Hazardous Waste Law: The Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016, the Basel Convention and Liability for Environmental Damage

Industrial processes generate sludges, spent solvents, acid residues, heavy metal dusts, used oil and contaminated containers that can poison land and groundwater for generations. The Bichhri tragedy in Rajasthan, where sludge from an H-acid plant turned village wells red, and the Bhopal gas leak showed what happens when such substances escape. Rich countries have also tried to ship their hazardous waste to poorer ones. Indian law responds through the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016, made under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which implement the Basel Convention and regulate hazardous waste from generation to final disposal, including its import and export.

1. Background and the 2016 Rules

The first rules were the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989, framed after Bhopal. They were replaced by the Hazardous Wastes (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2008, and then by the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016, notified on 4 April 2016. The 2016 Rules made four major changes: they added 'other wastes' (such as waste tyres, paper waste, metal scrap and used electronic items) that are not hazardous but need regulation when imported; they adopted a waste management hierarchy; they simplified procedures for import and export, with the Ministry of Environment as the single authority; and they encouraged co-processing and utilisation of waste as a resource. Important amendments have since added extended producer responsibility for waste tyres (July 2022), used oil (in force 1 April 2024) and non-ferrous metal scrap (notified 1 July 2025, obligations from 1 April 2026).

2. Meaning of Hazardous Waste

The definition combines a characteristics test (does the waste have hazardous properties?) with list tests (is it generated by a listed process, or does it contain listed constituents above the concentration limit?). 'Other wastes' are wastes listed in Schedule III (Parts B and D) and Schedule IV, such as waste tyres, paper waste, metal scrap, used electronic items and used oil, which may be imported for recycling or reuse subject to the Rules. The Rules do not cover waste water and exhaust gases (Water and Air Acts), radioactive waste, bio-medical waste, municipal solid waste, e-waste, battery waste, and wastes from the operation of ships beyond five kilometres of the baseline, which have their own regimes.

3. The Waste Management Hierarchy

The 2016 Rules require the occupier (the person with control over the premises where hazardous waste is generated) to manage hazardous and other wastes in the following order of preference:

1. Prevention: avoiding the generation of waste by changing processes, raw materials or products;
2. Minimisation: reducing the quantity and toxicity of waste that is unavoidable;
3. Reuse: using the waste again for the same or another purpose without major processing;
4. Recycling: reprocessing the waste to recover a material;
5. Recovery, including co-processing: recovering energy or material, for example in cement kilns; and
6. Safe disposal: disposing of the residue in an authorised treatment, storage and disposal facility.

3.1 Prevention and minimisation

The best hazardous waste is the waste never generated. Occupiers are expected to adopt cleaner production, substitute less hazardous inputs, improve process efficiency and recover solvents and acids within the plant. State Boards consider waste minimisation plans while granting consent and authorisation.

3.2 Reuse and recycling

Hazardous waste may be reused or recycled only by units that have the environmentally sound facilities prescribed. Waste listed for recycling (for example, used lead acid battery scrap, non-ferrous metal dross, spent catalysts, used oil) may be sold only to authorised recyclers registered with the State Board, which must meet the CPCB guidelines. Utilisation of hazardous waste as a resource in another process is permitted under standard operating procedures of the CPCB, or with specific approval.

3.3 Recovery and co-processing

Recovery means any operation in the recycling activity in which a resource is recovered from waste, including energy. Co-processing means the use of waste as raw material or as a source of energy, or both, to replace or supplement natural mineral resources and fossil fuels in industrial processes. It is preferred over incineration and landfilling because it avoids the need for separate disposal and recovers value.

3.4 Safe disposal

Only waste that cannot be prevented, reused, recycled or recovered should be sent for disposal, and only to an authorised treatment, storage and disposal facility, through incineration, stabilisation or a secured landfill.

4. Authorisation and Storage

4.1 Authorisation for hazardous waste

Every occupier generating hazardous waste, and every person engaged in its collection, storage, packaging, transportation, treatment, processing, recycling, recovery, pre-processing, co-processing, utilisation, offering for sale, transfer or disposal, must obtain authorisation from the State Pollution Control Board in the prescribed form. The Board grants authorisation after satisfying itself about the facilities, technical capability and equipment, and may impose conditions. It may suspend or cancel authorisation for non-compliance after giving an opportunity of being heard. An appeal lies against the Board's order.

4.2 Storage of hazardous waste

Occupiers may store hazardous waste within the premises for a period not exceeding ninety days, and must maintain a record of sale, transfer, storage, recycling, recovery, pre-processing, co-processing and utilisation of such waste and make it available for inspection. The State Board may extend the period (generally up to one hundred and eighty days) in the case of small generators, or where the waste is to be sent to a facility that is not yet operational, or where waste awaits recycling. Storage must be in a secure, labelled area that prevents leakage, runoff and fire.

5. Transportation and the Manifest System

Hazardous waste must be packaged, labelled and transported in accordance with the Rules and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. Packages must carry labels showing the nature of the waste, its hazard class, and emergency contact details. Transport is only by an authorised transporter, and where waste is transported through a State other than the State of origin or destination, the occupier must intimate the State Board of the transit State. If waste is sent to another State for final disposal, the occupier must obtain a no objection certificate from the State Board of the receiving State.

The manifest system is the tracking document that follows the waste from the generator through the transporter to the receiver (recycler or TSDF). The occupier prepares the manifest in the prescribed form in seven copies, which are signed at each stage and distributed among the occupier, transporter, receiver and the State Board. The manifest makes each party accountable, allows the regulator to reconcile waste generated with waste received, and reveals illegal dumping when a copy fails to come back.

6. Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility

A treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF) is a facility where hazardous waste is treated, stored and disposed of. Most are common TSDFs serving many industries in a region. A TSDF usually has a secured landfill lined with impermeable layers and a leachate collection system, a stabilisation unit that fixes toxic constituents before landfilling, and often an incinerator for organic waste. The State Government identifies sites; the operator must obtain authorisation and consent, follow CPCB guidelines on design, operation and post-closure monitoring, maintain records and file returns. An operator is responsible for the safe operation of the facility and for monitoring groundwater and air around it.

7. Transboundary Movement: Import and Export

7.1 The Basel Convention and Indian law

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, adopted on 22 March 1989 and in force from 5 May 1992, was a response to the 'toxic trade' in which hazardous waste from industrialised countries was dumped in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its core features are: minimisation of hazardous waste generation; disposal as close as possible to the source; the prior informed consent procedure, under which export may take place only with the written consent of the importing State and transit States; the principle that parties may prohibit imports; treatment of illegal traffic as a criminal act; and the duty to re-import waste that cannot be managed in an environmentally sound manner. The Ban Amendment (in force 2019) prohibits exports from OECD to non-OECD countries for any purpose; India has not ratified it. The 2019 plastic waste amendments brought most mixed plastic waste under the prior informed consent procedure from 2021.

India ratified the Basel Convention in 1992, and the Hazardous and Other Wastes Rules are the principal instrument implementing it. The Supreme Court has treated the Convention as part of the law to be enforced under the Environment (Protection) Act.

7.2 Import of hazardous waste

The Ministry of Environment is the competent authority for transboundary movement. Import of hazardous and other wastes for disposal is prohibited; import is allowed only for recycling, recovery, reuse and utilisation, including co-processing. The importer must obtain permission from the Ministry, which consults the State Board and, for some wastes, the technical review committee. Wastes in Schedule VI are prohibited for import altogether. Certain other wastes may be imported under the prior informed consent procedure, and some 'other wastes' by actual users with documentation, subject to pre-shipment inspection certificates.

7.3 Export of hazardous waste

Export of hazardous waste from India requires the prior informed consent of the importing country and transit countries, obtained through the Ministry of Environment, with the exporter bearing responsibility for the movement document and insurance. Export is permitted only where the importing country can manage the waste in an environmentally sound manner.

7.4 Illegal traffic in hazardous waste

Import or export of hazardous or other waste is illegal if it is carried out without permission of the Central Government, where permission was obtained through falsification, misrepresentation or fraud, where the consignment does not conform to the shipping documents, or where it results in deliberate disposal in contravention of the Basel Convention or the Rules. In the case of illegal import, the importer must re-export the waste at his own cost within ninety days, and the customs authority and State Board must ensure compliance; the importer is also liable for environmental damage and penalty. The Supreme Court's involvement in the Clemenceau (2006) and Blue Lady (2007) ship-breaking matters shows how end-of-life ships carrying asbestos and toxic materials raise the same issues; ship recycling is now governed by the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019, implementing the Hong Kong Convention.

8. Specific Wastes: Used Oil, Waste Tyres and Metal Scrap

8.1 Used oil

Used oil is oil from industrial and vehicle use (lubricants, hydraulic and transformer oil) that has become contaminated. It is both hazardous and valuable: it can be re-refined into base oil. The Rules require that used oil be sold or auctioned only to registered re-refiners or recyclers meeting the prescribed standards, and prohibit its use as fuel except in the manner specified. Through an amendment in force from 1 April 2024, the Rules introduced extended producer responsibility for used oil: producers (manufacturers and importers of base oil and lubricating oil, and importers of used oil) must meet annual re-refining targets by purchasing EPR certificates from registered re-refiners on a CPCB portal, failing which environmental compensation is levied.

8.2 Waste tyres

Waste tyres are an 'other waste'. They are bulky, burn with toxic smoke and breed mosquitoes. By an amendment of 22 July 2022, the Rules introduced extended producer responsibility for waste tyres. Producers (manufacturers of new tyres, importers of new tyres and of vehicles fitted with tyres, and importers of waste tyres) must ensure recycling of waste tyres, with targets rising from thirty-five per cent (2022-23) and seventy per cent (2023-24) to one hundred per cent from 2024-25, calculated on tyres placed on the market two years earlier. They meet targets by buying EPR certificates from registered recyclers, who produce reclaimed rubber, crumb rubber, crumb rubber modified bitumen, recovered carbon black, and pyrolysis oil or char. Import of waste tyres for pyrolysis is prohibited, because pyrolysis units have often operated in unsafe and polluting conditions.

8.3 Non-ferrous metal scrap

By an amendment of 1 July 2025, a new chapter introduced EPR for non-ferrous metal scrap such as aluminium, copper, zinc and lead products. Manufacturers and importers of the covered products must register on a CPCB portal and meet annual recycling targets from 1 April 2026, extending the EPR model from consumer products to industrial metals.

9. Co-Processing in Cement Kilns

Cement kilns operate at temperatures of around 1,400 to 1,450 degrees Celsius with a long gas residence time and an alkaline environment. Organic compounds in waste are completely destroyed, acid gases are neutralised by the lime in the raw material, and inorganic residues are incorporated into the clinker, so that no ash is left for disposal. Co-processing thus achieves both energy recovery (the waste replaces coal) and material recovery (the waste replaces raw material).

The 2016 Rules treat co-processing as recovery, placing it above disposal in the hierarchy. The CPCB has issued guidelines on pre-processing and co-processing of hazardous and other wastes in cement plants, including emission standards and trial runs. Wastes co-processed include refuse derived fuel, non-recyclable plastic, waste tyres, paint sludge, spent solvents, pharmaceutical and pesticide residues, and ETP sludge. Critics caution that co-processing must not become a cheap route for wastes that should be reduced or recycled, and that emissions of mercury and dioxins must be monitored.

10. Environmental Damage from Hazardous Waste and Liability

The Rules make the occupier, importer or exporter, transporter and operator of a disposal facility liable for all damages caused to the environment or third parties due to improper handling of hazardous and other wastes or disposal of such wastes, and liable to pay financial penalties levied by the State Board with the prior approval of the CPCB. This rule is reinforced by the absolute liability and polluter pays principles, by the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (compensation, restitution and restoration, with no-fault liability for accidents), and by the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991.

The Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025, notified on 24 July 2025, now provide a structured procedure: State Boards identify and assess suspected contaminated sites, a Central Remediation Committee and expert bodies oversee remediation, and the responsible person must bear the cost of remediation, failing which the State may remediate and recover the cost, with environmental compensation for non-compliance. The Rules give statutory form to the Bichhri principle for legacy hazardous waste sites.

11. Critical Appraisal

The 2016 Rules modernised Indian hazardous waste law by adopting the hierarchy, integrating Basel, simplifying procedures and promoting co-processing, and the later EPR schedules for tyres, used oil and metal scrap push responsibility up the supply chain. Problems persist: the inventory of hazardous waste is incomplete; TSDF capacity is uneven between States; illegal dumping in drains and on vacant land continues; small units often operate without authorisation; manifests are sometimes forged; and many contaminated sites await remediation. The Contaminated Sites Rules, 2025 and the EPR schedules offer new tools, but their success depends on regulatory capacity and prompt recovery of remediation costs from polluters.

12. Related Topics and Provisions