Press Release Proposed Waste Management Rules biased against poorer classes, waste continues to follow path of least resistance
Why Waste Rules being framed by Environment Ministry and Waste Policy by Urban Development Ministry Promotes environmental lawlessness & iniquitous & unscientific Waste, Plastic Mgt & Sanitation practices Legalizes continued dumping and burning of waste as solution, not a problem Rules look at sub urban & rural areas as dumping grounds for urban waste At a Round Table on “Politics of Waste Management & Draft Solid Waste Management Rules, 2015 and Draft Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2015” it was decided that Kachra Intzamia Muhim (Waste Management Campaign) will jointly submit comments on them and provide an alternative legal framework to deal with waste crisis. It emerged that both the Rules farmed by Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change suffer from poverty of environmental imagination. It fails to underline that Indian solid waste has hazardous waste characteristics. Its faith in building landfills in the sky remains unshaken despite repeated failures in waste to energy projects. It does not factor in the recommendations on Integrated Plant Nutrient Management which had advanced a progressive argument for securing soil nutrients from composts from waste incineration technologies that turns it into pollutants. The Rules acknowledges that the mandate of waste management lies with Urban Development Ministry by stating that it should “formulate National Policy and Strategy on Solid Waste Management in consultation with stakeholders”. Shouldn’t the Solid Waste Management Rules be framed by the Urban Development Ministry as well. Why Rules and Policy should on the same subject of waste management is being framed by two different ministries namely, Environment Ministry and Urban Development Ministry. It underlines the lack of holistic approach in dealing with waste crisis. Both the Rules fail to aim at reducing plastic use. They fail to provide mechanism for the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Draft Solid Waste Management Rules fails to take lessons from Suryapet, Telangana and Nammkal in Tamil Nadu where Zero Waste philosophy has been adopted. It refuses to acknowledge and learn from admitted failures in Timarpur and Okhla in Delhi. Draft Plastic Waste Management Rules fails to learn from success in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and failures in Delhi and elsewhere. The provision in the Draft Solid Waste Management Rules for the segregation of waste into four categories- bio-degradable or wet waste, non bio-degradable or dry waste, domestic hazardous wastes and construction and demolition waste by the waste generator is noteworthy. The Draft Rules has extended its jurisdiction. It applies “to every urban local body, all statutory towns, outgrowths in urban agglomerations as declared by the registrar general & census commissioner of India, notified areas/notified industrial townships, notified area committees, area under Indian railways, defense cantonments, special economic zones in the country and every waste generator.” If the idea is to seek sites for landfill and waste processing facilities beyond municipal limits then this is likely to have grave political implications. The Rules fails to provide exact criteria for identification for such facilities. The deafening silence of framers of the Draft Rules and the foreign funded NGOs who were involved in it exposes their class bias. The Rules must make it mandatory for the waste of each district to remain in that very district so that waste does not shift to poorer localities by adopting Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) syndrome. The Rules must provide for compulsory six monthly public health audit of communities living in the vicinity of waste treatment facilities in general and environmental and occupational health audit of formal and informal workers involved in the waste management. The participants raised serious questions about the need for having two separate Rules when plastic is at the focal point for both of them. The committee on whose recommendations these Rules have been framed have revealed itself to be a supporter of status quo. It disregards public health in general and environmental and occupational health in particular in its framing. The Rules continues to promote movement of waste from richer areas to poorer areas. It pays lip service to waste minimization, waste segregation, composting but ignores the fact that Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has already distorted waste management by making misplaced combustion technology based energy as the driving concern. It disregards the composition of the Indian waste and promotes burning and burial of waste. It provides standards for emissions of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants but ignores the fact that Central Pollution Control Board and most State Pollution Control Boards do not have functional laboratories to test the emissions and to monitor compliance. Members of Kachra Intzamia Muhim (Waste Management Campaign) examined the Draft Solid Waste Management Rules, 2015 and Draft Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2015 noted the role which Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers is being assigned for supporting composts. Sadly, unmindful of its distorting effect, MNRE provides Rs 1.5 crore/MW for energy generation from waste. No such incentive has specifically been provided. The role of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in approving new technologies has been mentioned both under tasks assigned to CPCB and State Pollution Control Boards, Pollution Control Committees but it does not factor existing experience in this regard. The case of use of unapproved technology in Jindal’s Okhla based waste to energy project is quite germane in this regard. The Draft Solid Waste Rules reads: “In case of new technologies, where no standards have been prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Board or Pollution Control Committee, as the case may be, shall approach Central Pollution Control Board for getting standards specified.” The fact is that although a new Chinese technology is being used at Okhla, Delhi Pollution Control Committee is yet to approach CPCB in this regard. The Draft Rules provides that CPCB should “review the proposals of state pollution control boards or pollution control committees on use of any new technologies for processing, recycling and treatment of solid waste and prescribe performance standards, emission norms for the same”. The fact is that CPCB has admittedly failed to review the Chinese technology in question and “prescribe performance standards, emission norms for the same” with no legal consequences. The participants also objected to reference to waste workers as waste pickers in both the Rules. Although several years have passed waste workers have not been provided legal status despite National Environmental Policy 2006 promise to provide legal status to waste workers. Waste workers provide invaluable environmental service by ensuring resource and material recovery. In such a situation of environmental lawlessness and social injustice, the proposed Rules do not inspire even an iota of confidence. The Draft Rules mention Metal Recovery Facility (MRF). It ought to have made provision for handing MRF to co-operatives of waste workers. The Rules refer to user fee without clarifying whether it would be based on the quantity or type of waste generated by waste producers. The Rules pay lip-service to incentives for decentralised waste treatment facilities. Its continued reliance on incineration Refuse Derived Fuel Technologies shows that ministry’s love affair with costly centralised facilities for treating and disposing municipal wastes is far from over. The reference to “viability gap funding” in the Draft Rules drew criticism from participants. This implies that the ministry has envisaged financial support “to be paid to the concessionaire or operator of a solid waste processing facility” in order “partly cover the difference between market price of the output and its production cost plus reasonable profit margin.” The integrated zero waste management waste practices worldwide reveal that saner waste management practices generate both revenue and livelihoods in such a scenario such promotion of public private partnership (PPP) points to a deeply flawed fiscal design. The Round Table was organized by Kachra Intzamia Muhim, a joint effort of voluntary organizations, researchers, activists and workers associations. The participants included members from ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), Shahri Mahila Kaamgaar Union, Wastepicker Welfare Organization, Lokadhikar, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), SRUTI, Hazards Centre, AIKMM, PEACE, CCSSD, Lokashraya Foundation, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). For Details: Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), Mb: 9818089660, Web: www.toxicswatch.org, E-mail-1715krishna2gmail.com, Dharmendar Yadav, Lokadhikar, Mb: 9899044249, E-mail:[email protected] -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
