Thanks to the long-established tradition of recycling and reuse, per capita generation of waste is quite low in India compared to most developed countries. However, due to large population, the volume of generated waste even in India remains very sizeable. Total waste generated from the urban centres of India is 27.4 million metric tonnes every day. But, there is a basic difference in the composition of waste. Developed country’s waste contains nearly two third of inorganic waste (mainly packaging material and papers). While in India, as paper, plastic, glass etc gets recycled, rather than thrown away; our waste has over two-third percentage of organic waste.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Supreme court has rendered solid waste disposal as the mandatory duty of the municipal corporation and has set deadlines to meet the task. Ahmedabad alone has 2,700 mt of waste generated daily. For the disposal and management of this from over 190 square kilo meters of its area,  Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has employed over 6,500 sweepers (annual pay cheque of Rs300 mn), 1,200 tricycles, 500-700 waste storage pits and 126 vehicles. Disposal of waste is essentially in the form of dumping it to thousand acres of landfill site, particularly at Pirana.

Dump sites occupy precious land, pollute environment and pose health risk with contaminated waste lying open to pilferage. Most countries abroad have abandoned this practice in favour of recycling of waste.

Thankfully in Ahmedabad, nearly quarter of its daily waste (500-700 tonnes) is processed by the private firm-Excel industries- who transform the waste into organic manure through microbial culture. 500 tonnes of waste produce about 150 tonnes of manure, ironically on a site adjoining city’s dump fill mound, without elevating its own ground over all these years. While waste management would have been city authority’s responsibility they have done little or none for its eventual disposal. As against private players involved with such operations do it with economic viability. Hanjar biotech in Rajkot, also processes part waste of city and turns it into organic manure and inert material into bricks. Enterprises have turned waste into pallets for fuel. Unfortunately, these units find no encouragement from the authorities. Quite often for as petty a reason as losing ‘cuts’, that direct purchase from vendor would potentially provide.

Even post JNNURM, we continue to build dump fill sites, albeit with concrete lining on the dictates and directions of the international agencies. Fact of the matter is that nearly 20% of the total urban waste is handled and sorted out by the informal sectors such as rag pickers etc. Earning livelihood for hundred of thousand persons, especially empowering the women and young girls. Also in traditional quarters (pols) of Ahmedabad, the traditional practice of feeding cows, dogs and offering the leftover food to beggars have managed to solve nearly 80% of the organic waste right at the source without being burden on the municipal system. Slums in Rajkot and Ahmedabad have shown ingenuity to transform rag and waste into usable products through value addition processes.

We have believed in cycles of construction, destruction and reconstruction. We have known of Gandhiji’s talisman of choosing a path that answers the cause of the down trodden masses. We need to believe in it much more and demonstrate to the world that we always have had and even now continue to have, from the repository of our traditional wisdom the answers to transform waste into resource, constraints into opportunities.