The Hindu Business Line : Kerala PCB confiscates 1-lakh litres waste oil

Cracking down on illegal import of waste oil through Cochin Port Trust, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board has confiscated around one-lakh litres of oil for violation of Hazardous Wastes Rules.

The board officials have seized around 470 barrels containing 200 litres of oil each, labelled base oil and rubber process oil, to be of inferior quality.

Senior officials at the Pollution Control Board said that laboratory results of samples showed that the seized barrels contained used or waste oil prohibited under the Hazardous Wastes Rules.

Investigation by the board officials revealed that the price of a barrel of oil seized from the importers was in the range of $150 to $200, while that of quality oil was between $700 and $800 in the international market.

Panel findings

The board's initiative in this regard comes in the wake of the findings of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee that waste oil had been imported through Kochi port by violating the rules and regulations for import of such consignments.

The Kerala co-ordination team of the committee had also received information that lead acid batteries and waste oil were being imported through the port.

The State Pollution Control Board would now ask the port authorities to ensure that all consignments under the categories including paper waste, furnace oil, waste oil/used oil, low sulphur waxy residue, non-ferrous metal scrap in any form, plastic scrap and wax in drums should be returned to the country of origin, if found violative of the Hazardous Wastes Rules, within a month of arrival.

Board to take action

The board has also decided to take action against the importers who are engaged in supply and transport of waste and used oil.

Consignments that have already been delivered should either be recycled or destroyed using a hazardous waste incinerator.

The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee has also asked the Customs officials to keep a strict vigil on import of banned materials through the port.