Vishweshwar Education Society’s

Indira Institute of Business Management

PROJECT REPORT

ON

SOCIAL RELEVANCE

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

Submitted by

MS. KALYANI AVINASH RANGE

Roll No.2020032

Batch No- 2020-22

Under the Guidance of Prof. Lalit Bhole.

1
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this Research Project Report is submitted by me in partial

fulfillment of the requirement for the award of MASTER OF MANAGEMENT
STUDIES (MMS) of the University of Mumbai is bona fide work undertaken by
me and it has not been submitted to any other University or Institute for the award
of any degree / diploma certificate or published any time before.

Kalyani Range

ROLL NO:

Date: 28th March 2022

Signature of the student

2
 Vishweshwar Education Society’s
Indira Institute of Business Management

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled WASTE MANAGEMENT submitted

by Miss KALYANI AVINASH RANGE in partial fulfilment for the award of
Master of Management Studies of Mumbai University is his/ her original work and
does not form any part of the projects undertaken previously.
.

Date: 28 March, 2021

th

DR. SUSY KURIAKOSE PROF. LALIT BHOLE

IN-CHARGE DIRECTOR (PROJECT GUIDE)

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project has been a great learning experience for me. I take this opportunity to
thank Prof. Lalit Bhole my internal project guides whose valuable guidance &
suggestions made this project possible. I am extremely thankful to her for her
support. She has encouraged me and channelized my enthusiasm effectively.

I express my heart-felt gratitude towards my parents, siblings and all those friends
who have willingly and with utmost commitment helped me during the course of
my project work.

I also express my profound gratitude to Dr. SUSY KURIAKOSE, in charge

Director of Indira Institute of Business Management for giving me the opportunity
to work on the projects and broaden my knowledge and experience.

I would like to thank all the professors and the staff of Indira Institute of Business
Management especially the Library staff who were very helpful in providing
books and articles I needed for my project.

Last but not the least, I am thankful to all those who indirectly extended their co-
operation and invaluable support to me.

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This project is focusing the Waste management or waste disposal is all the
activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final
disposal. This includes amongst other things collection, transport, treatment and
disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the
legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management encompassing
guidance on recycling.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
Chapter No. Title Page No.
1 Introduction 7
1.1 Introduction of waste management
1.2 Introduction of the topic
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Scope of the Study

2 Review of Literature 13
2.1 Meaning and Concept of the Topic

3. Methodology 26
3.1 India’s challenges in waste management
3.2 Method of evaluating Waste Management
in India
3.3 Impact on India of waste management
4 Data Analysis 30
4.1 Waste Management Initiative in India
4.2 Initiative taken by private companies
5 Recommendation 41
6 Conclusion 48
7 Reference 51

6
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

7
1.1 INTRODUCTION OF WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste management or waste disposal is all the activities and actions required to manage waste
from its inception to its final disposal. This includes amongst other things collection, transport,
treatment and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses
the legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management encompassing guidance on
recycling.

Waste can take any form that is solid, liquid, or gas and each have different methods of disposal
and management. Waste management normally deals with all types of waste whether it was
created in forms that are industrial, biological, household, and special cases where it may pose a
threat to human health.
It is produced due to human activity such as when factories extract and process raw materials.
Waste management is intended to reduce adverse effects of waste on health, the environment or
aesthetics.
Waste management practices are not uniform among countries (developed and developing
nations); regions (urban and rural areas), and sectors (residential and industrial). A large portion
of waste management practices deal with municipal solid waste (MSW) which is waste that is
created by household, industrial, and commercial activity.

Waste management or waste disposal is all the activities and actions required to manage waste
from its inception to its final disposal. This includes amongst other things collection, transport,
treatment and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses
the legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management encompassing guidance on
recycling.

These principles mandate municipalities and commercial establishments to act in an

environmentally accountable and responsible manner— restoring balance, if their actions
disrupt it.

8
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 authorizations, maintenance of records and adequate
disposal mechanisms.
With rapid urbanization, the country is facing massive waste management challenge. Over 377
million urban people live in 7,935 towns and cities and generate 62 million tons of municipal
solid waste per annum. Only 43 million tons (MT) of the waste is collected, 11.9 MT is treated
and 31 MT is dumped in landfill sites. Solid Waste Management (SWM) is one among the basic
essential services provided by municipal authorities in the country to keep urban centers clean.

Classification of waste
There may be different types of waste such as Domestic waste, Factory waste, Waste from oil
factory, E-waste, Construction waste, Agricultural waste, Food processing waste, Bio-medical
waste, Nuclear waste, Slaughter house waste etc. Classification of are as follows:

• Solid waste- vegetable waste, kitchen waste, household waste etc.

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 • E-waste- discarded electronic devices such as computer, TV, music

• Liquid waste- water used for different industries, tanneries, distilleries, thermal power
plants
• Plastic waste- plastic bags, bottles, bucket, etc.

• Metal waste- unused metal sheet, metal scraps etc.

• Nuclear waste- unused materials from nuclear power plants. Further we can group all
these types of waste into wet waste (Biodegradable) and dry waste (Non-
Biodegradable).

Wet waste (Biodegradable) includes the following:

• Kitchen waste including food waste of all kinds, cooked and uncooked, including
eggshells and bones
• Flower and fruit waste including juice peels and house-plant waste

• Garden sweeping or yard waste consisting of green/dry leaves

• Sanitary wastes

• Green waste from vegetable & fruit vendors/shops

• Waste from food & tea stalls/shops etc.

Dry waste (Non-biodegradable) includes the following:

• Paper and plastic, all kinds

• Cardboard and cartons

• Containers of all kinds excluding those containing hazardous material

• Packaging of all kinds

• Glass of all kinds

• Metals of all kinds

• Rags, rubber

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 • House sweeping (dust etc.)

• Ashes

• Foils, wrappings, pouches, sachets and tetra packs (rinsed)

• Discarded electronic items from offices, colonies viz. cassettes, computer diskettes,
printer cartridges and electronic parts.
In addition to the above wastes, another type of waste called “Domestic Hazardous Waste”
may also be generated at the household level. These include used aerosol cans, batteries, and
household kitchen and drain cleaning agents, car batteries and car care products, cosmetic
items, chemical based insecticides/pesticides, light bulbs, tube-lights and compact fluorescent
lamps (CFL), paint, oil, lubricant and their empty containers. Waste that is considered
hazardous is first required by the EPA to meet the legal definition of solid waste. The EPA
incorporates hazardous waste into three categories. The first category are source-specific
wastes, the second category is nonspecific wastes, and third, commercial chemical products.
Generally, hazardous waste “is waste that is dangerous or potentially harmful to our health or
the environment. Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, gases, or sludge. They can be
discarded commercial products, like cleaning fluids or pesticides, or the by-products of
manufacturing processes (EPA Wastes Website, 2010).
Similarly, there is “Non-Hazardous waste”. There are many definitions of hazardous and
nonhazardous waste within the US federal government, states and industry groups. The
Department of Defense (DOD) and The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) define waste
as “the extravagant, careless, or needless expenditure of DOD funds or the consumption of
DOD property that results from deficient practices, systems, controls, or decisions. In addition,
“abuse is the manner in which resources or programs are managed that creates or perpetuates
waste and it includes improper practices not involving prosecutable fraud” (EPA Wastes
Website, 2010). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines solid nonhazardous
waste as “any garbage or refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply
treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid,
liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining,
and agricultural operations, and from community activities” (EPA Wastes Website, 2010). The
definition of non-hazardous waste can also include financial waste. In 2009 the US Presidential

11
Executive Order, Reducing Improper Payments and Eliminating Waste in Federal Programs
was initiated to eliminate payment error, waste, fraud and abuse in major Federal government
programs due to public zero tolerance of fraud, waste and abuse. This Executive Order is based
upon a transparent, participatory and collaborative comprehensive framework between the
government and public.

1.2. Objectives of Study

• To the study of waste management in India.

• To study different challenges of waste management in India.
• To study companies participating in CSR of waste management.

12
 CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

13
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. Over 377
million urban people live in 7,935 towns and cities and generate 62 million tonnes of municipal
solid waste per annum. Only 43 million tonnes (MT) of the waste are collected, 11.9 MT is
treated and 31 MT is dumped in landfill sites. 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 dump yard
within or outside the city haphazardly. Experts believe that India is following a flawed system of
waste disposal and management.

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 report by IIT Kanpur (2006) found the potential of recovering at least 15 per cent or 15,000
MT of waste generated every day in the country. This, the report said, could also provide
employment opportunities to about 500,000 rag-pickers. The report added that despite immense
potential in big cities in this area, participation from non-profits or community is limited.

14
In some urban centres, people working in the informal sector collect solid waste for each
doorstep to get a collection fee and derive additional income from sale of recyclables. The
informal recycling industry plays a major role in waste management. It also ensures that less
waste reaches landfills.

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 wastes 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 (ENVIS Newsletter, December 2010) 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.

15
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 ragpickers 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.

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Infrastructure Development for Public Health and Protection of
the Environment

Improvements in civil infrastructure are required for India to become a world leading economy.

Developing high-quality infrastructure that meets the needs of the people and protects the
environment is fundamental to achieving effective economic growth.
Waste management infrastructure has an important role in delivering sustainable development.
Rapid population growth in India has led to depletion of natural resources. Wastes are potential
resources and effective waste management with resource extraction is fundamental to effective
SWM. Value extraction from waste can be materials, energy or nutrients, and this can provide
a livelihood for many people. The transition from wastes to resources can only be achieved
through investment in SWM as this depends on a coordinated set of actions to develop markets
and maximize recovery of reusable/recyclable materials. Materials, energy and nutrient
recovery must be the aim of future SWM infrastructure development in India.
Resources can be recovered from wastes using existing technologies and India has an
extremely effective recycling tradition. The ‘scrap dealer’ systems produce recycled materials
through an extensive and Well-coordinated network across the country.

Municipal Solid Waste Management

Solid waste management (SWM) is far from a new phenomenon in India; the Ministry of Food
and Agriculture offered loans to ULBs for SWM initiatives as far back as in the 1960s. It is,
however, only in the last few years that the waste issue has moved up on the
Country’s development agenda and received substantial interest. In the country’s Tenth Five
Year Plan (2002-07), the issue of SWM is addressed in several chapters and from different
angles. First, the plan states that comprehensive project preparations should be undertaken for
all towns and cities for both solid and liquid waste treatment and recycling. In relation to this,

17
land should be identified and acquired. It also stresses waste segregation at source into non-
biodegradable and biodegradable waste.
Another priority area is to promote organic farming and the utilization of organic compost; the
plan encourages for instance the conversion of municipal solid waste into vermicompost. The
organic manure can thereafter supplement the use of chemical fertilizers in crop production.
Vermi-compost improves the physical condition of the soil and increases the level of
micronutrients. The plan furthers stresses the growing demand for organically produced food,
while positioning India as a potentially competitive organic food supplier on the world market.

When addressing Civic Amenities in Urban Areas one of the priority action areas is to assess
the demand for SWM services and the “willingness to pay” by communities, since many
municipal bodies suffer from inadequate resources. The idea is that such assessment will give
an indication on the adequate pricing for the services as well as clarify the scope for adopting
full cost recovery policies.
The importance of fiscal concessions and subsidies is also given notice; transport vehicles for
carrying solid waste may be exempted from sales tax and other duties, and the organic manure
produced in compost plants should be granted some subsidy. Another priority area is the
identification and development of less capital-intensive intermediate SWM technologies, and
the implementation of cost-effective technologies that are not dependent on an assured power
supply. Finally, as transportation adds to the cost of handling waste, the plan encourages
decentralized SWM.

The Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization (CPHEEO) has
estimated that INR 23,226,000,000 is needed if the SWM activities stipulated in the Tenth Five
Year Plan (2002-07) are to be implemented.

In India, the urban local bodies, popularly known as the municipal corporations/councils, are
responsible for management of activities related to public health. However, with increasing
public and political awareness as well as new possibilities opened by economic growth, solid
waste management is starting to receive due attention.

18
The various initiatives taken by government, NGOs, private companies, and local public
drastically increased in the past few decades. Nonetheless, land filling is still the dominant
solid waste management option for the United States as well as many other countries like India
around the world. It is well known that waste management policies, as they exist now, are not
sustainable in the long term. Thus, waste management is undergoing drastic change to offer
more options that are more sustainable.

We look at these options in the hope of offering the waste management industry a more
economically viable and socially acceptable solution to our current waste management
dilemma. This paper outlines various advances in the area of waste management. It focuses on
current practices related to waste management initiatives taken by India.

It also highlights some initiatives taken by the US federal government, states and industry
groups. The purpose of this paper is to gain knowledge about various initiatives in both
countries and locate the scope for improvement in the management of waste.

Disposal vs. Management

There are common practices to dispose waste from ordinary people. But disposal of waste is
becoming a serious and vexing problem for any human habitation all over the world. Disposing
solid waste out of sight does not solve the problem but indirectly increases the same manifold
and at a certain point it goes beyond the control of everybody.

The consequences of this practice such as health hazards, pollution of soil, water, air & food,
unpleasant surroundings, loss of precious resources that could be obtained from the solid waste,
etc. are well known. That’s why it is essential to focus on proper management of waste all over
the world. Waste management has become a subject of concern globally and nationally. The
More advanced the human settlements, the more complex the waste management.

There is a continuous search for sound solutions for this problem but it is increasingly realized
that solutions based on technological advances without human intervention cannot sustain for
long and it in turn results in complicating the matters further. Management of solid waste

19
which generally involves proper segregation and scientific recycling of all the components is in
fact the ideal way of dealing with solid waste.

Solid waste management (SWM) is a commonly used name and defined as the application of
techniques to ensure an orderly execution of the various functions of collection, transport,
processing, treatment and disposal of solid waste (Robinson, 1986). It has developed from its
early beginnings of mere dumping to a sophisticated range of options including re-use,
recycling, incineration with energy recovery, advanced landfill design and engineering and a
range of alternative technologies. It aims at an overall waste management system which is the
best environmentally, economically sustainable for a particular region and socially acceptable
(World Resource Foundation, 1996; McDougall et al., 2001). This not only avoids the above
referred consequences but it gives economic or monetary returns in some or the other forms.

Basic principles of Solid Waste Management

1) 4Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

• Refuse: Do not buy anything which we do not really need.

• Reduce - Reduce the amount of garbage generated. Alter our lifestyle so that minimum
garbage is generated.
• Reuse - Reuse everything to its maximum after properly cleaning it. Make secondary
use of different articles.
• Recycle – Keep things which can be recycled to be given to rag pickers or waste
pickers (Waste Management System in India
Waste management market comprises of four segments - Municipal Waste, Industrial Waste,
Bio- Medical Waste and Electronic Waste Market. All these four types of waste are governed
by different laws and policies as is the nature of the waste. In India waste management practice
depend upon actual waste generation, primary storage, primary collection, secondary collection
and transportation, recycling activity, Treatment and disposal. In India, municipality
corporations play very important role in waste management in each city along with public
health department.

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Municipal Corporation is responsible for the management of the MSW generated in the city,
among its other duties. The public health department is responsible for sanitation, street
cleansing, epidemic control and food adulteration. There is a clear and strong hierarchy of
posts in the Municipal Corporation.

The highest authority of Municipal Corporation rests with the Mayor, who is elected to the post
for tenure of five years. Under the Mayor, there is a City Commissioner. Under the city
commissioner, there is Executive Officer who supervises various departments such as public
health, water works, public works, house tax, lights, projection tax, demand and a workshop,
which, in turn, all are headed by their own department heads.

NATIONAL SOLID WASTE ASSOCIATION OF INDIA

The staffs in the Public health department are as follows: Health officer, Chief sanitary and
food inspector, Sanitary and food inspectors, Sanitary supervisor, Sweepers, etc. The entire

21
operation of solid waste management (SWM) system is performed under four headings,
namely, street cleansing, collection, transportation and disposal. The cleansing and collection
operations are conducted by the public health department of city Municipality Corporation,
while transportation and disposal of waste are carried out by the transportation department of
city Municipality Corporation.

The entire city can be divided in to different zones. These zones are further divided into
different sanitary wards for the purpose of solid waste collection and transport operations.
Currently waste management in India mostly means a picking up waste from residential and
industrial areas and dumping it at landfill sites. The authorities, usually municipal, are
obligated to handle solid waste generated within their respective boundaries; the usual practice
followed is of lifting solid waste from the point of generation and hauling to distant places
known as dumping grounds and/or landfill sites for discarding.

The treatment given to waste once thus emptied is restricted to spreading the heap over larger
space so as to take away the waste from the public gaze. Waste collection is usually done on a
contract basis. In most cities it is done by rag pickers, small- time contractors and
municipalities.

National Solid Waste Association of India (NSWAI) is the only leading professional non-profit
organization in the field of Solid Waste Management including Toxic and Hazardous Waste
and also Biomedical

Waste in India. It was formed on January 25, 1996. NSWAI helps the Ministry of Environment
and Forest (MoEF), New Delhi in various fields of solid waste management makes policies and
action plans and is entrusted the responsibility of collecting information and various data
related to solid waste management from the municipalities of Urban Class-I cities (population
more than 1Lakh) and Urban Class-II cities (population above 50,000), collate and disseminate
the information to website which is linked to national and international organizations.

The association is a member of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA),

Copenhagen, Denmark and provides forum for exchange of information and expertise in the
field of Solid Waste Management at the national and international level. The other regulatory
framework for waste management is related to Indian government Initiatives for waste

22
management under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Urban
Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small & Medium Towns (UIDSSMT), “Recycled
Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules (1999) amended and now known as The Plastics
Manufacture and Usage (Amendment) Rules
(2003), “Draft Guidelines for Sanitation in Slaughter Houses (1998)” by Central Pollution
Control

Board (CPCB), Non-biodegradable Garbage (Control) Ordinance, 2006, Municipal Solid

Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, etc.

At the national policy level, the ministry of environment and forests has legislated the
Municipal Waste Management and Handling Rules 2000. This law details the practices to be
followed by the various municipalities for managing urban waste. Other recent policy
documents include the Ministry of Urban Affairs’ Shukla Committee’s Report (January 2000)
the Supreme Court appointed Burman Committee’s Report (March 1999), and the Report of
the National Plastic Waste Management Task Force (August 1997).

In order to get a sense of the current status of sanitation in India's cities, a survey was initiated
by the Ministry of Urban Development as a part of the National Rating and Award Scheme for
Sanitation in Indian Cities. The methods used for the survey can be found on the Ministry of
Urban Development website.

The Government of India announced the National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP) in 2008. As
a part of this, the government proposes to encourage states to develop their own sanitation
strategies to tackle their own sanitation problems and meet the goals of the NUSP. The rating
and award scheme has been taken up under this policy initiative.

The first major initiative was taken by the Honorable Supreme Court of India in 1998, which
resulted in formation of an expert committee to study the status of SWM in Indian cities. This
Committee identified the deficiencies/gaps in the existing SWM system in the country and
prepared the Interim Report in 1999 on SWM Practices for few cities.

As a second major initiative, in conformance with Sections 3, 6 and 25 of the Environment

Protection Act of 1986, and on the basis on the recommendations by the Committee, the
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) of the Government of India, developed and

23
issued Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules (MoUD, 2000). These rules
aim at standardization and enforcement of SWM practices in urban areas.

These rules dictate that “Every municipal authority shall, within the territorial area of the
municipality, be responsible for the implementation of the provisions of these rules and
infrastructure development for collection, storage segregation, transportation, processing and
disposal of municipal solid wastes”.

The municipal authorities are further required to submit a detailed annual report on waste
management to the Secretary-in charge of the Department of Urban Development of the
concerned State in case of a metropolitan city; or to the District Magistrate or the Deputy
Commissioner concerned in case of all other towns and cities every year. As per NSWAI, there
are 303 projects till September 2009 running in the country related to waste management,
environment and others.

The CPCB in collaboration with National Environmental Engineering Research Institute

(NEERI), Nagpur has undertaken a detailed survey of 59 cities in the country to assess the
existing status of solid waste management in these cities (MoEF –India). The objective of the
survey was to assess the compliance status of 59 cities with Municipal Solid Wastes
(Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 and initiatives taken for improving solid waste
management practices.

The 59 cities selected for study cover 35 metro cities. It has been observed that initiatives for
collection of waste from house-to-house and waste segregation has been undertaken in only
seven cities, privatization of transportation of waste has been done in 11 cities and waste
processing facilities have been set up in 15 cities.

Ten waste processing facilities are based on composting; one of these composting facilities has
provision for energy recovery also, four are based on vermin-compositing, and one facility
employs palletization and energy recovery technology. In relation to hospital waste the
Government of India (Notification, 1998) specifies that Hospital Waste Management is part of
hospital hygiene and maintenance activities. This involves management of a range of activities,
which are mainly engineering functions, such as collection, transportation, operation/treatment
of processing systems, and disposal of waste.

24
If the infectious component gets mixed with the general non-infectious waste, the entire mass
becomes potentially infectious. Before the notification of Bio-Medical Solid Waste
(Management and Handling) Rules 1998, now amended, waste from houses, streets, shops,
offices, industries and hospitals was the responsibility of municipal or governmental
authorities, but now it has become mandatory for hospitals, clinics, other medical institutions
and veterinary institutions to dispose of bio-medical solid waste as per the Law.

Besides all these initiatives Delhi Waste Management (DWM) was formed in 2004 as a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) format for collection,
segregation and transportation to landfill sites of municipal waste. Over 1000 employees are
employed as a part of this initiative. The overall initiatives related to waste management in
India.

25
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

26
Primary collection is the collection of waste from the point where it is placed by the person or
organisation that has produced it. These collection points could be located outside each
individual household and business, communal containers serving a number of households, or
waste skips taking waste from households and businesses in the surrounding area. Depending on
the collection vehicle and the distance to the waste treatment/disposal site, the waste at this
stage may be taken to the final disposal site or to a transfer station.

Primary collection can be done in many ways. summarises the lower-technology options that are
suitable for collecting waste from households and transporting it to a transfer station or local
disposal site. These all have the benefit of being able to serve narrow streets in crowded areas.

27
Secondary collections are where the waste from a number of primary collections is taken from
the transfer station to the final disposal site. shows some options for secondary waste collection
vehicles, but note that some of these are also used for primary collections in certain situations.

Secondary waste is waste generated from different sources and of different nature, i.e., waste
generated in a process that is known as a waste treatment operation; it includes residual
materials originating from recovery and disposal operations, such as incineration
and composting residues.

Secondary waste occurs in the following waste categories:

Waste categories which consist completely of secondary waste are:

 sorting residues) which include waste from mechanical sorting processes, refuse-derived
fuels, non-composted residues from composting, etc.;

 mineral wastes from waste treatment which cover mainly wastes from waste incineration
(bottom ash, slag, fly ash, etc.), mineral fractions from mechanical treatment, and
solidified, stabilised or vitrified wastes; wastes from co-incineration are not included
here but covered by the category combustion waste;

 sludges and liquid wastes from waste treatment comprises wastes from chemical-
physical treatment of hazardous waste, liquids and sludges from anaerobic waste
treatment, landfill leachates, etc.

A waste category which contains secondary waste but not completely, the amount of secondary
waste is not quantifiable, is:

 combustion waste

From the economic activities secondary waste is generated, the amount of secondary waste not
quantifiable, from: Waste collection, treatment and disposal activities; materials recovery.

The first step in applying any approach and methodology is to establish the geographical
boundaries of the study area. The study area included the state boundaries of Delhi, consisting
of municipal boundaries, rural and urban areas, and selected areas of the NCR. The geographical

28
boundaries were fixed considering the location of organized and unorganized markets, places
where each item is unloaded, traded, transported, dismantled, recycled, reused, repaired,
processed, and disposed of, starting from generation/production to its final end of life. These
places were identified through a transect walk and preliminary surveys in the study area. The
two basic approaches applied for carrying out e-waste assessment in the study area involved
quantification using material flow analysis (MFA) followed by site-specific validation. The
MFA and site-specific validation help to establish the e-waste trade value chain. The last three
stakeholders in the e-waste trade value chain, consisting of e-waste generation, e-waste
processing, and e-waste production/end products, fall in the informal sector. E-waste processing
involves primary dismantling of items from e-waste, e.g., the unscrewing of a PC monitor and
removal of the cathode ray tube (CRT) and printed circuit boards. E-waste production/end
products involve processes consisting of secondary dismantling of items obtained as output of e-
waste processing, e.g., the regunning of CRTs, extraction of metals, and others. The remaining
stakeholders fall in the formal sector. This trade value chain has been developed considering
that an electronic item “flows” through a region and on its way it is dismantled and processed in
numerous steps until it rejoins the raw material streams or ends in final disposal. Some of the
major stakeholders identified along the flow path include importers, producers/manufacturers,
consumers (individual households, business sector), traders, retailers, scrap dealers,
disassemblers, and dismantlers. At each step in the flow, business transactions define the
movement of the electronic item in the flow. One of the ways to quantify the flow is through
analysis of sales data of these business transactions.

29
 CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS

30
Waste Collection in India:

Primarily by the city municipality

• No gradation of waste product eg bio-degradable, glasses, poly bags, paper shreds etc.

• Dumps these wastes to the city outskirts Local raddiwala / kabadiwala (Rag pickers)

• Collecting small iron pieces by magnets

• Collecting glass bottles

• Collecting paper for recycling

In Delhi - MCD- Sophisticated DWM (Delhi Waste Management) vehicle There are different
sweepers employed in street sweeping and primary waste collection in each city. Each sweeper
is responsible for the daily cleansing of a fixed area, usually a street including all side lanes.
Domestic solid waste is usually thrown on the streets directly or in plastic bags from where
road sweepers collect it into heaps.

These wastes are then transported by hand-cart trolley to the nearby open dumps or to bins, or
directly by tractor trolley to the out-skirt of the cities. The road sweepers are equipped with a
broom, pan, favda (spade/showel), hand-carts, panji (small pointed hand-rake), gayti (pointed
small spade to clean road-side open drains) and buckets. The waste from street cleansing is
collected in wheelbarrows and thereafter; it is dumped into roadside bins or at open dumping
space along with household waste.

Municipal workers collect waste from collection points (open dumping spaces or bins) into
various vehicles including tractors and bull carts and haul it to disposal sites. In some cases, the
workers collect the MSW from the collection points using chabra (wooden baskets) and
transfer it into the vehicles manually. Normally, bull carts make only one or two trips a day to
the final disposal site; a tractor makes two or three trips per day whereas refuse
collectors/dumper placers make four trips. Finally recycling and reuse takes place by recycling
units in different cities. Recycling is related to processing of a waste item into usable forms.

31
The concept of recycling and reuse is well embedded in India largely due to prevailing
socioeconomic conditions and partly due to traditional practices. In India some cities have
become a hub for recycling activities as considerable amounts of recyclable materials also
come from adjoining towns and villages. Recycling industry mainly process paper, plastic,
glass and metals.
But recycling is not a solution to all problems.

It is not a solution to managing every kind of waste material. For many items recycling
technologies are unavailable or unsafe. In some cases, cost of recycling is too high. Recycling
forms a big part of informal sector engaged in solid waste management. Waste recycling has, in
fact, both organized and unorganized sections.

The lower segments working as waste and dump-pickers, itinerant waste buyers, and small
traders come under the unorganized segment, while the big traders, wholesalers and
manufacturers come under the organized segment of the waste-recycling sector.

32
How India deal with its waste
Cities continue to drown in waste and there are disturbing incidences of major landfills catching
fire in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. Plastics remain an issue of concern. Protests over solid waste
dumping across India have increased.Menstrual waste was another subject that was widely
reported this year after CPCB released the guidelines on sanitary waste management. CPCB also
notified rules on solid waste management. We bring you the major developments of the year:

1. Cities and waste

Delhi reportedly produces 10,000 metric tonnes of garbage every day and the space to dump this
garbage is a major problem. East Delhi's Ghazipur garbage dump stands at 65 metres tall, very
close to the height of Qutub Minar, which stands at 73 metres. As Mumbai reeled under a heat
wave, fire broke out in the city’s largest landfill site at Deonar on March 26, 2018. Dhapa
dumping ground in Kolkata has been burning since November 2018 and the thick smoke
billowing out of the site is making the city’s polluted air even more toxic. Since 20 October, fires
caused by toxic gases have been raging inside a landfill in Bhalswa, an urban village in North

33
Delhi where a 40-acre graveyard of waste waits for its own death. Toxic smoke from a blaze at
the Okhla landfill in the national capital caused health problems amongst local residents.

2. Plastic menace

Maharashtra government imposed a complete ban on plastic carry bags and thermocol
cutlery, becoming the 18th state of the country to impose such a ban. Two hundred
residents' associations/buildings in south Mumbai decided to become plastic-free by
June 17 as a drive against single-use plastics was launched here. From April 1, the
Golden Temple will replace the use of plastic carry bags with compostable ones to
make its contribution to environment protection. The Telangana government issued
guidelines to ban plastic usage in urban local bodies in the state.

3. Sanitary waste
Forty-five per cent of the menstrual waste collected across the country, primarily consisting of
sanitary napkins, is disposed of as routine waste along with other household garbage revealed
Menstrual Health Alliance India. The CPCB guidelines released in May 2018 detailed various
options for disposal of different kinds of sanitary wastes. Six years ago, Bengaluru’s urban body
became the first to announce that it will collect sanitary and medical waste separately. But its
implementation has run into a cost conundrum. Thiruvanthapuram municipal corporation is
likely to revive the proposal of demand-based door-to-door collection for sanitary waste with
CPCB issuing guidelines for handling sanitary waste.

34
4. Domestic waste
With Mount Pirana growing at an alarming rate, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)
has finally put its foot down. Come December, the corporation will not collect domestic waste if
it is not segregated into dry and wet. With an aim to resolve waste management problems of
residents in Gurugram, the agency responsible for solid waste management in the city has taken
the local management approach by appointing ward managers in each of the 35 wards. Soon, all
the municipalities and corporations in Tamil Nadu will begin sending non-recyclable waste to
the cement plants and thermal power stations to be incinerated and converted into fuel. The
municipal corporation in Cuttack will enforce a new set of regulations, including fines for
littering roads in front of homes, for better segregation and disposal of waste

5. E-waste: The growing menace

India is among the top five e-waste generating countries in the world after China, the
US, Japan and Germany, according to a report. One of the biggest producers of e-
waste in the world, India doesn't have data and monitoring mechanisms to manage e-
waste

4.1 Waste Management Initiatives in India

During the recent past, the management of solid waste has received considerable attention
from the Central and State Governments and local (municipal) authorities in India.

A number of partnerships/alliances are found to exist in the field of solid waste management in
Indian cities. These alliances are public-private, community-public and private-private
arrangements.

To identify the status of existing alliances in the study area, it is first necessary to identify the
various actors working in the field of waste management. These actors can be grouped as
under:

35
 • Public sector: this comprises of local authority and local public departments at city
level;

• Private-formal sector: this constitutes large and small registered enterprises doing
collection, transport, treatment, and disposal and recycling;
• Private-informal sector: this constitutes the small-scale, non-recognized private
sector and comprises of waste-pickers, dump pickers, itinerant-waste buyers, traders
and nonregistered small-scale enterprises; and
• Community representatives in the form of NGOs, etc.

These actors enter into partnerships for providing various activities related to solid waste
management. These partnerships can be as follows:

• public-private (Local Authority and private enterprises);

• public-community (Local Authority and NGOs); etc

• private-private (waste-pickers, itinerant-waste buyers, waste traders and dealers,

wholesalers, small scale and large-scale recycling enterprises); and
• Public-private-community (Local Authority, private enterprises and NGOs).

4.2 Initiatives taken by Private Companies

There are various private companies that are providing complete solutions for waste
management. For example, Subhash Projects and Marketing Limited (SPML) is a leading
Engineering and Infrastructure development organization with 26 years in Water, Power and
Infrastructure. Today SPML is surging ahead in Urban Infrastructure, Solid Waste Management,
Water and Waste Water Systems, Cross Country Pipelines, Ports and SEZs, through BOOT/PPP
initiatives.

“SPML Enviro” is an integrated environment solution provider arm of Subhash Projects and

Marketing Limited (SPML). It provides complete solution in relation to collection,

transportation & disposal of municipal / hazardous waste, segregation and recycling of
municipal waste, construction & management of sanitary landfill, construction & operation of

36
compost plant and waste to energy plant at the Delhi airport and Hyderabad Airport. SPML
Enviro has invested in the necessary resources and partnerships to provide solid and water
treatment solutions.

It expertise includes solid waste-to-resources’ solutions – universal, industrial and medical

waste. SPML Enviro has teamed up with PEAT International, North Illinois, USA, a waste-to-
resources company specializing in treating and converting waste to usable resources. PEAT's
proprietary Plasma Thermal Destruction Recovery (PTDR) technology is an environmentally
friendly process, that converts wastes into non-toxic synthetic gas (which is a valuable source of
alternative energy) and other useful end-products.

The PTDR is a proven, cost-effective, environmentally clean and commercially viable solution
for waste remediation. SPML Enviro together with its joint-venture partners, has proven
capabilities to successfully execute projects on turn-key basis involving Okhla sewage treatment
plant, Delhi Jal Board, Bewana common effluent treatment, Delhi State Industrial Development
Corporation, Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation, Yelahanka primary/tertiary
sewage treatment plant, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Okhla common effluent
treatment plant, Sewage treatment plant, Mysore, Karnataka water supply and sewerage board,
etc. SPML has also formed a joint venture with the US based Company INSITUFORM
Technologies (INC.). The Company brings with them a No Dig Technology that eliminates
replacement of old sewers.

4.3 Initiatives taken by Indian corporate

In India, there are various initiatives taken by many corporations. For example, HCL Info
system believes that the producers of electronic goods are responsible for facilitating an
environmentally friendly disposal, once the product has reached the end of its life.

HCL Info system supports the ongoing initiative for separate e-waste legislation in India. HCL
has been working on an easy, convenient and safe programmer for recycling of e-waste in
India. HCL has created the online process of e-waste recycling request registration, where
customers (both individual and corporate) can register their requests for disposal of their e-
waste. Apart from corporate customers, HCL has extended its e-waste collection program to
retail customers also through its HCL Touch spread points spread across the country HCL

37
extends the recycling facility to its users regardless of the fact, when and where they purchased
the product.

To promote recycling of electronic waste, Nokia India launched a 'Take Back' campaign where
customers can drop their old handset in the company’s stores and win gifts. The take-back
campaign is aimed at educating mobile phone users on the importance of recycling e-waste. As
a part of this initiative, Nokia encourage mobile phone users to dispose their used handsets and
accessories such as charges and handsets, regardless of the brand, at any of the recycling bins
set up across Nokia Priority Dealers and Nokia Care Centers.

ITC Ltd has chosen energy management, environmental & waste management and social &
farm forestry as major focus areas for CSR. Specific processes include recycling/reuse of paper
mill back water for dilution of bleached pulp, recycling of paper machine primary clarifier
outlet water for miscellaneous uses, etc. These are few examples to show that Indian corporate
is not behind in producing initiatives related to waste management.

Challenges in India
Key issues and challenges include lack of collection and segregation at source, scarcity of land,
dumping of e-waste, lack of awareness, etc. Simple dumping of mixed waste is the practice
followed practically everywhere and especially in the developing countries as they cannot
mobilize financial resources for applying expensive technology propounded by the developed
countries.

In India, “The new Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules 2000”, which came into effect
from January 2004, fail, even to manage waste in a cyclic process. Waste management still is a
linear system of collection and disposal, creating health and environmental hazards.

Urban India is likely to face a massive waste disposal problem in the coming years. Until now,
the problem of waste has been seen as one of cleaning and disposing as rubbish. But a closer
look at the current and future scenario reveals that waste needs to be treated holistically,
recognizing its natural resource roots as well as health impacts. Waste can be wealth, which has
tremendous potential not only for generating livelihoods for the urban poor but can also enrich

38
the earth through composting and recycling rather than spreading pollution as has been the
case.

Increasing urban migration and a high density of population will make waste management a
difficult issue to handle in the near future, if a new paradigm for approaching it is not created.

A strong need felt on private sector participation in waste management but we cannot ignore
the risk of private sector participation. Risks of private sector involvement may include a lack
of transparency, a commercial failure that would then lead to disturbance of public services, or
low cooperation between stakeholders.

Another important question is that how effective are the public-private partnerships? We
remember that Chennai based corporation and French conglomerate Onyx partnered for
garbage collection. But we really don’t know how effective it was in practical sense. The
Corporation paid heavy amount for garbage clearance. But there were complaints against the
company. In any case the company was simply collecting garbage and dumping it on the
dumpsites. There is no engineering miracle in collecting and dumping waste.

The way forward is proper waste management policies which must be adopted and
responsibilities of each are defined in proper manner and correctly watched, if the municipal
authorities get the private companies (like onyx) to composting and recycling wastes rather
than just dumping it.

There have been a variety of policy responses to the problem of urban solid waste in India,
especially over the past few years, yet sustainable solutions either of organic or inorganic waste
remains untapped and unattended. For developing countries, recycling of waste is the most
economically viable option available both in terms of employment generation for the urban
poor with no skills and investment.

All policy documents as well as legislation dealing with urban solid waste mention or
acknowledge recycling as one of the ways of diverting waste, but they do so in a piece-meal
manner and do not address the framework needed to enable this to happen. Critical issues such
as industry responsibility, a critical paradigm to enable sustainable recycling and to catalyze
waste reduction through, say better packing, have not been touched upon.

39
Recycling of only some types of materials like plastics, paper and metals is not enough. Many
types of new materials mainly used for packaging are not, or indeed cannot be, recycled in the
low-end technology being employed. Besides, there are serious issues of poor occupational
safety provisions of the waste pickers as well as workers.

In India, new and expensive technologies are being pushed to deal with our urban waste
problem, ignoring their environmental and social implications. It is particularly true in the case
of thermal treatment of waste using technologies such as gasification, incineration, pyrolysis or
palletizations. Indian waste content does not provide enough fuel value (Caloric value) for
profitable energy production. It needs the addition of auxiliary fuel or energy. Such
technologies put communities to risk and are opposed widely. For example, the United States
has not been able to install a new incinerator for the past five years, while costs for burning
garbage have escalated astronomically with rising environmental standards in other countries.
While the more developed countries are doing away with incinerators because of high costs.

40
 CHAPTER 5
RECOMMENDATION

41
Suggestions for Future Improvement
The political will is the first priority. Generally, Government bodies and municipalities give
priority to present problems which they face but do not think for future problems due to
environmental decay. Their view is that, they will solve problems when they will face it but not
now. Because doing something for environment does not provide political gains or assure next
time seat. Now questions are that how can we change this mentality?

We believe there should be a positive approach for a long-time planning and implementation.
Legislation and its effective enforcement are a key to sustainability for which the framework
requires to be established.

Efforts to improve waste storage and collection are required. This can be done when each
household and locality are provided standard bins that are placed outside for ease of collection.
In areas where this is not appropriate, centrally located waste collection points should be
established that are shared by a number of households. Wastes need have be increasingly sorted
at the source, to separate materials that can be recycled and to reduce the number of wastes
requiring collection and disposal. Co-operation is required among communities, the informal
sector, the formal waste collectors and the authorities. An effective Solid Waste Management
system should aim at minimizing manual handling and 100 % collection & transportation of
solid wastes should be achieved.

In solid waste management, one thing became very clear that segregation at source is to be
practiced. There are lots of initiatives to manage wastes but goes in vain because of not
identifying wealth in wastes. In India, we cannot afford sanitary land filling as land is precious
here and there are lot of municipalities who do not have land as trenching ground.

The source segregation needs lot of study on human behavior against waste littering. A
continuous sensitization programme is to be planned according to the sentiments of the
residents towards their city and ultimately it will work as wonders. If waste segregation is
practiced, the potential threats can be minimized directly.

42
Besides, the quality of materials retrieved will be better due to absence of mixing. The pickers
can thus, fetch better money on the materials retrieved besides having lesser threats of catching
diseases, cuts and wounds encountered in the usual practice of waste picking.

The adoption and transfer of the technologies from the developed countries without adapting
them to the local or regional perspective would be fallacious on the part of the developing
countries.

Therefore, the technical aspects for a waste management would have to take into account many
points for planning and implementation of strategies according to situation of the country. It
would call for the strengthening of the management sector which has to go hand in hand with
technical planning.

General public can play a very important role. Public participation is necessary for a proper
waste management system. Changes in the habits of segregation, littering, can change the
approach towards wastes.

For example, in a heritage town of West Bengal, there was a movement related to waste
management. Within a span of two years, it successfully sensitized residents for segregation at
source and not littering in open areas. Now the city is really becoming clean and other people
are also participating in the movement.

In order to improve the system efficiency and increase the coverage to 100 percent in each
city, it is recommended to explore alternative arrangements for collection of waste like
involving private operators. A mechanism to generate revenue from the citizens should also be
developed. However, the approach to public-private partnerships pursued in the developed
countries cannot be replicated for Indian towns in general. This approach can only be
implemented after some modifications taking into account the local conditions.

There may be separate parallel decentralized schemes by the government. Financial support by
the community based on decentralized schemes will provide the right impetus for the
development of waste management method. For example, the municipality of Bangalore has a
parallel scheme, “Swaccha Bangalore”, which levies mandatory fees for all households,
businesses and educational institutions to increase its financial resources. These user fees imply

43
that the residents will expect the municipality to provide proper waste collection services. It
integrates them into the overall waste management strategy in all localities thereby helping to
reduce the number of wastes going outside the locality. The levying of waste collection and
disposal fees should be based on waste generation rates and according to the economic
standard of the area, whilst considering the nature of the waste wherever necessary. However,
these fees should not be levied solely to meet the financial lacunae for management and the
equipment demand.

In India waste management could materialize only if service delivery will be linked to private
sector participation. “It is imperative that the private sector comes forward and enables the
public sector stakeholders to devise appropriate frameworks that result in a win-win for both
sides.” Although there are some initiatives taken by corporate but there is strong needs that all
corporate must come forward to take first step.
At least they should manage their industrial waste rather littering and throwing in the rivers as
we can find many examples in Indian cities like Kanpur, Varanasi, Agra, etc. The private sector
could also play an important role in building the capacities of municipal bodies. Solid waste
management, along with recycling, presents plenty of opportunities for partnerships. For
example, EXNORA is an NGO in Chennai that focuses on the environment through their solid
waste management program, which works in municipalities throughout Tamil Nadu.

In fact, despite the lack of proper legal and financial support by public agencies, the informal
sector has a firm standing and gives an invaluable service to a large section of the society in
relation to waste management. There is an urgent need to understand the vital role of this
informal sector engaged in municipal solid waste management, study their socio-economic
conditions, and to integrate them with the formal sector to achieve sustainable solid waste
management on one hand and improve their living conditions on the other.

The possible future policy options available with the policy makers for management of
municipal solid waste are to promote either/all of the existing alliances between private-private
enterprises, private-public enterprises and private-public-community.

44
The selected scenario should be based on socio-economic, environmental and health
considerations. It should fulfill the basic goal of recycling the maximum waste generated,
creating maximum employment through cleaner methods without bringing any threat/reducing
the potential health hazards to the lower rung of the waste recycling sector and improving their
socioeconomic conditions, as well.

Another option is to promote formation of micro-enterprises among the waste-recycling sector

through various policies. It is observed from various case studies of developing countries like
Latin America, Egypt, etc.

That if waste pickers and recyclers get official recognition from the local authorities and they
organize themselves and institutionalize their activities, there is an overall improvement in the
living conditions of these people. Micro-enterprises in the field of solid waste management
sector are a new process in India and only few examples are available.

The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Ahmedabad, India successfully improved

the living conditions of women paper pickers, by organizing them into cooperatives and by
searching for easily accessible raw materials in bulk quantity.

There are several missing links and many loose ends both in terms of management, technology
and professional skill. The solutions need thorough understanding, for example, deployment of
competent persons qualified in solid waste management (real hard taskmasters and not people
who turn up with a handkerchief to cover their nose to keep the stink away), application of
efficient combination of waste handling equipment’s in cost effective manner and streamlining
of the handling of waste at various stages throughout its journey from source of generation to
ultimate safe disposal site, without intermediate dumping and accumulation of waste for days
together.

A flawless continuous flow sheet of waste management has to be developed. Matching

financial support, discipline and attitudinal change in all concerned will obviously be the key
for effective and successful waste management in India.

In India the landfill, sometimes described as `sanitary landfill’, does not go beyond filling up
of low-lying areas with stinking waste conveniently bypassing the recommended requirements

45
for `sanitary landfill’. In the end, anything that is emptied at dumping or landfill sites continues
to cause serious environmental depredation. The developed countries do boast that they handle
their waste in a more scientific manner at landfill sites by laying the dumping grounds with a
vulcanized plastic sheet to avoid leaching of toxic digested and undigested waste into the
ground underneath. In our country’s authorities practicing landfill do declare that they
assiduously implement requirements for recommended landfill to assuage citizen concern.

The quantum of solid waste is ever increasing due to many reasons. Plastics waste is a
significant portion of the total municipal solid waste (MSW). Recycling of plastics should be
carried in such a manner to minimize the pollution level during the process and as a result to
enhance the efficiency of the process and conserve the energy. Newer techniques related to
recycling and reuse of plastic can be adopted.

Any new paradigm should include a cradle-to-grave approach with responsibility being shared
by many stakeholders, including product manufacturers, consumers, communities, the
recycling industry, trade, municipalities and the urban poor. The Ministry of Urban
Development and Poverty Alleviation, as well as Agriculture, should develop the market for
compost, and if required provide subsidies for compost manure – first to provide organic soil
nutrients to the farmers and to solve the urban waste problem which continuously is polluting
land through uncontrolled dumping. In order to make proper waste management activity
sustain in true sense, following other points need to be given attention to –

1) Region specific planning: Looking at the geographical, topographical and cultural

diversity of the country it can be divided into five regions such as Northern region, Eastern
region, Western region, Central region and Southern region. Each of these regions has different
structure. Hence all the activities should be planned & implemented on regional basis.
2) Planning from below: To make Solid Waste Management a success in true sense, the
planning as well as implementation should start from general public level planning followed by
block level planning, district level planning and state level planning.
3) Involvement of self-help groups, youth groups and small entrepreneurs: The general
public level waste management units can be run by self-help groups, youth groups or small
entrepreneurs. This will help in making the programmer self-supportive and sustainable.

46
4) Well planned and effective training policy: Technical training at all levels (General
public to state) forms the backbone of a successful waste management programmer. Adequate
training must be given to all those concerned prior to actual launching of the programmer in the
field.

47
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION

48
It is sufficing to say that we require a more stringent integrated and strategic waste prevention
framework to effectively address wastage related issues. There is an urgent need to build upon
existing systems instead of attempting to replace them blindly with models from developed
countries. To prevent any epidemic and to make each city a healthy city-economically and
environmentally, there is an urgent need for a well-defined strategic waste management plan and
a strong implementation of the same in India. To achieve financial sustainability, socio-
economic and environmental goals in the field of waste management, there is a need to
systematically analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the community as well as the municipal
corporation, based on which an effective waste management system can be evolved with the
participation of various stakeholders in India. The public apathy can be altered by awareness
building campaigns and educational measures. Sensitization of the community is also essential
to achieve the above objectives and we need to act and act fast as every city in India is already a
hotbed of many contagious diseases, most of which are caused by ineffective waste
management.

All these above said suggestions are given in relation to India and will be effective only when
we individually feel the responsibility of making environment clean. As general public, we
cannot do much in policy and regulations formulation, adoption of newer technologies related
to recycling and other waste management options but we can play a very important role in this
process if we can adopt only few tips. Here are a few tips to achieve this goal.

• Keep ourself informed: It is important that we are in the know about what is happening
on the environment front. Read about how untreated sewage is thrown into the rivers,
attend public lectures about air pollution, & keep in touch with new policies that affect
our environment. The more informed we are, the better equipped we are to fight such
issues.

• Consume less: Motto: Refuse…. Reduce…. Reuse… Recycle. This means consuming
fewer resources, reusing whatever we can and finally recycling what cannot be reused.
This process greatly reduces the garbage.
• Say ‘No’ to plastic bags: One of the biggest sources of pollution in Indian cities is the
ubiquitous plastic bag. Refuse to accept one. Instead, carry a cloth shopping bag with
us.

49
• Separate our garbage: India has one of the world’s most efficient recycling
mechanisms. Use the service of our raddiwalla. Newspapers, bottle cans and other such
recyclables can fetch us money and, in the process, we can help to save the
environment. Rag pickers, too, perform a vital function for the city. Kitchen garbage
(biodegradable) should be separated from non-biodegradable waste.
• Compost our organic waste: Start a vermiculture bin. We can convince our neighbors to
start a vermiculture bin also to produce manure. 6. Stop burning garbage: Ask our
neighbors to desist from burning solid wastes. It may seem harmless but smoke emitted
from leaves contributes to air pollution. Also, when there is plastic in the heap, it emits
dangerous toxic fumes. Leaves can be converted to fertilizer through composting &
plastic can be recycled.

50
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