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Waste Management – Need of the Hour
S olid waste management is one of the most neglected areas of urban development in India. With the urban population growing from 283 million in 2001 to around 377 million in 20111, the systems and resources in place are not enough to treat the vast amount of solid waste generated in the country. The total Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated in urban India is estimated to be 188,500 tonnes per day and 68.8 million tonnes per year2. The urban population growth and increase in per capita waste generation have resulted in a 50% increase in the waste generated by Indian cities within a decade since 2001. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi has estimated that by 2047, waste generation in India’s cities will increase five-fold to touch 260 million tonnes per year.The poor waste management structure in the country is evident from the fact that 91% of the MSW collected is landfilled on open lands and dumps 3, generally openly burnt or caught in landfill fires. This leads to the ill health of the people and the planet.Recycling and reusing are the most effective ways of
managing waste. The scale of urbanisation and rate of increase in waste
disposal necessitates a planned and strategic movement towards waste
management. It is a critical enabler of systemic transition towards a
green economy, by creating green jobs as well as being a catalyst of
material efficiency and pollution reduction. It embraces resource
efficiency as an economic motor in and of itself; giving rise to the
recycling industry that attracts capital, induces technological
innovation and employs labour. From an economic perspective, the
injecting of recycled materials back into the economy develops a value
chain that was unrelated previously. Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group 4 works in partnership with various waste collector groups to focus on ensuring sustainable production and consumption of materials and improved system for disposal of waste. The organisation aims to delineate some of the key obstacles that stand in the way of ‘mainstreaming’ the waste management sector – from the economic, regulatory and labour perspectives to ensuring inclusivity, security and dignity for the workers working in the sector. Chintan works along the entire value chain of waste management (See Figure) to ensure reuse, up-cycle and down-cycle of waste collected.Chintan has partnered with various informal sector
waste collectors, who over the years have organised themselves int As the Chintan case study depicts, the solid waste management issue needs to be addressed holistically and systemically. Partnerships of the government departments with local stakeholders should be undertaken for effective waste recycling. q Reemsha Reen Endnotes 1 Registrar General, I. (2011), „Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals-India Datasheet, Office of the Registrar General Census Commissioner, India, Indian Census Bureau2 http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofosSustainable%20Solid%20Waste%20 Management%20in%20India_Final.pdf 3 Kumar, Sunil. Effective Waste Management in India. INTECH CROATIA. 2010. 4 http://www.chintan-india.org/index.htm
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distinct entity by the name of Safai Sena. ‘Scavengers to Managers’ and
‘Low Carbon Futures’ are two initiatives started by Chintan to organise
waste collectors into cooperatives to pick, segregate, clean, dismantle,
transport and trade the waste collected at the household and bulk level.
Forming associations with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC),
Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam, Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) across
Delhi and the NCR; Chintan has set up a solid-waste handling system that
results in promoting green jobs. With effective funding from the
government and the self-interest of the waste collectors as well as the
residents, the initiative has resulted in the doorstep waste collection
from 6000 households in the NDMC area and 20,000 households in
Ghaziabad. Chintan formalises the work of these waste collectors by
facilitating the issuing of legal contracts from the RWAs. Furthermore,
whilst training the households to segregate waste, Chintan has also
trained the workers in low-income generation areas to set up and run
low-cost systems for managing solid waste. All in all, through
Scavengers to Managers, Chintan handles over 10 tonnes of waste per day
.