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Waste Management in an Indian Context:

Challenges and Opportunities

Shivam Verma

M.A. Environmental Economics

The problem of solid waste

The present annual quantity of solid waste generated in Indian cities has increased from 6 million tons in

1947 to 48 million tons in 1997 and to 90 million tons in 2009 and it is still expected to increase to 300

million tons by 2047 (Neha Gupta 2015)

The Problem

What is it?

Solid waste

Solid Waste, commonly referred to as trash or garbage is the waste consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public

Reasons for the monumental increase in MSW.

1. Urbanization

2. population growth

3. Mismanagement of MSW being produced

4. Consumerism

Why is it a problem at all?

Solid waste disposal can have negative environmental outcomes.

a. Poor disposal strategies can affect natural life cycles and exacerbate global change

b. Raises issues in the sustainability of our way of life

What is MSW made of?

What is MSW made of?

Consumer Waste

Electronic Waste

Industrial Waste

Electronic Waste

As of 2020 there were, 5.15 billion mobile phone users and 4.57 billion internet users

globally. The staggering increase from 2019 to 2020 has been 2.4% and 8% for mobile phone users

and internet users respectively. (Kemp 2020)

E waste

The situation has been exacerbated due to the emergence of e-commerce markets which

has made electronic waste the fasted growing solid waste component in the world.

MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE

Division of solid waste is commonly done in the categories of domestic, commercial, industrial,

agricultural, institutional and miscellaneous solid wastes. However, because of their similarity, and the

inefficiency of municipal waste collection, domestic and commercial wastes are usually not separated and

thus are just considered as urban waste. (Syed 2006)

Urban Waste

This urban waste is further divided into Degradable, Partially degradable and non biodegradable

SOLID AND ELECTRONIC WASTE MANAGEMENT

Solid & Electronic Waste Management

DISPOSAL AND TREATMENT

COLLECTION OF SOLID AND ELECTRONIC WASTE

The solid waste collection in India is exceptionally sloppy

neither appropriately planned nor maintained with international

standards

The typical collection productivity for MSW in Indian urban areas and

states is around 70%. (T.Z. Siddiqui 2006)

no isolation of waste is performed

Current status

India at the moment, seems to lack the resources and technical expertise required to deal with the problem

of proper disposal of Solid Waste. (R. Ghosh 2014)

The primary method still being adopted in Indian

states is that of Landfilling. (Neha Gupta 2015)

The more innovative methods being adopted in India are composting and Waste to energy plants and technologies.

Current Status of Waste disposal

Composting is the decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms in warm, moist

conditions

  • Aerobic
  • Anaerobic

Composting of Solid waste is one of the most affordable and simplistic methods of dealing with

biodegradable urban waste. (D Zhu 2007)

Composting

During aerobic composting aerobic microorganisms oxidize organic compounds to Carbon

dioxide, Nitrite and Nitrate compounds

Examples: Slaughterhouse waste

dairy waste

Household kitchen waste

source: BHG.com

Solid waste composting has been encouraged by the WHO and and by many countries of the

world and is actively useful in the case of developing countries. (S.P. Gautam 2010)

Vermicomposting is a framework for transforming natural waste into supplement rich soil as it is

processed by worms

Vermicompost is an odorless, dark brown bio-fertilizer obtained from the process of

vermicomposting (Manyuchi 2013)

Vermi

composting

  • It is not the same as composting which is a process that produces a lot of heat, that could cause a decrease in the worm population

  • Vermicomposting on the other hand actively tries to increase the worm population by creating an environment well suited to their growth. The worms naturally process the urban organic waste and transform them into stable, organic, nutrient rich excreta that acts as a fertilizer and gives the soil a fine textured appearance. (Datar and More)

https://www.planetnatural.com/

Landfilling is the disposal of waste with different layers and finally with earth cover.

It is also the most economical, especially in developing countries where it typically involves throwing the waste material into a depression or an abandoned mining site (Daskalopoulous et al., 1998).

Land filling

Landfills produce landfill gases and leachate which can harm environmental systems. (M. Alekhya 2013)

Landfill gases (LFGs), produced when decomposing complex molecules, are

primarily methane and carbon dioxide (up to 90%), but also include CO, NO2, alcohols,

hydrocarbons, organosulfur compounds, and heavy metals (El-Fadel 1997)

Landfill site in Delhi, Ghazipur

source: Indian Express

Bio Methanation

Bio-methanation

Transformation of natural matter in solid waste to methane and fertilizing compounds

The process used is anaerobic digestion.

This methane generated can be infused with CO2 to create Bio-gas

Bio-gas comprises of methane and carbon dioxide and can be utilized as fuel (Annepu and Annepu, 2012)

A bio methanation plant in Delhi

Source: NDMC smart city ltd.

Incineration is a process which incorporates the combustion of e-waste

It could be utilized

for the transformation of waste to other type of energy. (WTE approach to be discussed later.)

1. Advanced Incinerators 2. Open Incineration

Incineration

The open consuming/incineration strategy

contaminates the climate by delivering the hazardous gasses like carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen sulfides (Sivaramanan 2013).

These harmful gases put the vulnerable people in society at risk.

Current efforts to tackle

MSW crisis

Possible solutions

to MSW crisis

research has shown that customers prefer sustainable businesses over polluting ones. (Phelan 2017)

Corporate modifications

  • Perform an environmental audit.
  • Use recyclable materials
  • Re-purposing or redesigning of products to be sustainable.
  • Use environmentally conscious packaging and reduce paper use for inter-corporation activities
  • An example of this practice is the commitment of Apple inc. to make their iphones manufacturing process from 100% recyclable materials.
  • NGO partnership Karo Sambhav and Cerebra with Apple inc. (Apple inc. 2022)

source : https://www.apple.com/in/recycling/

GOVT. PROJECTS

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign

initiated by the Government of India in 2014.

It is a restructured version of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan launched in 2009 that failed to achieve its intended targets

The core objectives of the first phase of the mission were to reduce open defecation and improve

management of municipal solid waste in both urban and rural areas.

Phase 1 of the Swachh Bharat Mission lasted till October 2019

Phase 2 is being implemented between 2020–21 and 2024–25 to help cement the work of Phase 1

Source: https://swachhbharatmission.gov.in/

NGOs and their contributions

The Ugly Indian is an anonymous group of motivated volunteers who clean up the streets of Indian,

which they refer to as “spot-fixing.”

Chintan is an environmental research and action group that works for environmental justice in

partnership with people and groups from diverse sections of society

Daily Dump designs products that encourage people to live greener lifestyles

Daily Dump designs products that encourage people to live greener lifestyles

The ugly indian NGO "Spot fixing" a site in Delhi

Source: https://indiainclusionsummit.com/

Waste to Energy?

Success in the Scandinavian Countries

best strategy state governments and municipal corporations have managed to come up with till now are landfilling, which is not sustainable.

Waste to energy is one such process that has long been neglected, but holds strong potential to derive energy from the unused resource, i.e., waste

Sweden is one such country that has proved success of the strategy in its various WTE plants. (Kiger, 2019)

The example of Scandinavian countries and their incredible success in the waste to energy projects can be assessed by the fact that while most of the world is trying to ship off their solid waste offshore,

Sweden is actively trying to buy foreign solid waste to convert it into energy for household purposes.

(NY TIMES 2018)

Current Status in India

India has always been lagging in this field owing to reasons namely the lack of policy framework, technological advancements, infrastructure, sustainable planning and insufficient funding sources (Shazwin Mat Taib 2010)

The main large scale waste incinerating plant was set up at Timarpur, New Delhi in 1987, by a Miljo tecknik volunteer, Denmark. It has a limit of 300 tons per day and cost 250 million rupees.

Tamil Nadu Agro Engineering Federation, for government endorsement for dealing with the MSW a 15 MW waste to energy project has been laid out by an Australian organization, specifically, Energy Development Ltd., funded by State bank of India (SBI) and Canara Bank ( R.P. Singh. 2011, T. Ramachandra 2003)

India has an aggregate of 5 RDF handling plants, all of which have experienced functional issues because of absence of legitimate monetary funding and not because of lack of innovation. 2 RDF plants have previously been closed down (Annepu 2012)

Thanks for listening, If you have any questions. Now is the time

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