The Environment Ministry released new rules for management of hazardous wastes, which for the first time include a separate category of items like tyre, metal scrap, paper and certain electronic goods, that can be recycled and reused. These have been included under the category of “other waste”.
While releasing the new rules, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday said they are “environment and industry friendly, in line with this Government’s priority for ease of doing business and Make in India, but with responsible concerns for sustainable development.” He also said the rules will ensure resource recovery and disposal of hazardous waste in environmentally sound manner.
Further, import of metal scrap, paper waste and various categories of electrical and electronic equipments for re-use purpose has been exempted from the need of obtaining the Ministry’s permission under the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016.
They have also revised all forms for permission, transportation, those related to import and export amongst others. The new rules have adopted a more stringent approach for management of such wastes.
“Procedure has been simplified to merge all the approvals as a single window clearance for setting up of hazardous waste disposal facility and import of other wastes,” said the rules.
The rules further state that waste management hierarchy in the sequence of priority of prevention, minimisation, reuse, recycling, recovery, co-processing and safe disposal has been incorporated.
The rules provide for co-processing as preferential mechanism over disposal for use of waste as supplementary resource, or for recovery of energy has been provided. The approval process for co-processing of hazardous waste to recover energy has been streamlined and put on emission norms basis.
It said that the basic necessity of infrastructure to safeguard health and environment from waste processing industry has been prescribed as SOP, specific to waste type, which has to be complied by stakeholders and ensured by Pollution Control Board/ State Pollution Control Board while granting such authorisation.