Hazardous Waste Management

These Hazardous & Other Wastes (Management & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 rules shall apply to the management of hazardous and other wastes as specified in the Schedules to these rules but shall not apply to:-

1. Waste-water and exhaust gases as covered under the provisions of the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (6 of 1974) and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 (14 of 1981) and rules made there under and as amended from time to time;
   
2. Wastes arising out of the operation from ships beyond five kilometers of the relevant baselines as covered under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (44 of 1958) and the rules made there under and as amended from time to time;
3. Radio-active wastes as covered under the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (33 of 1962) and rules made there under and as amended from time to time;
4. Bio-medical wastes covered under the Bio-Medical Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 made under the Act and as amended from time to time;

5. wastes covered under the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 made under the Act and as amended from time to time;

RULE 4:- RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OCCUPIER FOR MANAGEMENT OF HAZARDOUS AND OTHER WASTE:

1. For the management of hazardous and other wastes, an occupier shall follow the following steps, namely:-
1. Prevention;
2. Minimization;
3. Reused;
4. Recycling;
5. Recovery, untilization including co-processing;
6. Safe disposal;
2. The occupier shall be responsible for safe and environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes
3. The hazardous and other wastes generated in the establishment of an occupier shall be sent or sold to an authorized actual user or shall be disposed of in an authorized disposal facility
4. The hazardous and other wastes shall be transported from an occupier's establishment to an authorized actual user or to an authorized disposal facility in accordance with the provisions of these rules.
5. The occupier who intends to get its hazardous and other wastes treated and disposed of by the operator of a treatment, storage and disposal facility shall give to the operator of that facility, such specific information as may be needed for safe storage and disposal.
6. The occupier shall take all the steps while managing hazardous and other wastes to:
1. contain contaminants and prevent accidents and limit their consequences on human beings and the environment; and
2. provide persons working in the site with appropriate training, equipment and the information necessary to ensure their safety.

RULE 5. RESPONSIBILITIES OF STATE GOVERNMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND MANAGEMENT OF HAZARDOUS AND OTHER WASTE :

1. Department of Industry in the State or any other government agency authorized in this regard by the State Government, to ensure earmarking or allocation of industrial space or shed for recycling, pre-processing and other utilization of hazardous or other waste in the existing and upcoming industrial park, estate and industrial clusters;
2. Department of Labour in the State or any other government agency authorized in this regard by the State Government shall:-
1. Ensure recognition and registration of workers involved in recycling, pre-processing and other utilization activities;
2. Assist formation of groups of such workers to facilitate setting up such facilities;
3. Undertake industrial skill development activities for the workers involved in recycling, pre-processing and other utilization;
4. Undertake annual monitoring and to ensure safety and health of workers involved in recycling, pre-processing and other utilization;
3. Every State Government may prepare integrated plan for effective implementation of these provisions and to submit annual report to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in the Central Government.

RULE 8. STORAGE OF HAZARDOUS AND OTHER WASTES:

1. The occupiers of facilities may store the hazardous and other wastes for a period not exceeding ninety days and shall maintain a record of sale, transfer, storage, recycling, recovery, pre-processing, co-processing and utilization of such wastes and make these records available for inspection:

   
   Provided that the State Pollution Control Board may extend the said period of ninety days in following cases, namely:
   

   1. Small generators (up to ten tonnes per annum) up to one hundred and eighty days of their annual capacity;
   2. Actual users and disposal facility operators up to one hundred and eighty days of their annual capacity,
   3. Occupiers who do not have access to any treatment, storage, disposal facility in the concerned State;
   4. The waste which needs to be specifically stored for development of a process for its recycling, recovery, pre-processing, co-processing or utilization;
   5. In any other case, on justifiable grounds up to one hundred and eighty days.

RULE 20. RECORDS AND RETURNS:

1. The occupier handling hazardous or other wastes and operator of disposal facility shall maintain records of such operations in Form 3
2. The occupier handling hazardous and other wastes and operator of disposal facility shall send annual returns to the State Pollution Control Board in Form 4
3. The State Pollution Control Board based on the annual returns received from the occupiers and the operators of the facilities for disposal of hazardous and other wastes shall prepare an annual inventory of the waste generated; waste recycled, recovered, utilized including co-processed; waste re-exported and waste disposed and submit to the Central Pollution Control Board by the 30th day of September every year. The State Pollution Control Board shall also prepare the inventory of hazardous waste generators, actual users, and common and captive disposal facilities and shall submit the information to Central Pollution Control Board every two years.
4. The Central Pollution Control Board shall prepare the consolidated review report on management of hazardous and other wastes and forward it to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, along with its recommendations before the 30th day of December once in every year.

RULE 22:- ACCIDENT REPORTING:

      Where an accident occurs at the facility of the occupier handling hazardous or other wastes and operator of the disposal facility or during transportation, the occupier or the operator or the transpoter shall immediately intimate the State Pollution Control Board through telephone, e-mail about the accident and subsequently send a report in Form 11