Hazardous Waste Authorisation - Overview

Waste generated from a manufacturing process or a factory in the form of effluents and emissions and having chemical, physical, biological, reactive, flammable, toxic, explosive and corrosive materials which can cause or are likely to cause danger to health or the environment is termed hazardous waste. Any person or an entity involved in the collection, production, storage, transportation, reuse, reception, recycling, pre-processing, recovery, co-processing, utilisations, disposal, treatment and incineration of hazardous items is needed to apply for an authorisation from the respective State Pollution Board (SPCB) or Pollution Control Committee (PCC). This hazardous waste authorisation is of prime importance. Read on to know more about it in detail.

Who needs Hazardous Waste Authorisation?

• Facilities that produce hazardous and other waste must apply for Hazardous and other waste authorisation.
• Industrial units producing, collecting, storing, receiving, transporting, recycling, treating, disposing, using, incinerating, landfilling or managing hazardous and other wastes.
• Units involved in the recycling or reprocessing of hazardous and other wastes such as metal scrap.
• Laboratories/vehicle service stations storing or use hazardous substances and usually produce hazardous wastes such as solvents and spent chemicals, chemical or oil-contaminated filters or cloth, chemical or oil-bearing residues, etc.
• Establishment of domestic hazardous waste collection centre by Urban Local Bodies (ULB)/Municipalities.
• Units facilitating service of receiving/collection/storage/treatment/transport/disposal of hazardous wastes.

Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) (HOWM) Rules, 2016

HOWM rules apply to managing hazardous and other wastes as mentioned in the Schedules to these rules. However, these rules do not apply to -

(a) wastes produced due to operation from ships more than five kilometres of the relevant baseline as included under the norms of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (44 of 1958) and the norms made thereunder and as amended gradually;

(b) waste-water and exhaust gases as included under the norms of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (6 of 1974) & the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 & the norms made thereunder and as amended gradually;

(c) radio-active wastes as included under the norms of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 (33 of 1962) and the guidelines made thereunder and as amended gradually;

(d) wastes included under the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, made under the Act and as amended gradually; and

(e) bio-medical wastes included under the Bio-Medical Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998, made under the Act & as amended gradually.

Definitions

An authorisation is a permission for handling, generation, collection, reception, treatment, storage, transport, reuse, recycling, recovery, pre-processing, and utilisation, including disposal and co-processing of hazardous wastes produced under sub-rule (2) of rule 6;

Hazardous waste is any waste which, because of features like chemical, physical, biological, toxic, reactive, flammable, explosive or corrosive, causes or is likely to cause danger to the environment or health, whether alone or in contact with other substances or wastes. This waste must include the following -

• (i) waste mentioned in column (3) of Schedule I;
• (ii) waste having equal to or more than the concentration limits mentioned for the constituents in class A and B of Schedule II or any of the characteristics as mentioned in class C of Schedule II; and
• (iii) wastes mentioned in Part A of Schedule III concerning the import or export of such wastes or those not mentioned in Part A but exhibiting hazardous characteristics mentioned in Part C of Schedule III.

Grant of authorisation for managing hazardous and other wastes

(1) Every occupier of the facility who is involved in the generation, handling, collection, storage, transportation, packaging, use, treatment, recycling, processing, recovery, pre-processing, co-processing, utilisation, offering for transfer, sale or disposal of the hazardous and other wastes such as metal scrap is required to apply in Form 1 to the SPCB. The occupier must obtain an authorisation from the SPCB within sixty days of HOWM rules' publication date. Such application for authorisation must be accompanied by a copy of each of the documents given below, namely:-

(a) consent to establish (CTE) issued by the SPCB in the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (25 of 1974) & the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 (21 of 1981). This is also known as SPCB NOC

(b) Consent to operate (CTO) issued by the SPCB in the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (25 of 1974) &/or Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. This is also known as SPCB NOC, along with CTE.

(c) in case of authorisation renewal, a self-certified compliance report in respect of effluent, emission standards and the conditions mentioned in the authorisation for hazardous and other wastes:

Given that an application for authorisation renewal can be filed three months prior to the expiry of such authorisation:

Given further that

(i) Any person authorised under the provisions of the HOWM Rules, 2008, prior to the date of commencement of these rules, must not be mandated to apply for authorisation till the expiry of such authorisation;

(ii) any person involved in recycling or reprocessing the hazardous waste mentioned in Schedule IV and having registration under the norms of the HWM, 2008, must only be needed to apply for authorisation once the expiry of such registration.

(d) compliance reports concerning the conditions of Prior Environmental Clearance

(e) Installed capacity as per registration issued by the District Industries Centre (DIC)

(2) On receiving the complete application for the authorisation, the SPCB can, after such inquiry as it thinks compulsory, and on being satisfied that the applicant has appropriate facilities for storage, collection, packaging, transportation, processing, treatment, use, destruction, recycling, recovery, pre-processing, co-processing, utilisation, offering for sale, transfer or disposal of the hazardous and other waste, as the case may be, and after guaranteeing technical capabilities and equipment adhering to the standard operating procedure (SOP) or other guidelines mentioned by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) gradually and via site inspection, grant within one hundred and twenty days, an authorisation in Form 2 to the applicant. This hazardous waste authorisation is valid for five years, subject to conditions that may be laid down therein. For commonly recyclable hazardous waste, as included in Schedule IV, the guidelines already prepared by the CPCB must be followed:

Given that in the case of an application for authorisation renewal, the SPCB can, before granting such authorisation, satisfy itself that there has been no violation of the norms mentioned in the authorisation before issued by it, and the same must be recorded in the inspection report.

(3) The SPSCB authorisation under sub-rule (2) must be attached by a copy of the field inspection report signed by that board representing the adequacy of facilities for storage, collection, packaging, transportation, processing, treatment, use, destruction, recycling, recovery, pre-processing, utilisation, co-processing, offering for sale, transfer or disposal of the hazardous and other wastes and compliance to the norms or standard operating procedures (SOPs) mentioned by the CPCB gradually.

(4) The SPSCB can, for the reasons to be recorded and, after giving the applicant a reasonable chance of being heard, refuse to grant any authorisation under HWM rules.

(5) Every occupier authorised under these rules must maintain a record of hazardous and other wastes managed by him in Form 3. Besides the form, the occupier must prepare and submit to the SPCB an annual return having the details mentioned in Form 4 on or before the 30th of June following the financial year to which that return relates.

(6) The SPCB must maintain a register having information of the conditions imposed under these rules for the hazardous and other wastes management, and it must be open for inspection during office hours to any affected or interested person.

(7) The authorised actual user of hazardous and other wastes must maintain records of hazardous and other wastes bought in a passbook issued by the SPCB along with the authorisation.

(8) Handing over the hazardous and other wastes to the authorised actual user must be done only after making the entry into the passbook of the actual user.

Power to cancel or suspend a hazardous waste authorisation

(1) The SPCB can, if, in its opinion, the authorisation holder has failed to adhere to any of the norms of the authorisation or with any conditions of the Act or these rules and after allowing him a reasonable chance of being heard & after recording reasons thereof in writing suspend or cancel the authorisation granted under rule 6 for such time frame as it thinks necessary in the public interest.

(2) Upon cancellation or suspension of the authorisation, the SPCB can instruct the person whose authorisation has been cancelled or suspended for the safe storage and management of hazardous and other wastes. Also, such occupiers must comply with such instructions.

The utilisation of hazardous and other wastes

(1) The usage of hazardous and other wastes as a resource or after pre-processing either for co-processing or for any other use, such as within the area of the generator (if it is not part of the process), must be carried out only after obtaining authorisation from the SPCB in respect of waste based on SOPs or guidelines framed by the CPCB

(2) Where SOPs or guidelines are not available for particular utilisation, the approval has to be taken from CPCB, which must issue approval depending on the trial runs, and after that, SOPs or guidelines must be prepared by CPCB:

Given if a trial run has been conducted for specific waste concerning particular usage and compliance to the environmental standards has been demonstrated, an authorisation may be given by the SPCB regarding the same waste and usage without the need for a separate trial run by CPCB such cases of the successful trial run, CPCB must intimate all the SPCB regarding the same.

(3) No trial runs are needed for the co-processing of waste in cement plants for which norms by the CPCB are already available; however, the actual users must ensure compliance with the standards notified under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA),1986 (29 of 1986), for cement plant regarding co-processing of waste:

Transportation of hazardous and other wastes

In case of hazardous and other waste transportation, the responsibility of safe transport must be either of the sender or the receiver whosoever arranges the transport and owns the necessary authorisation for transport from the concerned SPCB. This responsibility must be clearly indicated in the manifest.

Appeal

(1) Any person aggrieved by order of cancellation or suspension or refusal of authorisation or its renewal passed by the SPCB can, within one month from the day on which the order is informed to him, prefer an appeal in Form 12 to the Appellate Authority, namely, the Environment Secretary of the state.

(2) The Appellate Authority can entertain the appeal after thirty days if s/he is satisfied that enough cause prevented the appellant from filing the appeal in time.

(3) Every appeal filed under this rule must be disposed of in two months from the date of its filing.

Information/ documents/ copies to be submitted along with a hard copy of application:

• Location map and site plan (plant layout)
• Hazardous waste storage and handling system/procedure (with photographs)
• Plan of the hazardous waste storage yard
• Copy of Consent to Establish (CTE) certificate
• Copy of Consent to Operate (CTO) certificate (if already obtained)
• Copy of agreement with common HW Treatment Storage Disposal Facility (CHWTSDF)
•  Copy of recycling agreement with authorised recycler/reprocessor
• Emergency Response Plan for the hazardous waste yard as per Form-I
• Undertaking on non-judicial stamp paper of Rs.10/- in prescribed format duly signed
• Detail of Raw materials - Process details, Product wise, with description, water balance chart, and material mass balance, source of air and water pollution and details of pollution control measure and treatment system, disposal of treated effluent sludge.
• Production capacity, estimation of category-wise hazardous waste generated from mass balance and its proposed mode of disposal.
• Photographic proof of display board at the main gate of size 4*6 in English and local language.
• In case of an application for authorisation renewal, the unit must submit the last two-year annual return.
• In case of an application for authorisation renewal, submit a compliance report w.r.t. previous authorisation.

Frequently Asked Questions