Waste to Energy, the Sanitary Landfill and the Legacy Dumpsite

In one line

High calorific waste may not go to a landfill, hilly and island areas get their own regime, and the sanitary landfill is what is left when everything else has been done.

In exam wording: rule 12 of the Solid Waste Management Rules 2026 prescribes the criteria and actions for solid waste management in hilly and island areas, including a power in the local authority to levy and collect a fee from visitors and to regulate their number in accordance with its waste handling capacity; rule 13 provides that non-recyclable waste having a calorific value of 1500 kilocalories per kilogram or more shall not be disposed of on landfills and shall only be utilised for generating energy, either through refuse-derived fuel or as feedstock for preparing it, in accordance with standards prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board; and rule 14 provides for the establishment, operation and maintenance of a sanitary landfill.

Rule 12: hilly and island areas

Why they are treated separately. A hill town and an island have three features that defeat the ordinary model. There is no land for a landfill and often no road for a truck. The population multiplies seasonally with tourism, so the waste load in the season bears no relation to the resident population that pays for the service. And the receiving environment is fragile and confined, so a failure has nowhere to disperse to.

What the rule provides. Among the duties and powers of the local authority in such areas:

A fee on visitors. The authority may levy and collect a fee from visitors or tourists, being persons who are not permanent residents within the municipal limits, for handling and management of solid waste.

And a power to limit numbers. It may also take measures to regulate the number of visitors in accordance with the waste handling capacity of the local authority.

That second power is remarkable and it should be noticed. A rule made under the Environment (Protection) Act empowers a local authority to cap tourist numbers by reference to its ability to handle the waste they generate. It is carrying capacity as a legal instrument, it is the plainest application of sustainable development in these rules, and it is the only place in this module where the answer to too much waste is fewer people rather than better processing.

And the rest of the rule carries the consequential provisions for such areas: decentralised processing, construction of facilities suited to the terrain, and arrangements for transporting what cannot be processed locally.

Rule 13: the calorific value rule

Non-recyclable waste having calorific value of 1500 Kcal/kg or more shall not be disposed of on landfills and shall only be utilised for generating energy, either through refuse-derived fuel or by giving away as feedstock for preparing refuse-derived fuel, as per standards prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board.