Table 3 Practices of sewage treatment by the surveyed pharmaceutical companies

Medium-scale Indian formulation company of Telangana

"We are doing gel filtration, carbon filtration, double filtration, oxidation and we are checking BOD, COD these are the things we are doing in our plant and then finally we release the treated effluent into the drain."

Multinational API manufacturing company of Telangana

"…Now, after 7 stages—I am getting the solid out of that and the waste is liquid. Some solid may also be there. After filtration, some salt will come. That may go for land filling…secured landfill. Or if it is having calorific value, then to some cement industry. But what happens to water-based liquid—that will go to the waste treatment plant. And it's a very lengthy process. It consists of primary treatment and biological treatment, MEE, and RO plant, after that you get treated water that is used for the daily purpose..”

A respondent mentioned that ZLD exists as a rule in the Indian context however it is practically absent when analyzed in terms of practices. According to him, big companies that may follow the same rules in other countries like the U.K. but do not follow them in India

Multinational API manufacturing company of Telangana

“We have this Zero liquid discharge plants so whatever wastewater containing any API not only antibiotic we recycle through RO systems and all. And whatever solid waste is generated will still contain some API or other things but since it is going to (dispose to) secured landfills and incineration purpose. So the spread of AMR from ZLD plant is very remote unless somebody intentionally do some mistake.”

Small-scale Indian formulation company of Haryana

ETP installed for the treatment of effluent generated during the production of antibiotic formulations. They claimed that no liquid waste is disposed of in the sewage. The treated wastewater is used for gardening purposes and the sludge is disposed of at landfills

“that treated wastewater from ETP is used in the garden and solid waste goes to landfills”

Medium-scale Indian formulation company of Haryana

A respondent claimed to have an ETP as per the regulations by the State Pollution Control Board but expressed concern that due to lack of active monitoring by the regulatory bodies, the regular use of the ETPs is subject to question. They informed that they have a single machine for the production of antibiotics and that after each production cycle the machine is washed but due to the absence of a sewage facility, the wastewater is stored in septic tanks. The wastewater stored in the septic tank is then used for in-house cleaning and the rest is given to the private tankers for its disposal

"There is no sewage facility so the water is put in the septic tank, the tanker people would come to collect. But they just throw it anywhere; there is no control over that. They (tanker people) throw it either in the drain or in the irrigation field"

Large-scale Indian API manufacturing company of Haryana

"We have put up an ETP plant and have put a flowmeter in it to check the water flow. There is this company called GEPIL. We give the sludge to them. They have a government tie-up. They (GEPIL) first check the type of the sludge. They either use it for soil filling or in the furnace. It's just like a bio-waste management system. They also take money from us."

Large-scale Indian API manufacturing company of Haryana

"We don't have classical ETP, we have MEE… we evaporate everything in this and the residue, salt and water is recycled."

"That water (after treatment in the STP), we use it for irrigation. And the sludge we use for composting as manure."

Multinational API manufacturing company of Haryana

They claimed to be using costly and energy-intensive effluent treatment technologies such as MEE, ultrafiltration, agitated thin film dryers, RO

“… we have MEE's which is very energy-intensive..We have a team of around 30 people dedicated to this..”