Environment and Disaster Management › Waste and circular economy
हिन्दी — Read in HindiSolid and plastic waste
Solid and plastic waste: the plastic rules and the single use ban, producer responsibility for packaging, microplastics, city waste and the global plastics treaty. Prelims has asked about the Solid Waste Management Rules.
Foundation note: Plastic: the rules, the ban, microplastics and the treaty
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Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026
Copy link to Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026Prelims and Mains
The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 govern how municipal solid waste is separated, collected and processed, and replaced the 2016 rules from 1 April 2026.
Who is responsible
- Municipal solid waste is the urban local body's charge, and the daily work of collecting, carrying and sorting it falls on sanitary workers.
- The Rules also bind the person who fills the bin, which is where segregation at source sits.
- The generator, whether a household or an institution, must separate its waste before handing it over, and nobody downstream can do that job for it.
- Mixed waste cannot be unmixed at the far end, so what a household does with its bin decides how much of a city's waste can be composted or recycled at all.
What the 2026 Rules require
- Segregation at source into four streams: wet, dry, sanitary and special care.
- Bulk waste generators carry an extended responsibility to ensure their waste is collected and processed.
- Every stage is tracked on a central portal.
- Sanitary landfills must be audited by the State Pollution Control Board or a registered environment auditor.
What changed
20 Aug 2026New
- The Supreme Court held on 18 August 2026 that managing solid waste is a duty every generator shares, not the sanitary worker's alone.
- It called for an audit and upgrade of waste infrastructure to bring it up to the Rules.
- Education departments are to carry practical waste management lessons into school teaching, to reach households through their children.
- District Collectors are to engage households and institutions directly.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2019: the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016
Marine litter and microplastics
Copy link to Marine litter and microplasticsPrelims and Mains
Most marine plastic starts on land and reaches the sea through drains and rivers, and the National Centre for Coastal Research measures it on India's coast through a Clean Coast Index and surveys of microplastics.
What changed
29 Jul 2026BriefA draft National Marine Litter Policy has been sent to the Environment Ministry. The National Centre for Coastal Research finds synthetic filaments to be the commonest microplastic, with river discharge and abandoned fishing gear the main sources, and has built a Clean Coast Index. PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: NCCR Studies on Microplastic Pollution (opens in a new tab)