Dhurjati Mukherjee
Human activities are generating increasing quantity of wastes as these are considered useless. These wastes are normally solid and the meaning of the word waste suggests that the material is useless and unwanted. Such solid waste may be defined as garbage from homes, materials resulting from industrial and commercial activities, including construction/demolition, bio-medical waste and waste substance created by agriculture, mining etc. There are different types of solid waste and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that 22 types of diseases are directly linked with improper municipal solid waste management practices.
It is heartening to know that the Government has become quite serious, specially after the Paris meeting about an all-round approach to check pollution in different ways. The recent rules regarding solid waste management, issued by the Ministry of Environment & Forests on April 5, have rightly been revised after a gap of 16 years and will replace SWM rules 2000. It has proposed ‘user charges’ to be paid by waste generators to local authorities. Apart from the big generators, street vendors, housing societies, political rallies and wedding organizers would also be required to take steps for appropriate disposal of the waste they generate. There are some municipal areas in the country which already charge people for waste management. The new rules as per Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar “give powers to local bodies across India to decide the user fees”. However, the fee is mandatory for bulk waste generators such as hotels, industry and others, who would also have to focus on waste segregation.
It is interesting to note that the SWM rules 2016 has expanded the ambit of the rule beyond municipal areas to include urban agglomerations, notified industrial townships, areas under Indian Railways, airports, ports and harbours, defence establishments, special economic zones, State and Central organization’s places of pilgrimage, religious and historical importance. Javadekar acknowledged that civic and rural bodies have to take an active role in utilizing the user charges and ensure that waste is not allowed to pollute the environment – whether roads or waterways. Thus, along with strict enforcement of rules, there is need to generate awareness among the people so that cleanliness could be ensured. India generates around 62 million tonnes of waste each year of which only 43 million tonnes is collected. Of the collected waste, only 12 million tonnes is treated and 31 million tonnes dumped in landfill sites. It is understood that 80 to 90 per cent of earmarked funds are currently being used for managing networks for collection and transportation of waste.
This is dangerous and also gives rise to health hazards. The way the population is increasing, it is projected that by 2030, the solid waste generated would be 165 million tonnes and by 2050, it is expected to increase to 437 million tonnes. Thus, proper management of solid waste has been given due emphasis at an appropriate time.
Unfortunately Javadekar said there are at present only 553 compost plants, 56 bio-mechanization plants, 22 plants which generate fuel from such wastes and 13 plants which produce electricity through it, but didn’t mention the plans of the Government to set up more recycling plants
The Centre has also notified collection, revision and dismantling of electronic waste by expanding its ambit, extending incentives to consumers and introducing financial penalty for violators. The new rules have brought under ambit CFL and other mercury containing lamps. India generated 17 lakh tonnes e-waste in 2014 which is increasing at the rate of around 5 per cent per annum. In this connection, it may be mentioned that 100 crore mobiles are used in the country out of which around 25 crores become waste. As three-fourths of e-waste is handled in an unorganized and unscientific manner, it is expected that the rules would tighten the monitoring system.
Delving into history, it may be said that waste management has been a socio-engineering function. It is related to the evolution of a technological society which, along with the benefits of mass production, has also created problems that require the disposal of the wastes. Wastes are generated during the mining and production processes of raw materials, such as the tailings from a mine or the discarded husks from cornfield/rice field. After the materials have been mined, harvested or otherwise procured, more wastes are generated during subsequent steps of the process which generates goods for consumption by society for these raw materials.
Apart from strict implementation of the new rules, it is also necessary to reduce the generation and waste toxicity. But, as people search for a better life and higher standard of living, they tend to consume more goods and generate more waste. Consequently, there is need for searching for improved methods of waste management from collection to its final disposal.
In recent times, the problem of waste management has assumed a complex dimension more so because it involves many disciplines. These include technologies associated with storage, collection, transfer and transportation, processing, incineration and disposal. All of these processes have to be carried out within existing legal and environmental guidelines that protect public health and the environment and are aesthetically and environmentally acceptable.
Besides, these must be responsive to public attitudes and the disciplines included in the disposal process include administrative, financial, planning and engineering functions. For a successful solid waste management plan, it is necessary that all these disciplines communicate and interact with each other in a positive inter-disciplinary manner. Trees must be grown on or around the site to create a green belt to control dust and improve the environmental condition. Apart from awareness campaigns to reduce the quantum and toxicity of waste at source, other measures include recycling, reuse or composting as much as is economically feasible, burning the waste that cannot be economically recycled and finally, land filling the rest in an environmentally acceptable manner. Methods of reducing waste at source range from home composting to improving the efficiency of industrial processes. Some industries have found they can profitably reduce their waste by good housekeeping methods such as improved levels of maintenance and by recycling by-products within the factory. Waste minimization can also be achieved by installing less polluting technology. Another consideration is reducing the harmful nature of the waste. An industry may change its raw materials or processes so that the waste produced is less damaging to the environment, for example, the reduction of CFC refrigerants. The most widely used strategy throughout the world is disposal through land filling and incineration. In Ireland, for instance, 100 per cent of all garbage is land filled, while Australia and Canada trail behind with rates of 98 per cent and 93 per cent respectively. England landfills 90 per cent and France is way behind at 54 per cent. Sanitary landfills should be encouraged as these are natural or human made depression into which solid wastes are dumped, compressed and daily covered with a layer of dirt.
Thus an integrated waste management is imperative. The processing and disposal of waste is obviously the most important aspects of integrated waste management as unscientific disposal of waste can cause serious damage to environment. However, accordingly waste processing and disposal sites should preferably be around 7-8 km from the city limit and a km away from habitation clusters. Small steps can make a big difference. INFA
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