India is almost at the nadir of a solid-waste crisis. Government must purge itself of apathy and formulate an alternative waste-segregation policy
India generates a staggering 62 million tonne of garbage every year. This amount of waste, considering a population of 429 million, is probably understandable. However, what is incomprehensible is the reason why almost all waste is dumped at the landfills without proper processing and segregationij According to estimates, out of all the waste generated, 5.6 million tonne is plastic waste, 0.17 million tonne is biomedical waste and 7.90 million tonne is hazardous waste whereas 15 lakh tonne is e-waste. But inspite of such complex waste being churned out of the country, only 22-28 per cent is treated, while rest of the waste is left untreated and dumped at the landfill sites. This is the status inspite of India’s ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan running at full steam.
The waste segregation and process planning in India appears to be either inadequate or ill-conceived altogether. Consider this, the major metropolises in India generate the bulk of the waste, however the same cities do not have a robust system of processing the very same waste. According to a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report, Maharashtra tops in solid waste generation by generating over 26,820 tonnes of solid waste per day and Mumbai particularly has only three landfills to absorb the same. The major landfill at Deonar in this metro is about 90-year-old and is on the verge of collapsing. The garbage heaps here are as tall as a five-or six-storey building, standing 15 meters 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. ijijNew Delhi on the other hand, generates around 9,000 metric tonnes of waste every day and is already sitting on a ticking garbage bomb! The capital city has a total of 3 landfills, at Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa, yet the situation is dire.
The successive government’s in India could not gauge the seriousness of the waste processing and efficient disposal problem and as a result even today, India has a waste disposal policy that is creaking at seams and at best can be described as an lumbering inefficient strategy that has simply been unable to keep up with spiralling population and waste generation levels of urban India. Thanks to the state of affairs, India’s urban environment is being held ransom to the towering levels of waste that first greets every tourist or visitor to any city across India. This unwittingly is becoming the mascot of our urban spaces and automatically speaks volumes about the direction where the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan is going.
Predictive research shows that if India continues to dump untreated garbage at its current rate, then we will need a landfill of size 66,000 hectares, which is 10 meters high and can, hold 20 year’s worth of waste. That is almost 90% of Bengaluru’s area. Studies have proven that India pumps around 0.6 tonnes of plastic waste into the oceans annually. It is the 12th biggest plastic polluter in the world and ranked 10th when it comes to the generation of municipal solid waste. India also discards around 1.7 million tonnes (Mt) of electronic and electrical equipment annually and is the fifth biggest producer of e-waste in the world.
So what is India doing about this dismal situationij Nothing concrete so far. The absence of India’s resolve is evident by the fact that globally, there are around 2,200 waste-to-energy plants, of which the European Union has 445, China has 150 and USA has 86, whereas India with its burgeoning population has just 8 of these. If India starts collecting and treating its waste effectively then it can be used to generate a lot of energy. It is an established fact that unused waste has the potential to generate 439 MW of power from 32,890 TPD of combustible wasteij To put it in perspective, this much energy is enough to meet the power demand of a union territory like Pondicherry.
Besides being an environmental hazard, the piles of waste are also now a safety hazard. All you need is a small spark from the light of a matchstick or a cigarette stub to turn any dumping waste site into an inferno of hazardous gasses. Apart from overflowing waste, India’s landfills are also home to toxins, leachate and greenhouse gases. With time, toxins produced by waste leaches into the soil and groundwater, and become environmental hazards for years. Another area of concern is the imminent danger of Green House gases. When organic material like food scraps and green waste is put in the landfills, it is generally compacted down and covered. As a result, the oxygen is removed from it, which causes it to break down in an anaerobic process. Eventually this releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
With situation in such critical stage, the Government must engage with the problem on a priority basis and ensure that rule enforcement pertaining to garbage segregation is done aggressively while population awareness drive is taken to as efficient level as possible. In addition to this efficient waste segregation must be made mandatory and strictly implemented for every waste generator be it an individual, community, society or a corporate office. The resolve to make a difference alone will bring the change; policies and rules are just the tools for the job at hand.
(The writer is an environmental journalist)
