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Minister of Environment & Forests Thiru A. Raja has called for removing impediments in free movement of recyclable wastes in view of the difficulties faced by rapidly industrializing countries in accessing non-ferrous metallic wastes.
Speaking at the 7th Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention in Geneva, Switzerland today, Thiru Raja stressed the need for reviewing the Basel Ban Amendment "which does not follow objective and measurable criteria for listing countries under annex-VII since countries outside annex-VII also have capacity for environmentally sound re-processing and have also put in place a regulatory regime in line with the objectives of the Convention".
The 7th Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention has been convened to discuss how to invigorate national efforts to achieve the goals of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. Each Party listed in Annex VII, which has not yet entered into force, shall prohibit all transboundary movements of hazardous wastes to States not listed in Annex VII.
Observing that India has identified priority programme activities for preventing, minimizing, recycling, recovering and disposing of hazardous and other wastes in an environmentally sound manner and for promoting capacity building and adoption of cleaner technologies, Thiru Raja expressed concern at the resource constraint faced by the small and medium scale industries both with regard to waste minimization as well as treatment technologies, adding that for capacity building and technology upgradation of the recycling industry, economies of scale are important.
Stating that India has taken numerous steps in the direction of scientific management of hazardous wastes, the Minister pointed out that "India had notified its domestic legislation for handling and disposal of hazardous wastes way back in 1989 the same year when the world community adopted the Basel Convention".
"Since then, we have come a long way in further re-engineering and fine-tuning the strategies and national programmes in this vital area. In the past decade and a half, India has taken specific actions to further tighten the Rules for management of wastes, fix institutional responsibilities, enhance resources for waste disposal and lay down standards for treating effluents and guidelines for construction and operation of secured landfills’ Thiru Raja added.
The Minister further said that some of the major programmes, undertaken by India, include:
Enactment of specific legislations to effectively deal with special categories of Hazardous Wastes viz. Bio-Medical Wastes and Lead Acid battery wastes.
Establishment of state-of-the-art Common Treatment, Storage and Disposal facilities for industrial hazardous wastes and biomedical wastes under the public-private partnership initiatives. Already 5 Hazardous Wastes Treatment, Storage and Disposal facilities and more than 70 Bio Medical Facilities have been set up in different States.
Harmonization of Import/Export policies for hazardous wastes, in line with the principles of Basel Convention.
Synchronization of Domestic Foreign Trade and Customs Legislations with Hazardous Wastes Rules as well as capacity building at major ports and Customs Laboratories to prevent illegal import and dumping of Hazardous wastes in the country.
Formulation of comprehensive technical guidelines to facilitate industries particularly in small- scale industrial sector to deal with hazardous waste management.
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