NEW DELHI: In a bid to mitigate construction dust, a byproduct of building activities and a major air pollutant, the Union environment ministry has notified the Environment (Construction and Demolition) Waste Management Rules, 2025.
The new rules, which will become effective on April 1, 2026, will replace the extant regulations and put the onus of collecting, storing, and transporting debris on the bulk waste generators including builders.
The rules provide detailed guidelines for the management, utilisation, and monitoring of processed waste, as well as procedures for the storage of processed construction and demolition waste. Notified on April 4, the new norms aim to bring environmentally sound management of construction and demolition waste throughout the country through proper segregation, collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal practices.
In a first, the notification also introduces a financial mechanism to support extended producer responsibility. This means, waste generators will now be accountable for paying recyclers to provide tradable credits as set by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Under the guidelines, credits gained from in-situ (on site) disposal will carry more weight than those from ex-situ (off site) management.
The existing rules were found ineffective as they promoted ad-hoc waste management and failed to create a robust market for recycled products among construction agencies.
Importantly, it emphasises that every producer is responsible for the disposal and management of the C&D waste they generate in an environmentally sound manner, by these rules.
Additionally, the rules stipulate that processed waste can be utilized in construction activities for projects with a built-up area of 20000 sq. meters or more, as well as for road construction.
Studies indicate that recycling C&D waste can substitute and reduce the demand for virgin materials by approximately 80-90%, which helps conserve sand and gravel mining across various regions.
Furthermore, using recycled aggregates results in 40% lower CO₂ emissions compared to using virgin materials, thereby potentially reducing carbon footprints.
The new rules clearly satted the responsibility of waste generators entity to collect and segregate waste to facilitate reuse and recycling into separate material streams.
They must properly store the waste, take steps for in-situ recycling, transport it to authorized recycling agencies, and implement measures to prevent air pollution, littering, and public nuisance during the processes of waste collection, segregation, and storage.
However, monitoring compliance with these regulations may pose a significant challenge.
"As we have observed in the management of fly ash waste, the department lacks the staff necessary to monitor waste generators and recyclers on the ground," noted N. Kalidas, Director of the Institute for Solid Waste Research & Ecological Balance, a non-profit organization.