HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT

1
What are Hazardous Wastes ?

A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or

potential threats to public health or the environment
and generally exhibits one or more of these
characteristics:

• cancerogenic
• ignitable (i.e., flammable)
• oxidizing
• corrosive
• toxic
• radioactive
• explosive

Hazardous waste ‘is a waste (usually a solid waste)

that has the potential to:

• cause, or significantly contribute to an increase

in mortality (death) or an increase in serious
irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness;
or

• pose a substantial present or potential hazard o

human health or the environment when
improperly treated, stored, transported, or
disposed of, or otherwise managed.

Characteristic Hazardous Wastes are defined as

wastes that exhibit the following characteristics:
ignitability, corrosively, reactivity, or toxicity.
Ignitability

Ignitable wastes can create fires under certain

conditions, are spontaneously combustible, or have a
flash point less than 60 °C (140 °F). Examples
include waste oils and used solvents.

Corrosivity

Corrosive wastes are acids or bases (pH less than or

equal to 2, or greater than or equal to 12.5) that are
capable of corroding metal containers, such as
storage tanks, drums, and barrels. Battery acid is an
example.

Reactivity

Reactive wastes are unstable under "normal"

conditions. They can cause explosions, toxic fumes,
gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed
with water. Examples include lithium-sulfur batteries
and explosives

Toxicity

Toxic wastes are harmful or fatal when ingested,

absorbed or inhaled (e.g., containing mercury, lead,
etc.). When toxic wastes are land disposed,
contaminated liquid may leach from the waste and
pollute ground water.
In the modern society,large quantities of unwanted
and harmful wastes are generated by chemical
manufacturing companies,petroleum refineries,
paper mills ,smelters and other industries. Even
commercial establishments such as dry
cleaners,machine shops and automobile repair shops
generate some kinds of harmful wastes.
These hazardous wastes can result in serious
illness,injury or even death of the individuals,and
population exposed to them-they can also pose an
immediate and significant threat to environmental
quality when improperly stored,transported or
disposed off.
2
HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT

Several options are available for hazardous waste

management.In order of preference this can be
summarized as follows:
1.Eliminate or reduce waste quantitites: at their
source by modifying industrial processes and other
techniques.
2.Reclaim and recycle the wastes : using it as a
resource for some other industrial or manufacturing
processes.
3.Stabilize the wastes by using appropriate chemical
and physical processes.
4.Incinerate the waste at a temperature high enough
to destroy it.
5.Apply modern land disposal methods,preferably
after providing appropriate treatment.
India is the second most populous country, which has
about 16% of the world population and 25% of the
land area. Rapid industrialization last few decades
have led to the depletion of pollution of precious
natural resources inIndia depletes and pollutes
resources continuously. Further the rapid industrial
developments have, also, led to the generation of
huge quantities of hazardous wastes, which have
further aggravated the environmental problems in
the country by depleting and polluting natural
resources. Therefore, rational and sustainable
utilization of natural resources and its protection
from toxic releases is vital for sustainable socio-
economic development.

Hazardous waste management is a new concept for

most of the Asian countries including India. The lack
of technical and financial resources and the
regulatory control for the management of hazardous
wastes in the past had led to the unscientific disposal
of hazardous wastes in India, which posed serious
risks to human, animal and plant life.
3
Regulatory Frame Work

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 endeavor 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.

In order to manage hazardous waste (HW), mainly

solids, semi-solid and other Industrial wastes which
are not covered by the Water & Air Acts, and also to
enable the authorities to control handling, treatment,
transport and disposal of waste in an
environmentally sound manner, Ministry of
Environment & Forests (MoEF). Government of India
notified the Hazardous Waste (Management &
Handling) Rules (HWM Rules) on July 28, 1989 under
the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act,
1986 and was further amended in the year 2000 &
2003. These amendments enable to identify
hazardous wastes by means of industrial processes
and waste streams in Schedule I and also by way of
concentrations of specified constituents of the
hazardous waste in Schedule II. Categories of wastes
banned for export and import have also been defined
(Schedule-8) The procedure for registration of the
recyclers /reprocessors with environmentally sound
facilities for processing waste categories such as
used lead acid batteries, non-ferrous metal and used
oil as contained in schedule-4 and schedule-5
respectively has also been laid down.

Further, separate Rules have also been notified in

continuation of the above Rules for bio-medical
wastes as well as used lead acid batteries.
4
The Basel Convention on hazardous wastes

India is a Party to the Basel Convention on

transboundary movement of hazardous wastes. The
basic objectives of the Basel Convention are for the
control and reduction of transboundary movements
of hazardous and other wastes subject to the
Convention, prevention and minimization of their
generation, environmentally sound management of
such wastes and for active promotion of the transfer
and use of cleaner technologies.

As a party to the Convention, India is obliged to

regulate and minimize the import of hazardous waste
or other wastes for disposal or re-cycling and also to
prohibit export of waste to parties, which have
prohibited the import of such wastes. As a party India
is also required to minimize generation of hazardous
waste in the country taking into account social,
technological and economic aspects. Further,
hazardous waste generated in the country is also
required to be managed in an environmentally sound
manner. India, as a party, can prevent the import of
hazardous waste or other waste if it has reason to
believe that the waste in question will not be
managed in an environmentally sound manner.
5
Present Hazardous Waste Generation
Scenario

The hazardous waste generated in the country per

annum is estimated to be around 4.4 million tones
(Table 1) while as per the estimates of Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD)
derived from correlating hazardous waste generation
and economic activities, nearly five million tones of
hazardous waste are being produced in the country
annually. This estimate of around 4.4 million MTA is
based on the 18 categories of wastes which
appeared in the HWM Rules first published in
1989.Out of this, 38.3% is recyclable, 4.3% is
incinerable and the remaining 57.4% is disposable in
secured landfills. Twelve States of the country
(Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Madhya
Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan) account
for 97% of total hazardous waste generation. The top
four waste generating states are Maharashtra
,Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu . On the
other hand, states such as Himachal Pradesh, Jammu
& Kashmir, all the North Eastern States excepting
Assam generate less than 20,000 MT per annum.
Given the wide variations in quantity and nature of
waste generated across states and union territories
(UTs) and also considering the wide variations in
climatic as well as hydro-geological conditions in
different regions of the country, the approach to
waste management has to be essentially state-
specific.

6
CONCLUSION
The industry driven economy of India's has resulted
in hazardous waste problems, which are difficult to
manage in an environmentally friendly manner. The
non-enforcement of 'Polluter Pays' principle,
continuation of import of hazardous wastes despite
the ban, absence of proper infrastructure viz.
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 (HPC) 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 (HWTDF) for
controlling the unscientific disposal of hazardous
wastes This is now being done in accordance with the
order of the Supreme Cout which was issued on
October 14, 2003 under the supervision ofthe Supreme Court Monitoring Committee.
Hence,we can see that efforts need to be made in
the Management of these hazardouse Wastes.
Governments must make rules for effective disposal
of these wastes.
Above all,these Governments must also emphasize
the importance of implementing these rules.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazardous_waste

2. http://www.ehow.com/how_2190050_reduce-
hazardous-waste.html

3. http://www.envis.neeri.res.in/management.php

4. http://www.envis.neeri.res.in/management.php

5. http://www.envis.neeri.res.in/management.php

6. http://www.envis.neeri.res.in/management.php