Question

Government schemes for waste management

Answer 1

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) recently notified the new Solid Waste Management Rules (SWM), 2016. These will replace the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, which have been in place for the past 16 years.

These rules are the sixth category of waste management rules brought out by the ministry, as it has earlier notified plastic, e-waste, biomedical, hazardous and construction and demolition waste management rules.

It is difficult to comment as to whether there has been any learning from the past that has been incorporated in the new rules. They fail to incentivise and impose a strict penalty in case of poor implementation. The rules have not pushed for decentralised management of waste but have encouraged centralised treatment such as waste to energy, the present state of which is not good in the country. Also, the informal sector has been considerably neglected in the new rules.

According to Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javedkar, 62 million tonnes of waste is generated annually in the country at present, out of which 5.6 million tonnes is plastic waste, 0.17 million tonnes is biomedical waste, hazardous waste generation is 7.90 million tonnes per annum and 15 lakh tonnes is e-waste. He added that only about 75-80 per cent of the municipal waste gets collected and only 22-28 per cent of this waste is processed and treated.