ITC :: Sustainability Report 2007

ENVIROMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Image of Graph showing Solid Waste Generation and Disposal in ITC for the Financial Year 2006-07

Hazardous Wastes and Disposal

Total solid wastes reported include 22,556 tonnes of hazardous wastes - as defined by Indian Environment Protection Act/Rules, 1986.

We have established processes that trace wastes till final disposition and ensure, that the hazardous wastes are handled/disposed in legal and environmentally responsible manner. Our Corporate EHS guidelines require that units verify authorisation/licenses of the recyclers and ensure their capability for recycling and maintaining proper manifest on waste use/disposal.

Hazardous Waste Item	Quantity (tonnes)	Disposal
Sludge from effluent treatment plant	21,845	Recycled form trays, paperboard, etc by third parties.
Empty containers of hazardous chemocals	401	Returned to original suppliers/decontaminated and disposed
Used oil	185	given to authirised recyclers
Spent solvents/waste ink/ink sludge	67	Recycled/incinerated
Used battries	57	Returned to original suppliers
Biomedical waste	0.6	Incinerated/Autoclaved

Cleaning up India - profitably

The organised recovery of paper & paperboards in India is only around 15% out of the total consumption of 7.7 million tonnes. A significant quantity ends up on roadsides and in landfills.

Finland recovers nearly 68% of paper used. European countries and USA have recovery rates of over 70% and even China recovers more than 25% of paper used and is attempting to improve recovery.

ITC’s Paperboards and Specialty Papers business imported 108,000 tonnes of waste paper in 2006-07 (India imported 3 million MT). To save on foreign exchange and to create a positive footprint, the Paperboards business has started a unique initiative to recover used paper in India.

ITC has reached an understanding with a number of corporates/units like Satyam Computers, Infosys, Wipro, GE, Suryapet Municipality, National Institute of Nutrition, Heavy Water Project, Secunderabad Cantonment and several schools and residential colonies to join this Recycling Initiative and help clean up the environment.

The pilot projects show very encouraging results and have demonstrated that it is possible to collect sizable quantities of used paper at very competitive costs.

We plan to report the full program in our next Sustainability Report.