Hazardous and Other Wastes: The Scheme of the 2016 Rules

In one line

A hierarchy that puts disposal last, an authorisation that is built on the consents, and a ninety-day clock on storage.

In exam wording: the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016, G.S.R. 395(E) of 4 April 2016, made under sections 6, 8 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, in supersession of the 2008 Rules, apply to the management of hazardous and other wastes as specified in the Schedules; rules 4 and 5 impose the responsibilities of the occupier and the State Government, rule 6 provides for authorisation, rule 7 for its suspension or cancellation, rule 8 for storage, rule 9 for utilisation, rule 10 for standard operating procedures, and rules 11 and 12 for the strategy on import and export.

Rule 1 gives the short title and provides that the Rules come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

Rule 2: what these rules do not cover

Five exclusions, and each of them is a signpost.

• Waste water and exhaust gases, covered by the Water Act and the Air Act. This is the biggest exclusion and it is why a factory's effluent and its stack emissions are not hazardous waste, however dangerous they are.
• Waste from ships beyond five kilometres of the baseline, covered by the Merchant Shipping Act 1958. Note the limit, because ship-breaking on a beach is inside these Rules.
• Radioactive waste, under the Atomic Energy Act 1962.
• Bio-medical waste, under the bio-medical waste rules.
• Municipal solid waste, under the solid waste rules.

The first exclusion is the one to argue about. It means Indian law regulates the same chemical differently according to the medium it is in: chromium in an effluent stream is a Water Act problem, chromium in a filter cake is a hazardous waste problem, and chromium in a stack gas is an Air Act problem. Module I's chapter on the definition of environment in section 2 of the Environment (Protection) Act explains why an umbrella Act was needed, and this exclusion is what the umbrella covers over.

Rule 3 and the Schedules: what "hazardous" means here

The definition does not turn on a word. It turns on a list.

Schedule I lists processes and the hazardous wastes they generate. Petrochemical processes, petroleum refining, secondary production of copper, lead and zinc, metal surface treatment, production of iron and steel, hardening of steel, production of asbestos, caustic soda, mineral acids, canvas and textiles, and so on down a numbered table.

Schedule II lists wastes by concentration limits.

Schedule III is the transboundary schedule, in Parts A, B and D, and it is what rule 12 works on.