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.
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