Amid resistance to the proposed waste-to-energy plant at Kodungaiyur, environmental groups have criticised the Union government for proposing to exempt all waste-to-energy (WTE) and municipal solid-waste management facilities from mandatory public hearings and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirements.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued a draft notification on October 3 proposing that ‘Common Municipal Solid Waste Management Facility” projects — including WTE plants, landfills, and facilities generating electricity from hazardous waste — no longer require prior environmental clearance under the EIA Notification, 2006. The Ministry has also classified these projects as “Essential Environmental Services”.
In its notification, the MoEFCC said solid-waste management systems play an important role in protecting environmental and human health, advancing the circular economy, and reducing air, land and water pollution.
Since these facilities are already regulated under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had placed incinerators under the “blue category” of industries, it argued that exempting them from the EIA process would support faster implementation.
