The year 2014 has brought a major change in human life of Indian Citizens through Swachh Bharat initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India, perhaps has become first nation across the globe having a National Campaign on Cleanliness, Sanitation and Waste Management spearheaded by none other than Prime Minister of the country. Waste will remain waste till full circle of material is not maintained. As far as Waste Management value chain goes, it includes Collection with Segregation at Source, Storage and Transportation, Processing and Disposal. Every step of value chain has got its own significance. Unless, it completes, waste will not be considered as resource but discarded material.
In India, waste is a severe threat to the public health concern and cleanliness. Though, the form of waste (both solid and liquid) generated in Urban/rural areas is predominantly organic and biodegradable yet becoming a major problem to the overall sustainability of the ecological balance. For e.g. it is estimated that rural people in India are generating liquid waste (grey water) of the order of 15,000 to 18,000 million litres and solid waste (organic/recyclable) 0.3 to 0.4 million metric tons approx. per day respectively.
As a result, wastewater are leading to vector borne diseases such as Diarrhoea, Malaria, Polio, Dengue, Cholera, Typhoid, and other water borne infections such as schistosomiasis. 5 of the 10 top killer diseases of children aged 1- 14 in rural areas are related to water and sanitation. Almost 1500 children die every day from diarrhoea. Results in high rate of infant and children under-5 mortality.
Solid waste
Solid waste is generally includes-house sweeping, kitchen waste, garden waste, cattle dung & waste from cattle sheds, agro waste, broken glass, metal, waste paper, plastic, cloths, rubber, waste from markets & shopping areas, hotels, etc. Solid waste can also be defined as the organic and inorganic waste materials produced by households, commercial & industrial establishments that have no economic value to the owner.
As per biodegradability, solid waste can be classified as:
- Biodegradable: Waste that are completely decomposed by biological processes either in presence or in absence of air are called biodegradable. e.g. kitchen waste, animal dung, agricultural waste etc
- Non-biodegradable: Waste which cannot be decomposed by biological processes is called non-biodegradable waste. These are of two types:
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- Recyclable: waste having economic values but destined for disposal can be recovered and reused along with their energy value. e.g. plastic, paper, old cloth etc
- Non-recyclable: Waste which does not have economic value of recovery e.g. tetra packs, carbon paper, thermo coal etc.
Currently, modus operandi of Waste Management has been limited to collection and transportation with limited processing. Rest is being dumped unscientifically rather crudely creating huge dumps of waste like Ghazipur, Bhalsawa and Okhla. So waste disposed irrationally, it piles up as legacy waste and when it became huge mountain, leads to all sorts of public health problems. During summer it tends to catch fire and rainy season it is major source of polluting river and ground water.
In Today’s world Collection, Transportation, segregation, managing landfill, composting and waste to Energy have become highly technical and needs big ticket size investment. Down side of the Swachh Bharat Mission is demotivation amongst waste industry largely because of poor support system from Local Governments. Although huge capital investment is required to improve waste management, social and behavioural factors are also important if waste management in urban areas is to be successful.
India has a large population and produces the following types of waste:
- Solid Municipal Waste – 62 Million Ton
- Industrial Waste – 100 Million Tone
- Hazardous Waste – 7.9 Million Ton
- E. Waste – 3.2 Million Ton
- Construction Waste – 150 Million Ton
- Agricultural Waste – 550 Million Ton
- Plastic Waste – 5.6 Million Ton
The above figures are approximate. To manage Solid Municipal waste, E-Waste, Hazardous and Plastic Waste is a hurricane problem. Solid Municipal Waste (SMW) has a direct effect on the health of citizens since with the present infrastructure is not effectively managed in Urban areas. We do not have long term solution e.g. Waste to Energy, Incineration, Recycling/Reuse, Composting.
Before 2014 many foreign companies from Europe came to India and went back, because of poor infrastructure and lack of proper guidelines.
Solid Municipal Waste (SMW)
There are number of following hindrances in cities like
- Solid Waste, Door-to-door Collection is under the disorganized sector i.e, Rag Pickers. Companies refuse to implement door-to-door since collection of money from each household is not possible until the charges are included in Water Bills, and paid to the companies. People living below the poverty line will not pay.
- The leftovers are mainly Plastic and Wet Waste; which companies find difficult to segregate and whatever they do has poor clorific value and is not very valuable for Power Plants.
- Composting is the process of breaking down organic Waste and there are hardly any buyers.
- Incineration, the process of burning Waste to reduce its volume, causes pollution and release of gases. It is mainly used to reduce Hazardous Waste e.g. Oil, Hydrocarbons, Pesticides and Medical Waste. We do not have enough incineration plants and technology.
- Landfill disposal, most of the waste is dumped in unorganized way in the vacant land and maximum Solid Municipal Waste (SMW) goes to Landfill. In India Land around most of our cities is very expensive and scare thus unlike Europe where they spread the waste and convert into Amusement Parks, Golf Courses etc.
Major Challenges
- Need large infrastructure for 1.4 Billion population, for effective collection and transportation.
- Most of the municipalities have financial constraint to make timely payments to the operating companies.
The Government /Public Co-operation
Waste to Energy plants are required. Government may allocate separate budgets to set up Waste to Energy Plant because for private companies to set up is not financially viable.
Setting up Waste to Energy plant require big investment approx. 100 to 150 crores. Very few companies like Ramky, Jindal, Eco-green, JBM Enviro just have one or two plants each. To set up waste to energy plant before 2014 was heavily losing proposition, but the present Government realized and fixed to buy at approx. Rs 7 Per Unit, subsidizing the difference.
Government may consider a separate ministry like Environment/Water and allocate adequate funds, many well-established foreign companies would like to come to India since it is a great opportunity and a growing industry. Water pollution and a better environment, will give a great boost to good health and tourism.
The weather conditions in India are also very variable and during heavy monsoon, Collection and Transportation is another challenge to dump the waste, one piled up dumps.
I approached URBASER from Spain, one of the largest Waste Management Company and brought them to India in 2008 till 2013. We visited many states but because of lack of knowledge were not prepared to improve on terms and conditions of Tender. Finally we approached Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Aayog, where we gave presentation to the municipality and state representatives. Prime Minister of India also had announced Swachh Bharat programme. Municipalities adopted and modified the Tender conditions for companies to aggressively participate and finally got first project of South West Zone in 2016 for 8 years with IL&FS as a joint venture, but then IL&FS eco-smart was bought by Indo Enviro from Bombay. URBASER has one of the largest waste collection and transportation projects in Chennai where they collect approx. 3000 tons of SWM every day which ultimately goes to landfill.
URBASER Spanish Company has two contracts of collection and Transportation in South Delhi and one of the largest in Chennai, where beside collection, they also do road sweeping, drainage cleaning, and ultimately landfill. They have approx. 13000 (Thirteen Thousand) employee and Sumant Enterprise manpower company from Pune is their small partner.
There are few cities e.g. Indore where road sweeping, and managing waste is very effective and has been awarded cleanest city in India for 5 years. The same model should be applied in other parts of India to make Swachh Bharat a great success. The other cities to mention are Surat, Navi Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam and Bhopal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Capt. Shakti Dogra was associated with URBASER since 2008 and was later appointed as Resident Director for India from 2016 to 2023.