Water, Soil and Waste Pollution: Plastics, E-waste and Solid Waste

Water pollution

Sources:

• untreated sewage: the largest source. India's urban areas generate about 72,000 million litres a day (MLD) of sewage, but treatment capacity is only about 28–30% of that in operation (CPCB, 2020–21 data);
• industrial effluents: tanneries, textiles, distilleries, pulp and paper;
• agricultural run-off: fertilisers and pesticides;
• solid waste dumping;
• religious and cultural activities.

Indicators:

• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD): the oxygen microbes need to decompose organic matter. High BOD means more pollution. The bathing water standard is BOD ≤ 3 mg/l.
• Dissolved oxygen (DO): should be at least 5 mg/l for aquatic life.
• Faecal coliform: shows sewage contamination.
• COD (chemical oxygen demand).

Polluted rivers: the CPCB identified 311 polluted river stretches on 279 rivers (2022). Maharashtra has the most. The Yamuna in Delhi is among the worst; toxic foam at Kalindi Kunj comes from detergents (phosphates and surfactants) in untreated sewage.

Eutrophication: nitrogen and phosphorus cause algal blooms, oxygen depletion and fish kills. Examples include Bengaluru's Bellandur Lake, known for frothing and fires, and dead zones in coastal seas.

Groundwater contamination: arsenic, fluoride, nitrate and uranium, discussed in the irrigation lesson.

Policy:

• the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, India's first major pollution law, which created the pollution control boards. Its 2024 amendment decriminalised minor offences;
• Namami Gange (2014): sewage treatment, ghats, biodiversity and Ganga Praharis. It is run by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), under the National Ganga Council chaired by the PM. Hybrid Annuity PPP is used for sewage treatment plants;
• the National River Conservation Plan;
• AMRUT 2.0 for sewerage;
• zero liquid discharge norms for polluting industries.

Soil pollution and degradation

Causes: excess fertilisers and pesticides, industrial waste, mining, e-waste, plastics (microplastics in soil), and saline irrigation.

Land degradation: ISRO's Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas (2021) found about 97.85 million ha, roughly 30% of India's land, degraded. The main processes are water erosion, vegetation degradation and wind erosion.

India aims to restore 26 million ha of degraded land by 2030, under its Bonn Challenge and UNCCD commitments. India hosted UNCCD COP14 in 2019.

Solid waste management

Generation: Indian cities generate about 1.5–1.7 lakh tonnes per day of municipal solid waste. Collection and processing have improved under Swachh Bharat, with processing reported above 75–80%. Legacy dumpsites such as Ghazipur and Bhalswa (Delhi) and Deonar (Mumbai) catch fire and leach toxins. The Brahmapuram (Kochi) fire in 2023 blanketed the city in smoke.

Solid Waste Management Rules:

• the 2016 rules: segregation at source into wet, dry and hazardous waste; user fees; producer responsibility for packaging; and coverage of rural areas;
• new SWM Rules (2024 draft, notified 2025) require four-way segregation, add extended bulk-generator responsibility, and take effect from April 2026.

Approaches: composting, biomethanation (the GOBARdhan scheme), material recovery facilities, waste-to-energy (which suffers from the low calorific value of mixed Indian waste), and landfill only for inert residue.

Indore's model: ranked cleanest city for seven years in Swachh Survekshan. It achieved 100% segregation, runs a large bio-CNG plant from wet waste, and cleared its legacy dumpsite.

Plastic pollution

Scale: India generates about 3.5–4 million tonnes of plastic waste a year. A Nature (2024) study placed India as the largest emitter of plastic pollution (unmanaged waste) in the world, though the government disputed the estimate.

Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016, with amendments:

• a ban on identified single-use plastic items (cutlery, straws, earbuds and others) from 1 July 2022;
• plastic carry bags must be at least 120 microns thick (from December 2022);
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) guidelines (2022): producers, importers and brand owners must collect and recycle set shares of their plastic packaging, with minimum recycled content targets and tradable EPR certificates.

Global plastics treaty: UNEA (2022) launched negotiations for a legally binding treaty. Talks at Busan (INC-5, 2024) and Geneva (INC-5.2, August 2025) ended without agreement, mainly over whether to cap production. India opposed production caps, preferring a focus on waste management.

Microplastics: particles under 5 mm, found in water, food, salt and human blood and tissues.

E-waste and hazardous waste

E-waste: India is the third-largest generator of e-waste in the world (after China and the US), at about 1.75 million tonnes in 2023–24 (CPCB, official channels). Most is handled by the informal sector (Seelampur in Delhi, Moradabad), which uses acid baths and open burning to extract metals. This exposes workers to lead, mercury and cadmium.

E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022 (effective April 2023):

• EPR with collection and recycling targets for producers;
• registration on a CPCB portal;
• tradable EPR certificates;
• more products covered, including solar panels;
• a minimum price floor for EPR certificates was set in 2024–25, which some producers challenged in court.

Other rules:

• the Battery Waste Management Rules 2022, with EPR for batteries, including EV batteries;
• the Hazardous Waste Rules 2016;
• the Bio-medical Waste Rules 2016 (colour-coded segregation);
• the Construction and Demolition Waste Rules 2016 (revised in 2025).

Global: the Basel Convention (1989) controls transboundary movement of hazardous waste. Its 2019 plastic amendment covers mixed plastic waste.

Analysis: towards a circular economy

What a circular economy means: in place of "take–make–dispose", it keeps materials in use through reduce, reuse, recycle, refurbish and recover.

Policies:

• EPR frameworks across plastics, e-waste, batteries, tyres and used oil;
• Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment, launched at COP26, 2021), which promotes mindful consumption;
• circular economy action plans for 11 sectors (NITI Aayog).

Challenges:

• informal sector integration: waste pickers are key to recycling but lack social security;
• weak enforcement of EPR;
• fraudulent certificates;
• low segregation at source.

Common prelims traps

• High BOD means more pollution.
• The Water Act (1974) came before the Air Act (1981).
• Plastic carry bags must be at least 120 microns.
• The Basel Convention covers hazardous waste trade; Stockholm covers POPs; Rotterdam covers prior informed consent for chemicals.

Quick self-test

1. *What is EPR?* Making producers responsible for their products after consumers discard them.
2. *Why is waste-to-energy hard in India?* Mixed waste is wet with low calorific value.
3. *What is eutrophication?* Nutrient enrichment that causes algal blooms and oxygen depletion.

Practice: Mains question

*"Extended Producer Responsibility is central to India's waste management, but its implementation faces challenges." Discuss with reference to plastics and e-waste. (250 words)*

Key terms

• Leachate: contaminated liquid that seeps out of waste dumps into soil and groundwater.
• Legacy waste: old waste accumulated in dumpsites over years, needing biomining to clear.
• Biomining: excavating old dumps and separating soil, recyclables and refuse-derived fuel.
• Refuse-derived fuel (RDF): fuel made from the combustible dry fraction of waste, used in cement kilns.

• Persistent organic pollutants: toxic chemicals such as DDT and PCBs that persist in the environment and accumulate in food chains.