A Comprehensive Guide to Establish a Licensed Hazardous Waste Disposal and Recycling Plant in India

This guide offers insights into the operations of hazardous waste management companies in India, the process of establishing a hazardous waste recycling facility, and the ways to abide by the requirements of CPCB and SPCB.

India is the world's sixth largest producer of hazardous waste. Current estimates place the annual generation of hazardous waste at around 12 million tons and is expected to increase as other industries including chemical, pharmaceutical, electrical, textile and other manufacturing industries also increase.

This creates a big challenge for industry captains, business persons and environmental compliance professionals. The challenge is to effectively manage hazardous waste and to identify the companies that manage hazardous waste in India.

This document responds to these challenges and provides information on the hazardous waste management process, the need for an on-site waste management facility and the legal and regulatory framework that controls this process in India.

Segregation and proper management of hazardous wastes is regulated by the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016. It outlines procedures for controlled storage, transport and transfer, and final disposal or recycling of hazardous wastes. The Rules are enforced by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs).


Functions of Hazardous Waste Disposal Plants and Facilities

Many of the wastes generated from various economic activities are hazardous in nature. Disposal of such wastes may result in environmental risk and liability. Hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities are designed to overcome the environmental risk and liability associated with the generation of such wastes. These types of facilities are broadly classified as follows:

  • TSDFs: treat hazardous wastes using procedures such as land disposal or energy (incineration) recovery and secure storage/land disposal

  • Recycling units: processes waste to recover reusable components such as metals and organic solvents

  • Energy recovery: transforms hazardous waste to less hazardous waste by co-processing in cement kilns.

Design and construction of modern waste treatment and disposal plants provides an opportunity to implement circular economy in an industrial setup and supports accomplishment of the sustainability goals adopted by a country.

Reasons for Establishing Hazardous Waste Recycling Plants

Various reasons have stimulated the recent interest in establishing hazardous waste recycling plants in India. These reasons include:

Regulatory effect: Many SPCBs have intensified their inspection and enforcement activities. Non-compliant facilities have been forced to cease operations, and authorizations have been revoked.

Changes in investors' and customers' preferences: Awareness regarding protection of environment has increased. This has altered customers' preference toward purchase of goods and services from companies with good environment record.

Import and Export obligations: Management of hazardous waste requires authorization of the competent authority in both the exporting and importing country.

This has created a need for hazardous waste management in India which includes handling the entire process from assessment of feasibility to plant setup and obtaining all the required licenses.

Hazardous Waste Recycling Plant in India

There are several requirements to set up a waste management plant and it includes obtaining various licenses and approvals and ensuring compliance with various laws and regulations. These include:

Locating a site where the plant would be situated and evaluating the legal and practical barriers to setting up the plant and if the site is acceptable from an environmental standpoint.

Environmental Clearance (EC) is required to set up a facility for managing hazardous waste as described in the Environment Impact Assessment notification, 2006.

Authorization under Rule 29 of the Hazardous Waste Rules, 2016 is given by the SPCB to handle specified categories of waste.

Consents to Establish (CTE) and Operate (CTO) are required to be obtained from the concerned State Pollution Control Boards under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, before setting up and starting the operation of the waste management plant.

Compliance with the requirement of the Water Act and Air Act, 1981 includes the design of the plant to limit pollution and construction of pollution control measures to treat effluents and emissions from the plant.

Every consignment of hazardous waste must be transported with a manifest to show traceability. A network of waste management companies must be in place to ensure compliance.

Transparent Track Record with Previous Work at Recycling Plants

Comprehensive Support During the Entire Process from Documentation to Plant Audits

We assist business in various sectors to plan, prepare documentary evidences and obtain approvals for setting up of hazardous waste recycling plants. We also assist in obtaining consents to establish and operate from the concerned regulatory authorities. More details about this service is available here: Hazardous Waste Recycling Plant Setup.

FAQ

Q1. What do you understand by disposal of hazardous waste? What do you mean by recycling of hazardous waste? Disposal of hazardous waste is the process of permanent neutralization or safe containment of the waste. This is mostly done by treating the waste by incineration or dumping in a sanitary landfill. Recycling of hazardous waste is the process of extracting material from waste to reuse in production thereby minimizing the consumption of raw materials and reducing the volume of waste.

Q2. Who are the waste management authorities in India? The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) are the responsible authorities for managing hazardous wastes in the country. The above authorities have framed rules to regulate the management of Hazardous wastes and other wastes, as well as control trans-boundary movements of such wastes in the country.

Q3. Is Environmental Clearance mandatory for hazardous waste treatment plant? Yes, in the majority of cases, hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities, require prior Environmental Clearance under the EIA notification 2006, in addition to Clearance from the SPCB.

Q4. What is the time period for grant of authorization for hazardous waste recycling plant? The time period varies from state to state and also with the scale of the project. Industries should keep a minimum of 6 months in view for grant of authorization.

Last but not the least, we anticipate a growing need for hazardous waste treatment and recycling facilities with the expanding industrial setup of the country.

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