The Potential Role of Alternative Dispute Resolutions in Resolving Waste Management

Conflicts

Statement of Problem

Waste management, far from being a simple issue, is the reason for serious conflicts that are of a
socio-environmental nature. Mismanagement of solid waste causes environmental pollution and has
a negative effect on people particularly those living near disposal sites. In India, especially in cities
like Delhi, waste management is in a state of crisis.

Site specific waste management projects and policies often generate conflicts, due to their spatially
inequitable distribution of costs and benefits (such initiatives typically provide small benefits to a
very large number of people but impose significant costs on a small number of local citizens. 1 The
potential for waste management proposals to generate conflict is also augmented by their tendency
to have significant real or potential impacts on the local physical and human environments.2

Frustration with adversarial legal remedies dates back centuries, and people have been increasingly
drawn to ADR for various kinds of conflicts, including environmental disputes (conflict among
environmental stakeholders often arises from their uncertainty about the nature of potentially
adverse environmental impacts, especially regarding their severity and speed).3 Waste management
disputes are frequently occurring and complex examples of environmental conflicts.4

Conventional waste management conflict resolution processes in India involve the Environmental
Impact Assessment under the Environmental Protection Act 1986. As per the amended EIA
notification dated 14th September 2006 a project such as a sustainable waste management and
renewable energy project would fall under Category 7 (i) under Common Municipal Solid Waste
Management Facility.5 For such projects, Environmental Clearance would need to be sought from
State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority.6

Similar processes exacerbate these conflicts by failing to provide stakeholders with adequate
opportunities to meaningfully participate in the decision-making process; less adversarial and more
cooperative methods – ADRs – have been employed in place of conventional processes with

1
John Stewart Andrew, “The Role of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Resolving Waste Management Conflicts: A
Study of Cases in Ontario and Massachusetts”.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Noble Exchange Environment Solutions, “Environmental Impact Assessment Report for the Sustainable Waste
Management and Renewable Energy Project”.
6
Ibid.
increasing frequency in North America to the extent that for some types of waste management
conflicts and in some jurisdictions their use is now common.7 Such alternatives for this area of
conflicts have however not been explored.

Research Question

Whether ADR in the form of negotiation, facilitation or mediation can feasibly play a role in waste
management conflict in India.

Research Methodology

For the purpose of this research endeavour, studies relating to the application of ADRs in waste
management conflicts in North America and other countries will be looked at. Therefore, this will
involve use of secondary sources, and empirical research to a limited extent to help know the
opinions of the relevant stakeholders and the potential impact of ADR in waste management
conflicts in India.

Hypothesis

Introducing ADR into environmental disputes, specifically waste management conflicts, will prove
to be much more effective than the conventional resolution processes in the form of time and cost
savings, and also result in more neutral decisions without any political or other influences.

Tentative Bibliography

John Stewart Andrew, “The Role of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Resolving Waste
Management Conflicts: A Study of Cases in Ontario and Massachusetts”

John Stewart Andrew, “Making or Breaking Alternative Dispute Resolution. Factors Influencing its
Success in Waste Management Conflicts”

John Stewart Andrew, “Beyond BATNA: How do Waste Management Disputants Decide whether to
Use ADR”

Helmut Weidner, “Alternative Dispute Resolution in Environmental Conflicts”

Reiner Keller and Angelika Poferal, “Habermas Fighting Waste: Problems of Alternative Dispute
Resolution in the Risk Society”

William T. Fischbein, “Alternative Dispute Resolution in Hazardous Waste Siting: A Solution for
Ohio and East Liverpool”

7
Supra note at 1.