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A Programme on “Environmental Management Capacity Building Technical Assistance Project”,Sponsored by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

INDIAN CENTRE FOR PLASTICS IN THE ENVIRONMENT

MANAGEMENT OF PLAST ICS ,POLYMER WASTES AND

BIO -POLYMERS AND IMPACT

OF PLAST ICS ON THE

ECO -SYSTEMVolume 3 • Issue 4 • Oct.–Dec. 2005For Internal Circulation only

The Municipal Corporation ofGreater Mumbai has initiated a cam-paign to remove community solidwaste storage centres from publicroads in phases by providing servicesfor point-to-point collection of seg-regated Solid Waste by bell-ringingvehicles at fixed times.

The MCGM hereby notifies the fol-lowing rules to be known as “TheMunicipal Corporation of GreaterMumbai Municipal Solid Waste(Prohibition of Littering and Regu-lation of Segregation Storage, De-livery and Collection) Rules 2006”under Section 368 of the MumbaiMunicipal Corporation Act, 1888.

The Municipal Corporationof Greater Mumbai (MCGM)initiates Anti-littering Rules

Abstracts from the Draft Noticeof Municipal Corporation ofGreater Mumbai

• No one shall litter or dirty anypublic place, and each citizen willbe responsible to keep the cityclean. Failure to do so shall at-tract fines.

• All waste to be segregated by thegenerator. Failure to segregateshall invite fines.

• All waste to be held with waste-generator or at designated spotstill time of picking up by MCGMvehicle that uses the bell-ringingconcept.

• Citizens to be urged to compostbiodegradable waste. MCGM

will provide infrastructure as wellas incentives for such initiatives.

• A formal close and sustained as-sociation between MCGM andcivil society to lead to an overallclean city. The existing structureof ALM’s/local citizen’s organi-zations will be strengthened andsystems of citizens’ reporting andmonitoring will be established.

• MCGM will ensure that all thesystems to support and facilitatethe citizen’s responsibility (as gen-erator) are also simultaneously inplace.

Application of the Rules:

These rules shall apply to every pub-lic place within the limits of theMunicipal Corporation of GreaterMumbai, to every generator of mu-nicipal solid waste and to everypremise under the ownership oroccupation of any person within thelimits of the Municipal Corporationof Greater Mumbai.

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Prohibition of Littering:

In Phase 1 of the implementationof the Rules:

• On and after the date on whichthese rules are published in thenewspapers, no person shallthrow, deposit or cause to bethrown or deposited any wastewhether liquid, semi-solid orsolid including sewage and wastewater upon or in any public place,except in a manner provided forin these rules, or in any other rulesframed under the Environment(Protection) Act, 1986 or theMumbai Municipal Corporation

Act, 1888 or under any other lawwhich may be in force.

• On and after the date on whichthese rules are published in thenewspapers, no person shallthrow any type of waste into anytype of water body (natural orman-made) including “pooja”articles.

• On and after the date on whichthese rules are published in thenewspapers, no person shall spit,urinate, defecate, feed groups ofanimals or birds, wash vehicles/utensils or any other object in anypublic place except in such pub-lic facilities/conveniences specifi-cally provided for any of these

purposes.• On and after the date on which

these rules are published in thenewspapers, every person shallensure any public place in frontof or adjacent to any premisesowned or occupied by him in-cluding footpath and open drain/gutter is free of any waste whetherliquid, semi-solid or solid includ-ing sewage and waste water andevery such person shall providean adequate number of litter binswithin such premises and ensurethat there are adequate connec-tions for drainage of waste waterinto the public drainage system.

Since the last 5 or 6 years the plastics industry hasbeen saying plastics per se should not be blamed forthe waste nuisance, it is basically LITTER. Theindustry has been asking for strong Anti-Litter lawsand implementation in India as it is believed that ifused bags are not littered, the environmental nuisancein cities could be considerably reduced in India.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai hasnow drafted the Anti-Litter Rules and the authoritieshave invited response from NGOs and concernedcitizens.

A meeting was held on 22nd Dec. 2005.

The summary points of the meeting were asbelow:

1. NGO and MCGM’s partnership would bebrought under the recognition and acceptanceby the political representatives for true success.

2. A Management System for managing the SolidWaste should be established.

3. Chronic areas (of problems) are to be identifiedand intense efforts should be made for resolvingthe problems for those areas.

4. More awareness campaigns are important ratherthan evolving proceduresfor enforcing fines/punishments.

5. Involving workers’ unions(of MCGM) in the deci-sion making process isvery important.

6. More than 60% area is covered by slums. Specialmeasures are required for creating infrastructurein those areas.

7. Providing cycle van or hand-trollies in slumareas for waste collection. Fund to be organized.

8. The system for employing contractualservice arrangement in specific areas was discussedand agreed to be implemented on experimentalbasis.

9. Dattak Vasti Yojna programme is to beencouraged in more slum areas.

10. Also need to increase the frequency of streetsweeping, was discussed.

11. Need to change the reporting system of thesweepers was discussed. It was suggested thatinstead of all sweepers of the area reportingto the supervisor at the point, the supervisorshould visit the whole area and take note of thesweepers work.

12. The procedure of levying the fine wasdiscussed. It was felt that collection of fines couldnot be bestowed to the NGO group as itcomes under the purview of public accounts

committee of the governmentauthority.

However, possibility ofemploying contractors bygoing through tendering pro-cedures, etc., was also dis-cussed.

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Segregation, storage, deliveryand collection of Municipalsolid Waste

In Phase 1 of the Implementationof these Rules:

• On and after the date of publica-tion of these rules in the news-papers, every generator ofmunicipal solid waste in GreaterMumbai shall store and delivermunicipal solid waste in a segre-gated manner in three differentgroups, viz., biodegradable waste,recyclable waste and non-recy-clable waste in accordance withthe procedure laid down inSchedule I. Further non-recyclable waste is also to be sepa-rated into i) hazardous, andii) non-hazardous waste, andstored and delivered to MCGMseparately.

• Untreated biomedical waste,hazardous industrial waste, con-struction and demolition waste,

shall not be mixed with any ofthe three groups of municipalsolid waste specified above andsuch waste shall be governed bythe rules separately framed for themanagement and handling ofsuch waste under the Environ-ment Protection Act, 1986, and/or the Mumbai Municipal Cor-poration Act, 1888.

Citizens’ Empowerment

The effective implementation ofthese Bye-Laws required theactive participation of citizens withMCGM’s support. Hence:

• Any registered ALM, NGO,RWA, CBO, citizens’ group orelected public representative thatis willing to take the responsibil-ity of keeping an area clean willbe empowered by MCGM to doso. This will include enforcementof the anti-littering laws as wellas segregation and delivery ofrecyclable and non-recyclable

waste to MCGM.• Citizens and citizens’ groups are

also encouraged to suggest toMCGM “area improvement/beautification scheme” for theirlocality that when implemented,along with the cleanliness of lo-cality, will contribute to theupliftment of that neighbour-hood. MCGM will provide ac-tive support (including funds) forthe implementation of theschemes.

• The NGO Council and MCGMwill jointly review the effectiveimplementation of these rules, atleast twice a year, and takeappropriate steps to ensure coursecorrection such as evaluation ofMCGM’s active support to therules, citizens’ response and par-ticipation, revision of fines, evalu-ation of incentives, etc.

Mandatory Support by MCGM

• MCGM will provide incentives

List of different types of municipal solid waste

Biodegradable Recyclable Non-recyclable

Hazardous Non-hazardous

• Kitchen Waste Incl: • Newspapers • FluorescentTea leaves, Egg • Paper books and Tubes, and CFL’s • Shoe polishshells, Fruit and magazines • Spray/aerosol cans • Mattress and sofa foamVegetable peels • Glass • Fertilizers and pesticide • Thermocol

• Meat • Wire containers• Bones • Metal objects • Car batteries• Flowers • Plastics • Cells• Garden and • Cloth rags • Bleaches and household

Animal litter • Leather kitchen and drain• Leaf litter • Rexine cleaning agents• Soiled paper • Rubber • Chemicals and solvents• House dust • Wood/Furniture and their empty containers

after cleaning • Packaging • Chemical-based• Coconut shells cosmetic items• Sanitary pads/ • Medicines, discarded

disposable diapers • Pints, oils, lubricants, glues,• Ashes thinners and their containers

• Styrofoam• Thermometers• Photographic chemicals

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to the generator of waste forreducing waste by compostingand recycling, and these incen-tives will be based on the savingsmade by MCGM by reductionof the volume of garbage to betransported. Schedule and speci-fications for the incentives will bedetailed through a separate docu-ment available at all Ward Offices.

• Generators of waste are urged tocompost their biodegradablewaste in-situ, and use the com-post created from segregated bio-degradable waste at the source forthe purpose of gardening andgreening of their individual pre-mises and surroundings. MCGMwill undertake to purchase anyextra compost, if available, fromthe generator, at a specified fixedcost as notified from time to time.

• MCGM will set up compostingunits within the landfill or at anynotified suitable area, for the fur-ther processing of the biodegrad-able waste that is collected.

Recyclable municipal solid wasteshall be stored in covered bins and/or secured bags and delivered byevery generator of waste to:

• any scrap dealer, recycler, autho-rized rag pickers’ organizations, orany other person, or

• the community (dry waste)storage centres notified by theMunicipal Commissioner, or

• to the dry waste collectionvehicle which shall be providedweekly by the Municipal Corpo-ration at such spots and at suchtimes as may be notified by theMunicipal Commissioner fromtime to time for collection ofrecyclable waste.

In order to regulate the sorting ofthe recycled waste that is collected,MCGM will notify as many ward-wise recyclable waste sorting cen-tres as possible, where the recyclable

ICPE has studied the draft of anti-litter rules, and madethe following comments:

Disposal method of waste atthe waste generating point

On this issue, we suggest to imple-ment the Mandatory Recom-mendation made by the Commit-tee constituted by the Hon.Supreme Court of India in theReport of Solid Waste Manage-ment in Class I Cities in India –(Chapter 3, pp26):

“Waste should be stored at thesource of waste generation in twoBINS/BAGS, one for food waste/biodegradable waste and anotherfor recyclable waste such aspapers, plastics, metal, glass, rags,etc. Waste such as used batteries,containers for chemicals and pes-ticides, discarded medicines andother toxic or hazardous house-hold waste (Annexure E), if andwhen produced, should be keptseparately from the above twostreams of waste.”

On use of plastic bags forcollection and disposal of waste

(i) Worldwide plastic trash bags/garbage bags are used for col-lection and transportation ofwaste. This is cleanest way ofhandling wet waste.

(ii) Measures are to be taken notto dump the wet waste in thelandfill area along with thesetrash/garbage bags. Thesebags are to be recoveredfor recycling into suitableapplication.

(iii) Habit of using plastic carrybags for wrapping food wasteand throwing into the road-side/common Municipalitybin especially in the slumareas, is to be discouragedby suitable awarenessprogrammes.

Some more comments

List of some domestic hazard-ous waste (from Report of theCommittee constituted bySupreme Court of India)

• Aerosol cans

• Batteries from flashlights andbutton cells

• Bleaches and householdkitchen and drain cleaningagents

• Car batteries, oil filters and carcare products and consumables

• Chemicals and solvents andtheir empty containers

• Cosmetic items, chemical-based

• Injection needles and syringesafter destroying them both

• Insecticides and their emptycontainers

• Light bulbs, tube-lights andcompact fluorescent lamps(CFL)

• Medicines, discarded

• Paints, oil, lubricants, glues,thinners and their empty con-tainers

• Pesticides and herbicides andtheir empty containers

• Photographic chemicals

• Styrofoam and soft foam pack-aging from new equipment

• Thermometers and mercury-containing products

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solid waste is transported, and thensorted out by registered rag pickers’organization/recyclers’ association.These recyclable waste sorting cen-tres will be on MCGM land, andwill be manned/regulated by regis-tered rag-pickers organizations/re-cyclers’ associations.

Exceptions

1. For a limited number of festiveoccasions, (list as notified by theState Government), there will berelaxation by MCGM in the col-lection of fines for littering onlyfor a limited period (not exceed-

ing 24 hours), and MCGM willtake the required measures toclear the litter generated in thisperiod.

2. For large gatherings of people inpublic places for any reason(including for exhibitions,circuses, fairs, political rallies,religious, socio-cultural events,protests and demonstrations, etc.)where Police and MCGM per-mission is sought for the gather-ing/event, it will be the respon-sibility of the organizer of theEvent to ensure the cleanliness ofthat area as well as all appurte-

nant areas. A Refundable Clean-liness Deposit will be taken fromthe Organizer, for the durationof the Event. This deposit will berefunded on the completion ofthe event and it is noted that thesaid public place has been restoredback to a clean state.

(Note: In place of MCGM, thelocal Statutory Body such as MHADA,Port Trust, Railways, etc., will also berequired to collect such a cleanlinessdeposit, for use of their land.)

Swiss Government Study demonstrates safetyof antimony levels in PET-bottled waters

In a study published in October2005, the Swiss Federal Office ofPublic Health (SFOPH) has con-cluded that “the risk to health fromthe migration of antimony fromPET bottles into mineral waters canbe considered as negligible”.

As part of an ongoing project startedin 2003 studying the presence oftrace elements in Swiss drinkingwater, the SFOPH examined theconcentration of antimony (Sb) inbottled mineral water. Antimonyoxide (Sb

2O

3) is used as a catalyst in

the production of the plastic PET,which is used as a packaging mate-rial for mineral water.

The study found water bottled inPET to contain on average aconcentration of 0.43 µg Sb perlitre. The highest Sb concentrationmeasured in water from a PETbottle was 1.14 µg/l. (The authorspointed out that the study’s highest

finding of 1.14 µg/l issometimes matched byantimony concentrationsnaturally occurr ing inspring water.)

These findings are wellwithin the regulatory lim-its set by the World HealthOrganization (WHO),which in 2003 increasedthe recommended maxi-mum levels for drinking-water from 5 to 20 µg/l.

The study findings also indicate ahigh margin of safety. According tothe WHO, the maximum tolerabledaily intake of Sb for a 60-kg adultis 360 µg Sb. The Swiss study foundthat even if large volumes ofmineral water containing Sb wouldbe consumed (e.g., 3 litres of water

with 1.2 µg Sb/l), it would onlyresult in a level of 1% of the maxi-mum tolerable daily intake.

Therefore the SFOPH studyconcluded that the risk towardsconsumers from a possible migra-tion of antimony from a PET bottleis negligible.

Bundesamt für Gesundheit/Officefédéral de la santé publique, Bulle-tin 44/05, 31 Octobre 2005.

For full test see:http://www.bag.admin.ch/dienste/publika/bulletin/d/BU44_05d.pdf- German language version;http://www.bag.admin.ch/dienste/publika/bulletin/f/BU44_05f.pdf -French language version

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ICPE led an Industry Delegation and made a presenta-tion to the Ministry of Environment and Forests on21st Nov, 2005 on various issues of Plastics in the Envi-ronment.

Important ones included:

• Requirement of Uniform Laws and Rules for theentire country on thickness of Plastics Carry Bags.

Plastics and the Environment –An Assessment and Road Map

• Exclusion of ‘Plastics’ from the list of Hazardous Waste.

• Review on use of Biodegradable Plastic Bags for thecollection of Biomedical Waste.

Some of the slides are reproduced below:

1 2

3 4

7

13 14

7 8

9 10

11 12

8

21 22

19 20

15 16

17 18

9

29 30

23 24

25 26

27 28

10

35 36

37 38

31 32

33 34

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Proposed New Regulation to includeAcidity Factor as a New Test Parameter inCables by EC

Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)committee of European Commis-sion (EC) has proposed new regu-lation related to fire performance ofcables as a part of ConstructionProducts Directive (CPD).

Chemicals and PetrochemicalsManufacturers’ Association(CPMA), has requested the Minis-try to forward their objections tothe EC and urge upon it toreconsider the same in view of thepoints raised against the proposal asstated below:

• From approximately 32 millionMT PVC consumed globally,about 6% is used in wire andcable sector. There is hardly anymatch to the techno-commercialperformance of PVC in thespecific areas of low-mediumvoltage power cables, householdwiring, instrumental cables, tele-phone cables, to name a few. Withthe tremendous developments ininfrastructure across the globe,PVCs market in wire and cablesector alone is expected to growat the rate of about 4.5%.

• The most importantand serious concern incase of fire is genera-tion of toxic gases, themain one being Car-bon Monoxide (CO).Majority of the peoplewho die from exposureto toxic gases hadlethal levels of CO intheir blood. It isimportant to note herethat CO is odourless

and hence kills without warning.HCl generated during burning ofPVC, on the other hand, causesirritation and hence alerts theinmates of the impending dan-ger, much before attaining alethal dose. It has been experi-mentally demonstrated that ittakes about half an hour to forma lethal dose of HCl in a normalroom fire, whereas formation oflethal dose of ‘CO’ due to burn-ing of wood, cloth and othernatural and synthetic materials ismuch faster. Moreover as ‘CO’ isodourless, it does not give anyindication of the impendingdanger to the inmates.

• In any fire, the first stage, i.e.,initiation is the crucial stage toact for prevention of its spread.PVC by its chemical nature isvery difficult to burn and isself extinguishing, i.e., it wouldcease to burn the moment thesource of flame is withdrawn/extinguished.

• PVC has highest Flash IgnitionTemperature, Highest Self Igni-tion Temperature and HighestLimiting Oxygen Index (LOI),among the common insulatingmaterials. These properties putPVC ahead of other materials asa fire resistant material. Theseaspects have been ignored in theProposed Regulation.

It appears that this proposed draftdecision is being put forth to effec-tively ban the usage of PVC coatedcables in EU market. A productshould be selected over an alterna-tive due to its techno-commercialadvantages. The proposal has failedto demonstrate that PVC cables arein anyway unsafe. There is no justi-fiable reason for excluding PVC as

a material for cable coat-ing. Any technical regu-lation adopted by thecommission has to con-form to the EC’s bindingobligations under theTBT agreement. Thisproposed draft decision isnot based on relevant in-ternational standards, isnot performance basedand appears to createunnecessary obstacles ininternational trade.

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For further information contact :Indian Centre for Plastics in the EnvironmentKushesh Mansion, 2nd Floor, 22, Cawasji Patel Street and48/54, Janmabhoomi Marg (Ghoga Street), Fort, Mumbai - 400 001.Tel.: +91-22-2282 0491 / 0496, 3090 4633 • Fax: +91-22-2282 0451E-mail: icpe@vsnl.net • Website: www.icpenviro.org • www.envis-icpe.com

www.envis-icpe.comWebsite hits for the year 2005

Months HitsJanuary : 28,289February : 43,195March : 56,671April : 65,950

Months HitsMay : 65,664June : 67,504July : 67,137August : 60,429

Months HitsSeptember : 62,227October : 59,607November : 61,450December : 1,14,771

Hitting a Lakh !

DIOXINDioxin refers to a group of chemi-cal compounds which have similarchemical structures and biologicalcharacteristics. Several hundred ofthese compounds have been iden-tified. Some of these are highly toxicin nature. These groups of chemicalcompounds mainly belong to threeclosely related families:

1. The Chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (CDD’s)

2. Chlor inated dibenzo furans(CDF’s) and certain

3. Polychlor inated biphenyls(PCB’s)

CDD’s and CDF’s are producedinadvertently by some humanactivities and are produced bynatural processes. PCB’s are manmade. Many countries have alreadystopped production of PCB’s. Mosttoxic and common forms ofDioxins are:

• 2,3,7,8- tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)

• 2.3.7.8- tetrachlorodibenzofuran(TCDF)

• 3,3’,4,4’, 5,5’Hexachlorobiphenyl

Scientists use a method for compar-ing the toxicity of different types ofdioxins to the toxicity of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin(TCDD) and 1,2,3,7,8-PeCCD.This method of indicating the tox-icity level is known as ToxicityEquivalent Quotient (TEQ).

Major sources of Dioxins are:

• Commercial or municipal wasteincineration

• Burning of fuels like wood, coalor oil

• Burning of household trash• Accidental fires at landfills• Forest fire• Chlorine bleaching of pulp and

paper• Manufacturing of certain types of

herbicides• Some other industrial processes

Studies have shown that exposureto Dioxins may cause a number ofadverse health effects. The healtheffects associated with Dioxinsdepend on many factors includingthe level and duration and frequencyof exposure. Because natural pro-cesses also form Dioxins and theseare extremely persistent compounds,levels of Dioxins remain in theenvironment for a very long time.

The most known health effect inhuman for exposure to large amountof Dioxin is Chloracne – a severetype of skin disease. Other effects oflong-term exposure to Dioxininclude cancer in adults. Thoughscientists had knowledge of the pres-ence of Dioxins in the environmentsince 1920’s, it was only in the 1970’sthat these groups of chemical com-pounds were recognized as toxic.There after efforts were intensifiedto reduce the generation of Diox-ins by human activities and differ-ent industrial activities. As a result,the level of Dioxins in the USAenvironment drastically reducedover a period of about 20 years.

An analysis by the US EPA showedthat the level of Dioxin in the USAenvironment in 2000 had comedown to about 1/3rd of the levelthat prevailed in 1970’s.

(Source: Food Safety and InspectionService, US Department of Agriculture).

During the period from 1970 to 2000production and use of plastics in theUSA had almost tripled.

From this observation it may beconcluded that Plastics and Dioxins arenot directly correlated.

More information on Dioxins will becarried in the future issues of Envis.