SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT RULES 2016 - WHAT IS NEW ?

The jurisdiction of the rules have been extended beyond Municipal area to over, outgrowths in urban agglomerations, census towns, notified industrial townships, areas under the control of Indian Railways, airports, airbase, Port and harbour, defense establishments, special economic zones, State and Central government organizations, places of pilgrims, religious & historical importance .

2. The issue of collection and disposal of sanitary waste like diapers, sanitary pads and other disposal items have been addressed:

• Manufacturers or Brand Owners or marketing companies of sanitary napkins and diapers should explore the possibility of using all recyclable materials in their products or they shall provide a pouch or wrapper for disposal of each napkin or diapers along with the packet of their sanitary products.

• All such manufacturers, brand owners or marketing companies should educate the masses for wrapping and disposal of their products.

• The manufacturers or Brand owners of sanitary napkins and diapers shall provide a pouch or wrapper for disposal of each napkin or diapers along with the packet of their sanitary products.

• All such manufacturers, brand owners or marketing companies shall educate the masses for wrapping and disposal of their products.

• All such brand owners who sale or market their products in such packaging material which are non‐biodegradable should put in place a system to collect back the packaging waste generated due to their production.

3. The concept of partnership in Swachh Bharat has been introduced. Bulk and Institutional Generators, Market Associations, event organizers and Hotels and restaurants have been directly made responsible for Segregation and Sorting the waste and manage in partnership with Local Bodies:

• An event or gathering organiser of more than 100 persons at any licensed/unlicensed place should ensure segregation of waste at source and handing over of segregated waste to waste collector or agency as specified by local authority

• All hotels and restaurants should segregate biodegradable waste and set up a system of collection or follow the system of collection set up by local body to ensure that such food waste is utilized for composting / biomethanation.

• All Resident Welfare and Market Associations, Gated communities and institution with an area >5,000 sq. m should segregate waste at source‐ into valuable dry waste like plastic, tin, glass, paper, etc. and handover recyclable material to either the authorized waste pickers or the authorized recyclers or to Urban Local body.

• The bio‐degradable waste shall be processed, treated and disposed off through composting or bio‐methanation within the premises as far as possible. The residual waste shall be given to the waste collectors or agency as directed by the local authority.

• Every street vendor should keep suitable containers for storage of waste generated during the course of his activity such as food waste, disposable plates, cups, cans, wrappers, coconut shells, leftover food, vegetables, fruits etc. and deposit such waste at waste storage depot or container or vehicle as notified by the local authority

• The developers of Special Economic Zone, Industrial Estate, Industrial park to earmark at least 5% of the total area of the plot or minimum 5 plots/ sheds for recovery and recycling facility.

4. Being the nodal Ministry on the subject Solid Waste Management, more responsibilities have been assigned to MoUD. State Urban Development Department should:

i. prepare a state policy on solid waste management within a year

ii. ensure identification and allocation of suitable land for setting up

processing and disposal facilities for solid wastes within one year and incorporate them in the master plan,

iii. ensure that a separate space for segregation, storage, decentralized processing of solid waste is demarcated in the development plan for group housing or commercial, institutional or any other non‐residential complex exceeding 200 dwelling or having a plot area exceeding 5,000 square meters;

iv. ensure that the developers of Special Economic Zone, Industrial Estate, Industrial park earmark at least 5% of the total area of the plot or  minimum 5 plots/ sheds for recovery and recycling facility

v. notify buffer zone for the solid waste processing and disposal facilities of more than 5 tons per day in consultation with the State 

Pollution Control Board and

vi. start a scheme on registration of waste pickers and waste dealers.

5. Integration of Waste pickers/ Rag pickers and waste dealers/ KabadiWalas in the formal system should be done by State Governments, and Self Help Group or any other Group to be formed.

6. Department of Fertilisers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers should provide market development assistance on city compost and ensure promotion of co‐marketing of compost with chemical fertilizers in the ratio of 3 to 4 bags: 6 to 7 bags by the fertilizer companies to the extent compost is made available for marketing to the companies.

7, Ministry of Agriculture, should provide flexibility in Fertiliser Control Order for manufacturing and sale of compost, propagateutlisation of compost on farm land, set up laboratories to test quality of compost produced by local authorities or their authorized agencies.

8. Ministry of Power should decide tariff or charges for the power generated from the Waste to Energy plants based on solid waste and ensure compulsory purchase power generated from such Waste to Energy plants by DISCOMs.

9. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources should facilitate infrastructure creation for Waste to Energy plants and provide appropriate subsidy or incentives for such Waste to Energy plants

10. The SWM Rules, 2016 emphasises promotion of waste to energy plant:

• All industrial units using fuel and located within 100 km from a solid waste based RDF plant shall make arrangements within six months from the date of notification of these rules to replace at least 5 % of their fuel requirement by RDF so produced.

• Non‐recyclable waste having calorific value of 1500 K/cal/kg or more shall not be disposed of on landfills and shall only be utilized for generating energy either or through refuse derived fuel or by giving away as feed stock for preparing refuse derived fuel.

• High calorific wastes shall be used for co‐processing in cement or thermal power plants.

• Ministry of Power should fix tariff or charges for the power generated from the Waste to Energy plants based on solid waste and ensure compulsory purchase of power generated from such Waste to Energy plants by DISCOMs .

• The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sourcesshall facilitate infrastructure creation for Waste to Energy plants and provide appropriate subsidy or incentives for such Waste to Energy plants.

11. Secretary, State Urban Development Department, the Commissioner Municipal Administration, Director of Local Bodies, local authorities and village Panchayats of census towns and urban agglomerationsare responsible for preparation ofstate policy and solid waste management strategy in consultation with stakeholders including representative of waste pickers, self‐help group and similar groups working in the field of waste management.

12. User fee for solid waste management, spot fine for littering have been introduced which shall be as specified in the bye‐laws of the local bodies.

13. The SWM Rules 2016 provide for detailed criteria for setting‐up solid waste processing and treatment facility, solid waste management in hilly areas, for waste to energy process, for Sanitary Landfills,for site selection, development of facilities at the sanitary landfills, specifications for land filling operations and closure on completion of landfilling, pollution prevention, Closure and Rehabilitation of Old Dumps etc.

14. The State Pollution Control Board shall be responsible for review of implementation of these rules, grant / renew authorization for waste treatment and disposal facility, monitor environmental standards, regulate Inter‐State movement of waste, submit Annual Report to CPCB.

15. The CPCB shall co‐ordinate with SPCBs and review the implementations, publish guidelines for maintaining buffer zone restricting any residential, commercial or any other construction activity from the outer boundary of the waste processing and disposal facilities for different sizes of facilities handling more than 5 tons per day of solid waste.

16. The SWM Rules, 2016 mandates

i. setting up solid waste processing facilities by all local bodies having 100000 or more population: within two years

ii. census towns below 100000 population, setting up common or stand‐alone sanitary landfills by or for all local bodies having 0.5 million or more population and setting up common or regional sanitary landfills by all local bodies and census towns under 0.5 million population‐ three years

iii. bio‐remediation or capping of old and abandoned dump sites‐five years.

17. The Central Monitoring Committee to review the implementation of SWM Rules, 2016 has been strengthened.

Issued in Public Interest by Dayanand Nene for Sahakarsutra. @ October 2016