SOLID WASTE MANAGMENT:
CONVERTING WASTE MENACE INTO A
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY.
#Environment #Pollution
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WHY THIS TOPIC?
Millions of tonnes of garbage is getting accumulated in every
possible open space in and around cities and towns and also
in water bodies across India. The launch of #Swachh Bharat with ranking of Indian cities has highlighted the importance
of waste management but it requires more collaborative and
citizen driven initiatives to comprehensively deal with this
accumulating monster impacting the quality of life and
environment around us.
INTRODUCTION
Waste management rules in India are based on the principles
of "sustainable development", "precaution" and "polluter
pays". These principles mandate municipalities and
commercial establishments to act in an environmentally
accountable and responsible manner—restoring balance, if
their actions disrupt it. The increase in waste generation as a
by-product of economic development has led to various
subordinate legislations for regulating the manner of disposal
and dealing with generated waste are made under the
umbrella law of Environment Protection Act, 1986 (EPA).
Specific forms of waste are the subject matter of separate
rules and require separate compliances, mostly in the nature
of authorisations, maintenance of records and adequate
disposal mechanisms.
With rapid urbanisation, the country is facing massive waste
management challenge. Barely a quarter of the 1.43 lakh MT
of garbage generated every day in Indian cities gets
processed. The remaining three-quarters are dumped in the
open. Solid Waste Management (SWM) is one among the
basic essential services provided by municipal authorities in
the country to keep urban centres clean. However, almost all
municipal authorities deposit solid waste at a dumpyard
within or outside the city haphazardly. Experts believe that
India is following a flawed system of waste disposal and
management.
Health and safety and environmental risks are a major
concern. The workers as well as the waste pickers are not
provided with proper health and safety equipment like boots
and gloves. The working conditions are unhygienic, the
chance of transfer of infection is high and because of this if a
worker gets sick he loses his wages. The workers are also not
provided with medical insurance. The environmental risk is
also high because the landfill sites are not maintained
properly and the leachate gets leaked into the underground
water.
MAIN BODY
Sources and types of solid waste: Residential:-the residence
might be single family or multiple family dwellers the types of
waste they produce are paper, food wastes , cardboard ,
leather, yard wastes, textiles, glass, special wastes, metals,
plastics , ashes, wood and household hazardous wastes
ustrial: – industries produce ashes, food wastes,
packaging, special wastes, housekeeping wastes, construction
and demolition materials and hazardous wastes.
Commercial & Institutional: – they produce wood, metals,
cardboard, glass, special wastes, Paper, food wastes,
hazardous wastes.
Municipal services: – landscape and tree trimmings, Street
sweepings, general wastes from beaches, parks, and other
recreational areas, sludge.
The key to efficient waste management is to ensure proper
segregation of waste at source and to ensure that the
waste goes through different streams of recycling and
resource recovery. Then reduced final residue is then
deposited scientifically in sanitary landfills. Sanitary landfills
are the ultimate means of disposal for unutilised municipal
solid waste from waste processing facilities and other types
of inorganic waste that cannot be reused or recycled. Major
limitation of this method is the costly transportation of MSW
to far away landfill sites.
A noteworthy first step was propelling sanitation to the top of
the policy agenda under the flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
programme. The Clean India Dashboard tracks programme
achievements, 24x7. Almost 90 megawatts (MW) of energy is
generated from waste-to-energy (WTE) projects.
Nevertheless, the disproportionate focus of the programme
on toilet construction and eliminating open defecation
deflects attention from colossal failures in waste
management systems.
There has been technological advancement for processing,
treatment and disposal of solid waste. Energy-from-waste is
a crucial element of SWM because it reduces the volume of
waste from disposal also helps in converting the waste into
renewable energy and organic manure. Ideally, it falls in the
flow chart after segregation, collection, recycling and before
getting to the land fill. But many waste to energy plants in
India are not operating to their full potential.
Installation of waste-to-compost and bio-methanation
plants would reduce the load of landfill sites. The
biodegradable component of India’s solid waste is currently
estimated at a little over 50 per cent. Bio-methanation is a
solution for processing biodegradable waste which is also
remains underexploited. It is believed that if we segregate
biodegradable waste from the rest, it could reduce the
challenges by half. E-waste components contain toxic
materials and are non-biodegradable which present both
occupational and environmental health threats including
toxic smoke from recycling processes and leaching from e-
waste in landfill into local water tables.
The concept of common waste treatment facility is being
widely promoted and accepted as it uses waste as a resource
by either using it as a co-fuel or co-raw material in
manufacturing processes. This has led to rise of Public Private
Partnership (PPP) models in waste management which has
open doors for doing business in waste management.
Bio-medical waste (management and handling) rules, 1998
prescribe that there should be a Common Biomedical
#Waste Treatment Facility (CBWTF) at every 150 kms in the
country. CBWTFs have been set up and are functioning in
cities and towns. However, establishment of functional
CBWTF throughout the country must be ensured. Integrated
common hazardous waste management facilities combine
secured landfill facility, solidification/stabilisation and
incineration to treat hazardous wastes generated by various
industrial units. They contribute about 97.8 per cent of total
landfill waste and 88 per cent of total incinerable hazardous
waste generated in the country, as per an environment
ministry report.
Focus on 3 R’s-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with collaborative
participation of State and Non-state actors: It is the only
way to save the environment from getting deteriorated. We
are quickly running out of space and now it is important that
all of us learn the three R’s of the environment and put it into
practice.
Reducing the amount of waste produced is the best way to
help the environment. For instance buying products with
minimum packaging, borrowing things which we do not use
often, starting a compost bin, saving energy and water by
turning are ways to reduce. To reduce the environment
damage caused by cars, increase use of carpooling with
friends, walking, taking the bus, or riding your bike instead of
driving are the necessary steps to be taken. Same way
salvage does for the environment. It helps to reduce the
waste by sorting out articles of use.
Instead of throwing away articles try to find various efficient
ways to reuse it. For instance, replacing few things in our day
to day life like using cloth sacks in place of plastic bags, re-
useable lunch bags without creating waste. Donating old
clothes, toys and furniture to the needy and poor. Use writing
paper on both sides etc.
The process of changing the waste and non-useable materials
into potentially useful materials. It is the key component of
modern waste reduction procedure. There are some
ISO standards related to recycling such as ISO 15270:2008 for
plastics waste and ISO 14001:2004 for environmental
management control of recycling practice. Recycling reduces
the consumption of raw materials and energy usage. It also
reduces air and water pollution by reducing the need of
conventional waste disposal. Usage of recycled materials will
help the environment to be green again.
CONCLUSION
Around 100 cities are set to be developed as smart cities.
Civic bodies have to redraw long term vision in solid waste
management and rework their strategies as per changing
lifestyles. They should reinvent garbage management in cities
so that we can process waste and not landfill it (with
adequate provisioning in processing and recycling).To do this,
households and institutions must segregate their waste at
source so that it could be managed as a resource. The Centre
aims to do away with landfill sites in 20 major cities. There is
no spare land for dumping garbage, the existing ones are in a
critical state. It is reported that almost 80 per cent of the
waste at Delhi landfill sites could be recycled provided civic
bodies start allowing waste managers to segregate waste at
source and recycle it. Compost pits should be constructed in
every locality to process organic waste. Community
participation has a direct bearing on efficient waste
management. Recovery of e-waste is abysmally low, we need
to encourage recycling of e-waste on a very large scale level
so that problem of e-waste disposal is contained.
