Andhra Pradesh Environment Management Corporation established

In order to effectively deal with the ever-increasing piles of waste across the state, the state government issued an order on Thursday to set up Andhra Pradesh Environment Management Corporation (APEMC). The objective of this government-owned company will be to come up with an effective mechanism to manage industrial and other waste, from the point it is produced to the point it is efficiently disposed.

APEMC will act as a single nodal agency, providing waste management services to its clients. It will work in close coordination with the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) to devise a framework that will make the waste management sector more organised.

At present, there are multiple industries in the state running within red and orange categories, as far as pollution levels are concerned. These industries release huge quantities of liquid waste, hazardous or non-hazardous waste, electronic waste, etc. The existing waste transportation, storage, treatment, and disposal facilities in the state are apparently not equipped to handle such large amounts of waste. One of the objectives of Andhra Pradesh Environment Management Corporation is to enhance these facilities so that they can sufficiently deal with industrial and other waste.

It may be noted that in the fight against increasing levels of waste, the state government recently banned single-use plastic throughout the state.