product manufacturing industry in India is basically divided into two major sectors: tyre and
non-tyre. The tyre sector produces all types of automotive and non-automotive tyres whereas the non-
tyre sector produces high technology and sophisticated products and comprises the medium scale,
small scale and tiny units. Barring industries engaged in raw rubber production, there are approx. 4800
rubber based product manufacturing units comprising 30 large scale, 300 medium scale and around
4470 small scale and tiny sector units, employing four lakh people, including around 22000 technically
qualified support personnel, with a turnover of 200 billion rupees and contributing 40 billion rupees to
the National Exchequer through taxes, duties and other levies. Northern India ( Delhi , Haryana &
Punjab) accounts for major rubber consumption and has maximum number of rubber products
manufacturing units, primarily in small & medium scale. Other major states are Kerala, Tamilnadu,
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat & Karnataka. Rubber products industry thus plays a core sector role in the
Indian National economy.

The geographical distributions of rubber product industries in India are given below.

State/ Union Territory Number of units

Kerala 896
Maharashtra 542
Punjab 472
Tamil Nadu 483
Uttar Pradesh 435
West Bengal 403
Gujarat 374
Haryana 332
Delhi 195
Karnataka 199
Andhra Pradesh 160
Rajasthan 111
Madhya Pradesh 74
Goa 26
Jharkhand ( Bihar ) 25
Orissa 10
others 34

Wastewater discharge:

Rubber products industries are basically dry process and industrial water is mainly required for cooling
of machinery used for rubber processing at different stages of final product. Water consumption and
wastewater generation are mainly dependent on cooling, curing, washing and house keeping
techniques, which vary from industry to industry. Wastewater generation from process area and utility
services is of low pollution load and highly intermittent.

Proposed MINAS for all categories of Rubber product Industries

Sl.No Parameter Tyre & Tube Moulded, Extruded/ Latex based Rubber
Industry Calendared, Industry reclaim
Fabricated industry Industry
1 PH 6.5 to 8.5 6.5 to 8.5 6.5 to 8.5 6.5 to 8.5
2 BOD 3 day @ 27ºc* NA NA 100 NA
3 Suspended Solids 50 50 100 100
4 Oil & Grease** 10 10 NA 10
5 Lead*** NA 0.1 NA NA
6 Zinc**** NA NA 5 NA
7 Chromium***** NA NA 0.05 NA

Note: Limiting concentrations of all above parameters are given in mg/l, except pH.

* BOD 3 @27ºc may be made stringent up to 30 mg/l if the recipient fresh water body is a source of
drinking water supply. BOD 3 value is relaxable up to 350 mg/l, if the wastewater is discharged into
town sewer where secondary treatment of sewage is carried out.

** The limit of oil & grease shall be confirmed at the outlet of oil & grease trap unit. This implies that in
the final treated effluent oil & grease concentration shall be lower than prescribed herein.

*** Applicable to rubber hose product industry by the lead sheathed cure process

**** Applicable to latex foam industry

***** Applicable to plants using chromic acid for form cleaning technique.

NA - Not Applicable

Air emissions:

Field investigations, process details, sampling and monitoring and extensive literature survey establish
two type of air pollutants generally associated with different processes of rubber product manufacturing
industries as defined below:

• Rubber process dust (Particulate matter) arising as fugitive emission in the stages of rubber
manufacture where ingredients are handled, weighed, added to or mixed with uncured natural
or synthetic elastomers.
• Rubber fume evolved as fugitive emission in the mixing, milling and blending of natural and
synthetic elastomers, or of natural rubber and synthetic polymers combined with chemicals,
and in the processes which convert resultant blends into finished products or parts thereof, and
including any inspection procedures where fume continues to be evolved. It is mixture of gases
and vapors evolved from many individual chemical used in the process.

MINAS for Air Emission

The strategy for implementing exposure and emission standards (MINAS) can be summarized as
below:

• All rubber product industries, irrespective of its size, will comply with OSHA limits prescribed
for rubber dust, rubber fume and individual chemicals.
• Tiny/small industries would achieve OSHA limits by adopting good working practices and
proper ventilation design in working rooms as quantity of raw material for process is small.
• Medium/large industries would require local exhaust ventilation (LEV) System consisting of
hood, duct, fan and stack at strategic locations to comply with the limits. Stack should be of
suitable height and equipped with stack monitoring facilities.
• In case of SPM limit exceeds 150 mg/m3 in flue gas in stack, control unit (filter/cyclone) has to
 be integrated with LEV System.
• Emission limit of VOC from Stack should be fixed as 50 mg/m3 . Control measures such as
Activated Carbon Adsorber/Incineration technology to be integrated with LEV system, if
required. This is well within the techno-economic affordability of medium/large scale units.
• Emission of SPM and VOC should be periodically monitored and analyzed in light of new
control techniques and the techno-economic feasibility for its application in India
• Flue gas emission from other sources such as Boiler and DG sets in the premises of rubber
product industries should meet the Standards prescribed in the Emission Regulation of CPCB.

Noise Standards

Occupational noise standards has already been developed keeping health aspects in view and is also
applicable in the case of rubber product industries. Noise exposure can easily be kept within
occupational limits with available cost effective engineering and administrative measures without giving
any financial burden to industries.

Solid waste Management

Rubber product industries have most of waste with salvage value and face no problem for its disposal.
Cured and off-specification rubber wastes serve as raw materials for inferior quality products in
industry. Solid waste like discarded materials other than rubber such as sludge from wastewater
treatment plant is disposed as land filling.

Comprehensive Industry Document on Electroplating Industry

Electroplating is one of the varieties of several techniques of metal finishing. It is a technique of

deposition of a fine layer of one metal on another through electrolytic process to impart various
properties and attributes, such as corrosion protection, enhanced surface hardness, luster, colour,
aesthetics, value addition etc. Electroplating operations are either performed as a part of
manufacturing process by large scale manufacturing plants (e.g. automobile, cycle, engineering and
numerous other industries) or performed as job-work for a wide variety of components by small and
tiny units. These are spread across the entire country. However certain states have large number of
units concentrated in some towns / cities, such as:

• Maharashtra - Mumbai, Pune, Nashik

• Karnataka- Bangalore
• Tamil Nadu - Chennai, Madurai
• Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad
• Punjab - Ludhiana
• Delhi & NCR ( Faridabad in Haryana, NOIDA in U. P.)
• Gujarat- Ahmedabad, Rajkot

Electroplating is considered a major polluting industry because it discharges toxic materials and heavy
metals through wastewater (effluents), air emissions and solid wastes into the recipient environment.

In order to regulate the quality of discharge of wastewater, the Central Pollution Control Board, in 1987,
evolved Minimal National Standards (MINAS) for discharge of effluent under the provision of the
Environment (Protection) Act of 1986. These standards now require comprehensive review in view of
the current body of knowledge regarding discharge of pollutants, status of industry, technology and
implementation of regulatory mechanism.

In view of above, CPCB prepared the Comprehensive Industry Document on Electroplating Industry.
The objectives were to (i) study the environmental problems associated with this industry, (ii) assess all
the three types of pollution, viz, air, water and noise (iii) to review the MINAS for effluent and specify
standards for air and noise; (iv) to suggest cost-effective pollution control system and (v) to recover
and reuse metals from waste. M/s. ENC Consulting Engineers, New Delhi was entrusted with this work
as consultants.

Based on the present trends in electroplating and considering standards being used in other countries,
it is evident that the existing list of parameters in wastewater discharge standards for electroplating
industries be expanded to include the parameters listed below.

Suggested List of Additional Parameters

Sl. No. Parameters Limit value (mg/l)

1 Aluminium 5.0
2 Tin 2.0
3 Silver 1.2
4 Fluorides (as F) 15.0
5 Sulphides (as S) 2.0
6 Sulphates (as S) * 400.0
7 Trichloroethane 0.5
8 Trichloroethylene 0.5
9 Phosphates (as P) 5.0

Existing Standards

Sl. Parameters Concentration not to exceed ( To be implemented

No mg/l, except pH & temperature) in**
1 pH 6.0 to 9.0 Existing
2 Temperature Shall not exceed 5 0 c above the Existing
ambient temperature of the
receiving body
3 Oil & Grease 10 Existing
4 Suspended Solids 100 Existing
5 Cyanides (as CN) 0.2 Existing
6 Ammonical Nitrogen (as N) 50 Existing
7 Total Residual Chlorine (as Cl) 1.0 Existing
8 Cadmium (as Cd) 2.0 Existing
9 Nickel (as Ni) 3.0 Existing
10 Zinc (as Zn) 5.0 Existing
11 Hexavalent Chromium (as Cr) 0.1 Existing
12 Total Chromium (as Cr) 2.0 Existing
13 Copper (as Cu) 3.0 Existing
14 Lead (as Pb) 0.1 Existing
15 Iron (as Fe) 3.0 Existing
16 Total Metal 10.0 Existing
Large and small industries should be required to provide effective collection system of gases and
vapors from all hot baths and treat the gases and vapors with a water scrubber, the scrubbed gases
should confirm to the following standards.

Proposed Standards for Air Emission from Electroplating Baths

S. No. Parameter Emission Limit

mg/Nm 3
1 Acid Mist (HCl & H2 SO4 ) 50
2 Lead 1
3 Nickel 5
4 Chromium (VI) 5
5 Chromium (Others) 5
6 Cyanide 5

Note: Existing standards for SO 2 and NO x shall continue to be applicable.