India has indeed grown significantly in the past few years in terms of international clout and economic strength, but many countries still treat it as a dustbin.
India imports tonnes of hazardous waste from 105 nations despite an SC ban on itNAGPUR: India has indeed grown significantly in the past few years in terms of international clout and economic strength, but many countries still treat it as a dustbin.
From the debris of the World Trade Center (WTC) to the titanium wastes of the nuclear reactors worldwide, India is becoming a dumping ground for the world’s trash.
“The scenario of hazardous wastes in India is grim,” says a senior scientist with the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the central research body with its headquarters at Nagpur. “It’s a growing cause for worry.”
A research by the NEERI some time back says that in 2002-2003 India imported 6,751 tonnes of explosive scrap, most of it from the Ivory Coast. But thousands of tonnes of unaccounted hazardous waste were dumped, which has been lying at various ports.
Environmentalists and environmental scientists say India is already a trashcan for the world. Be it hazardous municipal wastes, nuclear spillages or asbestos, it’s all being dumped clandestinely here, subverting environmental concerns on the pretext of boosting recycling business. Sources in NEERI say some 105 nations dump their hazardous non-biodegradable waste in India, at the peril of ignorant masses, mocking at the supreme court’s clear “no” to bringing this trash in.
“The import of non-biodegradable plastic waste grew exponentially at an annual rate of 62% between 1997 and 2005 and that of organo-mercury compounds by an astounding 1,500 times,” the research paper of the NEERI says.
Add to it hazardous wastes generated in India. Reports of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on hazardous waste estimate that India generates around 44 lakh tonnes of waste annually. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development pegs it at 50 lakh tones.
The estimate is based on 18 categories of wastes, as per the Hazardous Wastes Manual rules first published in 1989. Out of this, only 38.3% are recyclable, 4.3% are incinerable and remaining 57.4% are disposable in secured landfills. But environmentalists say the country has no secured landfills at all. The figure is small, compared to the US’s 275 MT waste generation.
“However, considering India’s fragile ecosystem, even this quantum of waste can cause considerable damage if untreated before releases,” says a top NEERI scientist.
India has 13,011 big industrial units located in 340 districts. Of those, 11,038 units have authorization for multiple disposal practices encompassing incineration, storage land disposal and other disposal options. Environmentalists say the small and medium enterprises are major sources of hazardous waste generation.
According to the National Productivity Council, New Delhi, there are more than three million small and medium scale industries spread in the country in clusters and industrial estates, which need to be monitored for their waste disposal.
Significantly, 12 states, including Maharashtra, account for 97% hazardous waste generation, according to the SCMC on hazardous waste constituted by the apex court three years ago. It has submitted a status report on hazardous waste in India, but the contents are not yet public.
Last year, the SCMC said the country lacks in hazardous waste disposal. Only five states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh — have treatment storage disposal facility, a must for every state.
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