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Indian firms continue importing hazardous waste |
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As if India’s trouble in handling its own hazardous waste is
not enough, private firms illegally imported Rs 2,600 million
(US$65 million) worth of such waste in 2006-07. In 2005-06,
hazardous waste valued at US$ 67.5 million was imported by
private firms. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, which
reported this, also disclosed data on 141 illegal sites where
hazardous wastes are dumped in 13 states. The Committee noted
that these data may be only the tip of the iceberg, since the
government doesn’t completely track either the import or the
dumping of dangerous waste.
Adding to approximately 4.8 million tonnes of hazardous waste
generated by 29,500 Indian factories, the report lists tonnes
of clinical waste, ash from incineration of waste, scrap of
pet plastic bottles, mercury, lead, arsenic and organo-mercury
compounds being imported into India in spite of these being
banned under the law as well as under the Basel Convention. In
2006-07, India ended up importing 9.92 million tonnes of
plastic bottle scrap and mercury worth US$2.85 million.
The Committee noted that clinical waste and incineration ash
from municipal waste were also being imported. It reported
that no inventory is maintained of the quantity of legal and
unauthorized hazardous waste that has been imported into the
country. The imports come in violation of not only the
regulations, but also the 2003 Supreme Court directives.
Despite a long running battle on the issue and several
directives and orders from the apex court the situation
remains grim.
Source:
www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com |
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Sri Lanka launches a plastic waste management
project |
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The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) of the Sri Lankan
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has started a
project to manage the country’s plastic waste. The Plastic
Solidarity Committee comprising the operators of the plastic
industry will assist CEA to conduct the programme, which is
funded by the cess levied from the plastic raw material
imports.
The Director of the National Post-Use Plastic Management
Project, Mr. M. Rizvi Majeed, said that the country has a few
recycling factories of plastic waste but they don’t operate
totally as the return of plastic waste is only 10 per cent of
the need. The new project, which will be launched in some
selected dis- tricts initially, will encourage sorting out the
plastic waste and recycling them.
Source:
www.colombopage.com |
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China to set up centres to handle e-waste |
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China will set up three centres to combat electronic
pollution, said the country’s Ministry of Information
Technology (MIT). The three centres, all under electronics
research institutes supervised by MIT, will be responsible for
testing electronic products, as well as conducting research on
standards, energy saving, product recycling and disposal.
Mobile phones, for example, contain heavy metals such as
beryllium and lead, as well as bromide used as a flame
retardant, all of which are hazardous for humans. The cadmium
contained in a single mobile phone battery can contaminate
almost 60,000 litres of water.
The new centres will implement the government’s Management
Methods for Controlling Pollution by Electronic Information
Products. China’s first green regulations in the electronic
sector, which took effect on 1 March this year, are intended
to enhance environmental protection by reducing or eliminating
certain toxic and hazardous substances in electronic products.
China is expected to issue a new regulation in August
requiring companies to guarantee that toxic substances will
not leak from their devices. The nation will introduce
standards on non-lead soldering at the end of the year.
Source:
www.china.org.cn |
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Malaysia passes solid waste bill |
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In Malaysia, the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management
Bill 2007 was passed, paving the way for an improvement in
solid waste collection and management by the concession
holders. Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong
Ka Ting said the local authorities and concessionaires would
have to adhere to the Key Performance Index status, requiring
them to improve services or face action.
The Solid Waste Management Corporation would implement
policies, besides acting as a watchdog on solid waste
management and enforcement, Datuk Ong said. Its role will go
together with the National Solid Waste Management Department,
as the regulatory body placed directly under the ministry.
The corporation’s director general, the Minister said, “will
have control over the local authorities, which in turn will
act on his behalf in enforcing solid waste management,
cleanliness laws, taking action against concessionaires which
do not fulfil their responsibilities, or those who destroy the
environment such as being involved in illegal dumping
activities.”
Source:
www.thestar.com.my |
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Japan to help upgrade Sri Lankan waste management
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The Japanese government through its Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) has commenced a 4-year technical
cooperation project this March to upgrade the capacity of Sri
Lanka’s newly established National Solid Waste Management
Support Centre (NSWMSC) of the Ministry of Local Government
and Provincial Councils. An overall goal of the project is to
improve the solid waste management of local authorities. With
technical support from JICA, the NSWMSC is expected to provide
guidance to local authorities in preparing solid waste
management plans, and to obtain grant and loans from financial
institutions to implement the plans.
Under this project, JICA dispatches experts and provides
equipment and training opportunities for Sri Lankan
counterparts. JICA will transfer the technology to the NSWMSC
staff to enable them to assist local authorities to draw solid
waste management plans in cooperation with authorities and
provincial councils in accordance with the Solid Waste
Management National Strategy.
Source:
www.dailynews.lk |
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The Philippines to ask oil companies to pay for
spills |
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The Government of the Philippines has introduced a law that
requires all major companies that ship oil using the island
nation’s waters to pay into a fund, which can be used to
tackle future spills. The Oil Compensation Act has largely
been seen as an acknowledgement of the criticism over the
government’s slow response to a huge spill off the coast of
Guimaras last year, the worst in the country’s history. An oil
tanker sank off the coast of the island last August, causing
extensive damage to both the environment as well as the
livelihood of local fisherfolk. The remediation took months to
complete and was plagued with several problems including the
sinking of a clean-up vessel, which went down carrying large
amounts of contaminated sludge.
Under the new act, any company transporting 136,000 t or more
of oil each year will have to contribute to the fund, which
will cover the costs of containment and clean-up operations in
the event of a spill. The official reasoning for this approach
is that the blame game which follows a spill under the
traditional ‘polluter pays’ principle could cost valuable time
and lead to a delayed reaction in tackling the problem.
Source:
www.edie.net |
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China’s paper recycling industry protects forests |
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China’s booming recycling industry is helping to slow the
destruction of forests worldwide, providing a strong market
for wastepaper that mostly comes from Europe and the United
States, according to a recent study. Almost 60 per cent of the
fibre employed to produce paper and paper board products in
China is derived from wastepaper, the report found. In the
last decade, China’s wastepaper imports increased by more than
500 per cent – from 3.1 million tonnes in 1996 to 19.6 million
tonnes in 2006 – with the growth mostly occurring during
2002-06.
“China is by far the world’s biggest consumer of wastepaper
and that is a good thing because in the last four years alone,
China has prevented 65 million tonnes of wastepaper from
heading to landfills in Japan, the United States and Europe,”
said Mr. Brian Stafford, the lead author of the report and an
industry consultant. The industry includes one of the
country’s richest people, Ms. Zhang Yin, the founder of the
Nine Dragons Paper Co., who made a fortune by turning recycled
paper from America into packaging products.
Source:
www.chinadaily.com.cn |
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Nepal court orders a study on medical waste
disposal |
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In Nepal, the Supreme Court has directed the Ministry of
Finance to form a committee to probe whether medical waste is
being properly disposed of in the Kathmandu Valley. A division
bench of the court said the committee should comprise
representatives of the Health Ministry, the Ministry for
Environment, Science and Technology, as well as hospitals and
nursing homes in the valley. The committee will have four
months to complete a study and submit its report to the apex
court.
The directive was in response to a public interest litigation
filed by a group of lawyers of Pro Public, an NGO. The
petitioners demanded that the court intervene and order
authorities concerned to properly manage medical waste, which
has exposed the general public to several health hazards. The
petitioners have sought an order to the government to pass a
separate regulation as per Clause 24 of the Environment
Protection Act-1997 and fix criteria for medical waste
management.
Source:
www.thehimalayantimes.com |
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