Overview of Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance

The term "Hazardous Waste Management" refers to all methods and regulations for handling Hazardous waste without endangering people or the environment. The primary goal of a Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance is to alter how hazardous waste is handled so that it may be transported, stored, and disposed of in a way that is safe for the environment. The focus of handling hazardous waste shifts to possible hazards to the environment and public health. Usually, hazardous garbage gets dumped in landfills and even burned. Particulates, potent odours, and different air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, etc., are produced by open burning or incineration. The soil and water are polluted by open dumping. Solid trash leftovers that are disposed of cause water contamination.

With industrialisation,concerns over the handling of hazardous waste are growing.Commercial products that have been abandoned (such as cleaning products or pesticides), as well as liquids, solids, gases, sludge, and by-products of manufacturing operations, are all considered hazardous wastes.

Benefits of Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),4.4 million tonnes of Hazardous waste are produced annually. Based on the 18 categories of garbage listed in the Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) standards that were originally published in 1989, an estimated 4.4 million is used. 38.3% of this waste is recyclable, 4.3% is suitable for incineration, and 57.4% is ideal for disposal in secure landfills. Just 13 States produce 97% of the nation's Hazardous waste: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Rajasthan. If the Hazardous Waste is not managed appropriately, there will be severe concerns like land, surface, and groundwater pollution.

Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance has four main advantages:

Equity: One must have an effective waste management system for environmental health reasons.

Effectiveness: The waste management concept ought to guarantee secure garbage removal.

Efficiency: The main goal of waste management is to increase benefits while minimising costs and maximising resource utilisation while considering equity, efficiency, and sustainability.

Sustainability: The waste management system is practical from a technical, environmental, social, economic, financial, institutional, and political standpoint and suitable to the local circumstances. It helps industries continue to exist over time without exhaustly depleting the resources they depend on.

Requirements in the Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance

1. Fulfilment of the Responsibility of Occupiers

• The occupier oversees handling Hazardous Waste Management produced in his facility in a safe and environmentally friendly way.
• The occupier, or any other person acting on his behalf, must provide the facility's operator with whatever information the State Pollution Control Board deems necessary for the operator to handle and dispose of the occupier's hazardous waste properly.
• The occupier must take all necessary precautions when handling hazardous waste to
• contain contaminants, prevent accidents, limit the effects those accidents may have on people and the environment, and
• give anyone working on the site the training, tools, and information required to ensure their safety.

2. Requirement of Packaging and labelling

• The owner, manager, or operator of the treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDFs), or recycler, must see to it that the Hazardous Waste is packaged and labelled according to its composition in a way that is appropriate for safe handling storage and transportation, in accordance with the guidelines issued from time to time by the Central Pollution Control Board.
• The labelling and packaging must be clearly visible and resilient to weather and physical stresses.

3. Liability of occupier, transporter, facility operator and importer.

• All environmental or third-party harm resulting from inappropriate handling or disposal of Hazardous Wastes is the responsibility of the facility's occupant, importer, transporter, and operator.
• The facility's owner and operator are responsible for paying any fines assessed by the State Pollution Control Board with the prior consent of the Central Pollution Control Board for violations of the rules.

Procedure of Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance

Step 1. Handling of Hazardous Wastes

It is essential that anyone handling hazardous trash take preventive measures to safeguard their health. Hazardous waste exposure causes skin rashes, long-term asthma attacks, eye irritation, tightening of the chest etc.

Step 2. Transport of Hazardous Waste

Transporting Hazardous Waste material to a specific location for an authorised treatment, storage, or disposal facility is frequently necessary (TSDF). Governmental organisations pay particular attention to transportation to prevent sporadic accidental spills due to potential dangers to public safety and the environment.

Step 3. Disposal

The final step in a Hazardous Waste Management system is the disposal of Hazardous waste. Secure landfills, deep wells, and bedrock disposal are a few options for eliminating waste.

Secure landfill: Some Hazardous Wastes cause undesirable amounts of Hazardous Materials to seep into the earth when disposed of in conventional landfills. These substances eventually find their way into natural hydrologic systems. Thus, a barrier is needed at the landfill to capture any Hazardous substances that may still be present in the dumped waste to prevent the chemicals from getting into the soil. Hazardous wastes are now solidified, stabilised, and disposed of in landfills; the method depends on the kind of waste involved in the Hazardous Waste Management and Compliance Assurance. Two impermeable liners and leachate collection devices make up the Hazardous Waste dump arrangement. An impermeable top or cover is placed over a finished landfill to lessen the amount of leachate in the fill and lower the possibility of environmental deterioration.

Deep well disposal: Injection into a deep well is another alternate method of disposing liquid industrial waste. A technique for disposing of liquid waste is deep well injection. In this alternative, treated or untreated liquid waste is injected into geologic formations using injection wells, which prevent contaminants from migrating into possible aquifers of drinkable water.

Bedrock disposal: Several different bedrock forms are being looked into as host rocks for bedrock disposal, primarily intended for solid hazardous waste. The planning of a Hazardous Waste repository or disposal site in bedrock. It is based on the multiple barriers (or multi-barrier) idea, which entails sealing off solid hazardous waste with different materials to stop waste leakage or groundwater intrusion. The characteristics of the host rock and some possible downsides are a big concern.