In India,the production of non-biodegradable waste is going to rise in the future
Date : 18/05/2024
Origin and overview of waste management
The practice of solid waste management starts with waste generation at source[1] level, followed by storage of waste generated at source, collection and transportation of waste from source to sink[2], i.e., recycling of dry and electronic waste and reuse in the market and/or processing of waste in Waste to Energy plants for producing energy. The energy produced needs to be integrated with the distribution of produced energy to DISCOMS for transmission and integration with thermal sources of energy.
Historically, India being predominantly an agrarian society, the practice of waste management has been closely intertwined with daily life. The culture of degradation and consumption of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste has been practiced from generation to generation. In the present day, there are multiple reasons that lead to the multifold rise in the waste generation as compared to waste handling and landfill allocation and management. One of the reasons for the acceleration in the production of waste to our waste handling capacity is the increasing population growth along with the rise in economic and employment opportunities, which indirectly promotes the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). It is with the diversification of industrial growth, production and use of FMCG goods, electrical and electronic items, and the rise in food waste so on and so forth that waste management as a subject/topic/discussion/action point has gained prominence and a platform of its own. The menace of piling waste has been felt strongly in the bigger cities as of now, however, the impact and awareness due to this is trickling down to the smaller cities as well. However, the practice of door-to-door collection has been initiated in multiple cities covering 1863 ULB’s in the country with source segregation in 436 of the ULBs (Swacchh Survekshan 2020). The source segregation in most of ULB’s is two-way segregation of wet and dry waste. The segregation of biomedical waste consisting of sanitary napkins, tampons, band-aids, cotton swabs, diapers, hair or other household biomedical waste has not been initiated, as strictly as it should. States such as Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand have consistently stood high on the ranking of Swacchh Survekshan. Among the ULB’s Indore and Ambikapur stood at top two positions in 2020. The initiation of annual cleanliness survey has inculcated a healthy competition among ULB’s. In addition to newer ways of management practices being experimented and implemented, it has also brought waste management into focus and funding on the same has also increased in the last three years. It is to be noted that there is going to be an increase in the FMCG sectors and thereby increase in the waste produced from the sector. The waste produced from this sector will require suitable treatment. The Solid Waste Management Rules came into existence in the year 2000 and were revised in 2016. Since the revision of the rules, a lot of policy initiatives and action-based groups have been active in waste management in India. Among these initiatives, Swacchh Bharat Mission, ranking of clean cities on the basis of Swacchh Survekshan stands out as a PAN India policy initiative taken up by Government in the recent years. Swacchh Survekshan started with the aim of involving public participation in waste management. The survey has expanded from a few cities to towns of population ranging between 50 thousand to a lakh. Following the first survey in 2016, covering 73 Urban Local Body (ULB), the survey has covered all the 4237 ULBs in the country in the Survekshan of 2020 (Swacch Survekshan 2020[3]). The problem of dealing with waste handling and transportation rose between the introduction of rules in the year 2000 and its first amendment in the year 2016. These policy initiatives have followed the trajectory of revision in the solid waste management rules and the reason behind these changes in policy initiatives could be attributed to action-based research and implementation by citizen groups and organizations working in the sector of waste management. The waste generation data has been compiled by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Planning Commission, Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) for Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and studies done covering a few or more ULB or Cities. But there is a lack of primary data for better projection of waste generation.
Day to day management and challenges
Keeping a city, town or a village clean is a herculean task. It requires management by the local governing body and cooperation of citizens. However, waste management goes beyond keeping a city clean. To expand on this, a city which looks clean on the surface doesn’t necessarily imply waste is being managed properly. If the main roads and avenues of a city are clean it doesn’t fulfill all aspects of waste management. At present, the process of waste management across cities and ULBs is to collect all types of waste and transport it in the outskirts or outside of the town limits. Over the years, studies have pointed out that the efficiency of waste management is higher in smaller towns and cities (Joshi and Ahmed, 2016). This is an easy solution for towns and cities due to complexities in collection, lack of options for processing collected waste, logistical issues, waste contractors and their equation with the local governing body. However, with the projected rise of 165 million tons of waste per annum and 436 million tons by 2050, the concern is to set up better processes of waste management (Joshi and Ahmed, 2016). This implies an increase in area covered under landfills. As per projections by the Planning Commission Report (2014), an annual increase of 1745 ha of land is expected for landfills in India (Joshi and Ahmed, 2016). This is set to rise to 43000 ha for landfills with the current height of 20 m (Joshi and Ahmed, 2016). For wet waste management, unloading of waste on the same day is essential to prevent degradation and foul smell. The guidelines on step-by-step handling on waste, allocation of manpower for collection of waste and transportation, vehicle description for easy accessibility to narrow lanes and bylanes of cities and towns has been mentioned in the 2016 rules and the SWM guidelines. For man power, 70% training is on the job. It also specifies distribution of HDPE liner for waste bins to Households. The method for composting, reusing, recycling has been provided as per the population size of a city or town. For example, reuse of cotton fillers (pillows) fetches a 5-6 rupees/kg; recycling cost of milk packets is at 9 rupees/kg.
Some of the issues that can arise in dealing with waste management at an urban local body are transportation, labour management, land requirement, contractual management, regulatory powers etc. When it comes to transportation, optimum number of vehicles are required in the by-lanes of towns and it needs to be transported to the landfill/treatment sites. The maintenance and upkeep of the vehicles required in collection and transportation is also essential.
The total amount of labor for collection, sorting, processing of waste is crucial along with safety gear, tools for collection and sweeping in public areas, wages, and terms of employment. The division and requirement of labour as skilled and unskilled will have to be determined. Also, for better and efficient management, work on contractual basis can be provided. When it comes to the land requirement for setting up of processing plants, or possible waste to energy plants, the present land covered under legally sanctioned and illegally occupied landfills could be used.
In the last few years, with increased hue and cry about waste management in the media and rising awareness in some of the cities, the scope for business opportunities out of waste management has increased. The terms of engagement for contract-based transportation and loading of waste includes tipping fees, frequency of door-to-door collection, involvement of labour and training. This room for business has been exploited both for management and mismanagement (EPR and PPP in order to resolve this, of waste in selected cities). Mismanagement of collection of waste involves irregularities in handling labour. There are three states and one Union Territory out of 18 states namely Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, and Punjab without reports of waste col. ection and treatment for the year 2009-2011 waste treatment covered under the CPCB report (2000b and 2013) with Maharashtra having the highest amount of waste produced with 19204 TPD.
Management of waste at the city level:
If we do a brief comparison of prominent and most highlighted case studies in India; awareness drives, citizenship and governing body participation have emerged starkly, in Bengaluru. With the increased citizen-based participation at ward levels and discussion with the local governing body, waste management has proven to be a strong example of policy-based advocacy in the city. For the scale of the city and the way it is expanding, it has brought out debates and demands over centralized v/s decentralized waste management in the city. The need for decentralized waste management has arisen due to the difficulties in collection and transportation of dry waste. Decentralized Dry Waste Collection Center (DWCC) basically involves the setting up of a waste collection center at ward level. It proves effective in waste management at the city level. In this set up, dry waste collection is facilitated by a municipal corporation. From the decentralized center empanelled vendors pick up dry waste for recycling and transport it to the recycling unit. If a city has twenty wards then each ward would have a DWCC. Depending upon the quantum of waste generated, collection of waste would be done from the DWCC. This provides ease of transport from the DWCC and the recycling unit. Whether the same procedure could be followed for wet waste is yet to be seen. For wet/organic/food waste, collection or exchange points for transportation of waste are not designated and usually become black spots in the city. Setting up of a similar center for food waste would require a well maintained and aerated unit with trained personnel handling the maintenance. It would require daily exchange of waste from the center to the composting unit/waste to energy plant or other such processing unit. Handling of wet waste is a more tedious process as compared to handling of dry waste in ULB’s. This is one of the reasons that such centers have not sprouted over the city as of now. It has been estimated that the city has 1,200 overseas and domestic electronic industries which indicates the existence of a considerable amount of e-waste. As per the CPCB, out of 15 lakh metric tons of e-waste generated by India, the quantum of e-waste generated at Bengaluru stands at 86000 MT per annum, making it the fifth largest generator of e-waste in India (ASSOCHAM, 2014). It has 31 registered e-waste recycling and dismantling units (Joshi and Ahmed, 2016). There is still huge involvement of the informal sector in the recycling and dismantling sector in the city. The activeness of the centers is to be analyzed.
Plausible future scenario
In the Indian context, the proportion of biodegradable waste has been high since ages. At present, it still stands higher than proportion of non-biodegradable waste being produced in developed or high-income countries. High income countries account for 34% of global waste generation (World Bank, 2012). The range of compostable waste lies between 40- 60%, 30-50% inert waste and 10-30% recyclable in the current MSW projections (Planning commission, 2016). In another estimate, the biodegradable component of waste in India stands between 50-55% (World Bank, 2012). Overall increase in the quantity of waste produced in urban India is expected to be 436 million tons by 2050, and it will require about 24*107 cubic meter of space. At present there are 8 RDF and Waste to energy plants with 16 MW to 1.75 MW energy productions with 1950 TPD to 70 TPD capacities. At present there are 2.01 billion tons of waste generated globally (World Bank, 2012). The open dumps or landfills lead to emissions accounting for 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to greenhouse gases which indicates that there is a lot of potential for producing energy from waste globally (World Bank, 2012). 11.1 % of waste generated is incinerated globally with 28.9% being dumped in specified and unspecified landfills (World Bank, 2012).
In India, the production of non-biodegradable waste is set to rise. Therefore, the percent share of the FMCG goods will also rise. If the proportion of biodegradable waste is diverted to decomposition, compost, methane generation, fuel-wood, fire-wood and other uses, then the remaining proportion of non-biodegradable waste could be considered for generating electricity with the set-up of waste to energy plants. There is scope for increasing the current efficiency and feasibility of energy from biodegradable waste utilising FMCG and packaging waste. This would entail higher possibilities of waste to energy plants and thereby utilization of waste for energy conversion.
If the question of where these waste to energy plants would come up, the possibilities of converting large sized landfills into Waste to energy treatment plants could be considered. This would not only reduce the pressure of environmentally harmful leaching into the ground or into air, this would also pave the way for better and scientific management of non-degradable waste. The possibility of converting existing landfills to future waste to energy treatment sites is a plausible option. With this, the area or land covered under open landfills would fall short and only dedicated and scientifically managed landfills with precautions would remain. At present, the total area under landfills stands at 4745.8 acre with 44 landfills (CPCB, 2011)[4]. The landfills shape and size across the country varies in size. With due consideration to the existing sizes occupied under landfills, as bigger cities have multiple landfills. The waste to energy plant has to be allocated to the selected landfills which are easily accessible to the urban local bodies or the cities. In and around urban local bodies, there are dedicated landfills and these could be utilized. The open dumping of waste is harmful and as it is in most of the cases, the dumping of waste in landfills happens in the outskirts of the towns or cities which happens to be near the villages. With the setting up of suitable capacity of waste to energy plants, it would provide opportunity for the safer handling of non-biodegradable waste, especially the components that cannot be recycled. This could very well mean formalization of ‘Kabadiwallahs’ to some extent into the waste management set up. At present, however, some of these landfills could be used for setting up multi-purpose recycling centers. This would include recycling of electronic waste, multiple use plastic, tins, glass etc.
Also, it would reduce the pressure on coal, this integration of waste to energy along with renewables is set or projected with integration of renewables to reduce dependency on coal and also, it would reduce ill allocation of coal mining. It could be used to share output in some of the minor energy requirements. With a 200 GW renewable energy integration target set for the year 2022, a similar target could be set for Waste to energy.
Approximate estimation of cost of waste management with ULB level as source has been estimated. In a study by NIUA in 2005, the unit cost of waste was estimated at the level of a city with per capita cost and cost per tonnage of waste generated respectively. For a metro city 150 rupees is the per capita cost and 1100-1200 rupees is the cost of handling per tonnage of waste. For a class I city the estimated cost per person is 110 rupees and cost per tonnage of waste is 450-500 rupees. Per capita cost for Class II city stands at 70-80 rupees and tonnage of waste is 700-800 rupees. In order to assess the cost estimates, at present, updated census across all the ULBs is required inclusive of cost of waste management at village panchayat level.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank Dr. Shobha A. Reddy and Dr. Naveen B. Ramu for reviewing the article.
References:
Joshi, R. & Ahmed, S. (2016), Cogent Environmental Science, 2: 1139434 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311843.2016.1139434
Ahluwalia, I. J. and Patel, U. (2018). Solid waste management in India an assessment of resource recovery and environmental impact. Working paper No. 356.
[1] Source level for the purpose of this article is broken down into two categories, household level and others. Others comprise of industrial units, hotel, hostels, offices and any such establishments other than a household
[2] Sink in the context of this article means either landfill sites or waste processing units.
Image credits: Steven Depelo at Waste360
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