Waste Disposal in India

Waste administration rules in India are based on the philosophy of "sustainable development",
"precaution" and "polluter pays". These ideology ordered municipalities and commercial
establishments to act in an environmentally accountable and responsible manner restoring
balance, if their actions disrupt it. The boost 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 common 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 urban development, 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 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
centres clean. However, almost all municipal authorities deposit solid waste at a dumpyard
within or outside the city haphazardly. Experts believe that India is following a flawed system of
waste disposal and management.
(Sources https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/waste/india-s-challenges-in-waste-management-56753)

India’s Growing Waste Anguishes

India’s urban population of 429 million citizens produces a whopping 62 million tonnes of
garbage every year. Out of this, 5.6 million tonnes is the plastic waste, 0.17 million tonnes is the
biomedical waste, 7.90 million tonnes is hazardous waste and 15 lakh tonnes is e-waste. A
staggering figure of forty-three million tonnes of Solid Waste is collected annually, out of which
only 11.9 million, that is 22-28% is treated, while about 31 million tonnes of waste is left
untreated and dumped at the landfill sites.
(https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/top-10-things-know-indias-waste-management-woes-6374/)

Conditions of Metro Cities

Major metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata
generate about 10 million tonnes of garbage every day. The difficulty is not the enormous
amount of waste generation, but how a huge chunk of garbage is remained untreated every single
day?.

Mumbai: Has only Three dumping grounds to handle the 9,600 metric tonnes of waste
generated daily. The major landfill Deonar in this metro is about 90-year-old and is on the verge
of collapsing. The garbage masses here is as tall as a five- or six-storey building, standing 15
metres high. Another landfill at Mulund has been functional since 1968. It’s spread across 25
hectares and is also way past its use-by date.

New Delhi: The capital city generates around 9,000 metric tonnes of waste every day and is
already sitting on a ticking garbage bomb! Delhi has a total of 3 landfills, at Ghazipur, Okhla and
Bhalswa.

Lucknow : The capital of Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh is most populated state in our country. It
has diversity culture , language, spiritual cities like Mathura, Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh also has
some big industrialized cities like Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Noida, with these positive thing Uttar
Pradesh also have the tag of polluted cities in our country. Recently, Metro Rail service has
started , it shows the economical development but on the other hand we are not able to manage
the waste.

LMC is armed with 90 trucks, 200 small vehicles, 2,700 handcarts, 49 bulldozers and 4,200
sanitation workers to lift 1,500 metric tons of garbage from streets. But it is still not able to keep
the city clean.
(source: Hindustantimes , Newpaper)

What we can do ?

In 2016, these rules were revised and renamed as the Solid Waste Management (SWM)
rules which now extend to urban and industrial areas. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the
SWM rules have been followed. Neither have the relevant agencies been empowered. The
activist who had filed the petition earlier had suggested that a Solid Waste Management
Cell should be formed for each state. According to the petitioner, such a Cell should reward the
cities with good performance (as regards waste management) and fine those which do not follow
the rules.
The key challenges to solving this problem are:
1. The agencies responsible for implementation have not not been geared up and empowered.
2. Community engagement has not taken off.
3. Suitable infrastructure has not been developed, and the incentive system has not been altered
successfully.
The possible solutions to these challenges can be:
1. Community engagement to drive deep behavioral changes.
A first step towards that can be the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s pitching model that
involves citizens composting their waste and the civic agency buying it from them. These
composts will be used in the city’s parks, before the waste is taken to waste plants. This will
encourage people to start segregating and making composts at home. Other such initiatives can
also be implemented.
2. The other solution to the challenge is inculcating the prowess to make right technological
decisions.
For instance, the problem of plastic waste is a menace for the world, since the waste takes
millions of years to degrade and causes a big threat to environment. However, an Indian
professor in Madurai, Rajagopalan Vasudevan, has given us a possible solution to this problem
by using this plastic to make long-lasting roads. A dumping ground in Mumbai’s Gorai was
treated using herbal methods, enzymes and bacteria. This was another great initiative to solve the
problems associated with landfill sites.
3. Political capital to make the requisite by-laws and enforcing them is the next solution to this
problem. To ensure this, increasing taxes on fresh material may be increased, thereby
encouraging people to start reusing materials.
4. Last but not the least, it needs to be ensured that human capital on a large scale follows all the 
aspects of this process – from planning, research to implementation. This is a solution which is
being commendably followed by Kerala’s Alappuzha city, which was even placed second in
the United Nations Environment Assembly’s list for smart waste management.
As individuals, we should always follow the 4Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) for
efficiently handling our waste. Start segregates the waste at home into dry and wet waste. A
major portion of the waste generated in India is wet waste, which can be converted to compost.
So, start composting at home to turn wastes into resources.
It is very easy to blame the authorities instead of doing something constructive ourselves. It’s
high time to realize the damage our own waste can do to our future. So, start working on it now,
before it gets too late.

Ashok sengupta

Asst Prof

Management Dept