Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is one of the fastest growing industries and has emerged as an international centre for contract research and manufacturing services. The main growth factors are international standard quality and low costs. With all the development in the industry, India is on the way to becoming the biggest producer of drugs in the world.
Since every coin has two sides, so has the rapidly developing pharmaceutical industry. Since pharmaceutical industry is largely involved in manufacturing and production of medicines, it has resulted into massive generation of Bio Medical wastes as well.
The waste management system in India is very diverse in nature the waste are categorized into e-waste,Bio Medical waste, Municipal Solid waste, Plastic waste, Hazardous waste and radioactive waste. Each category of waste is having a different method of disposal prescribed under different statutes hence making it more difficult and complex to determine the right method for disposal. Bio Medical waste being one of the major waste generated by pharmaceutical industry, it should be properly channelized to a common Bio Medical WasteTreatment Facility or shall be disposed of in accordance with the Rules.
‘Bio-medical Waste’ as defined in Bio- Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules,1998 is “any waste, which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biological, and including categories mentioned in Schedule I.”
A ‘Sewage Treatment Plant’ is a plant which treats wastewater from either municipality i.e. the water used in kitchens and in households for domestic purposes or industry waste having soluble organic impurities or mix of both waste water sources. While in a ‘Effluent treatment plant’. In a ‘Effluent treatment plant’ the ‘Trade Effluents’ are treated i.e. any liquid waste (effluent),other than surface water and domestic sewage; e.g. fats, oils, greases, chemicals, detergents,heavy metal rinses, solids, food wastes. In general terms it treats the type of wastes which if left untreated pose a greater harm to the environment.
The process carried on in such plants is a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic processes in order to obtain optimum results. Aerobic, as the title suggests, means in the presence of air (oxygen);while anaerobic means in the absence of air (oxygen). These two terms are directly related to the type of bacteria or microorganisms that are involved in the degradation of organic impurities in a given wastewater and the operating conditions of the bioreactor. Therefore, aerobic treatment processes take place in the presence of air and utilize those microorganisms (also called aerobes),which use molecular/free oxygen to assimilate organic impurities i.e. convert them in to carbondioxide, water and biomass. The anaerobic treatment processes, on other hand take place in theabsence of air (and thus molecular/free oxygen) by those microorganisms (also called anaerobes)which do not require air (molecular/free oxygen) to assimilate organic impurities. The final products of organic assimilation in anaerobic treatment are methane and carbon dioxide gas and biomass.
In an STP, the process is less time consuming then that in an ETP as the molecules of the waste treated in a STP are easier to break from those treated in an ETP. The water discharged after treatment in an STP can be used for gardening and watering plants whereas the water discharged from an ETP still has to be disposed off in landfills and cannot be used for any other purposes. ETPs mainly function to decrease toxicity of highly toxic waters so that they be clean enough not to harm the environment when disposed off.
Schedule M of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 says that the Bio Medical waste has to be disposed off as per Bio- Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998. Schedule I,Category no. 5 of Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 enlists‘Discarded Medicines and Cytotoxic Drugs i.e. waste comprising outdated, contaminated and discarded medicines.
Two major non-compliances in the industry are related to:
Bio Medical Waste shall be disposed mainly by incineration, destruction and drugs disposal insecured landfills, there shall be no chemical pretreatment before incineration and deep burial shall only be available as an option in towns with population less than five lakhs and rural areas.The ‘Incineration Ash’ (Ash from incineration of any bio-medical waste) shall be disposed in municipal landfill only.
Keeping in mind that the Pharmaceutical Industry is one which shall have a persistent presence for years to come, considering this fact, we need to make it a practice that we adhere to a more sustainable approach and that shall only be possible by accepting the above mentioned practices. The only solution to the problems faced by the pharmaceutical industry is to categories the waste as Bio- Medical Waste, Sewage Waste or Trade Effluents and to use the disposal methods accordingly. This shall not only be a more pertinent approach but also legally viable.
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