Waste control efforts going waste

BIG STINK: NATIONAL CAPITAL NEEDS A GARBAGE SEGREGATION PLAN TO MANAGE TRASH

It has been 14 years since the Supreme Court ordered mandatory segregation of waste by households and asked the municipalities to collect only segregated waste.

But it is one thing to lay down the law and another to ensure its implementation. Fourteen years hence, waste segregation is a failed initiative in Delhi.

With the national capital generating 8,360 metric tonnes of waste per day and the three existing landfill sites overflowing, source segregation – people segregating waste at their homes itself – is not being adopted as an option or a solution.

In simple terms, segregation means separating biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste or putting dry and wet waste into different bins.

If segregation is adopted and waste is properly processed thereafter depending on its type, the exercise will save a lot of effort at the end of the chain and very less would have to be dumped at the landfill sites. Unfortunately, nobody seems to care.

“Currently, 85 per cent waste goes to landfill sites. If there is effective segregation, maximum 15 per cent will have to be sent. In America and other countries, people use different bins at their homes. But here there is not much awareness,” says Francesco, research coordinator at Chintan, an NGO.

“They just need to inculcate the habit of putting different types of waste into different bins. It does not take any time for an individual to put biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste in two separate containers,” he says.

He explains that most people already segregate waste which is valuable such as plastic, metals and newspapers. “But it is only limited to things which fetch a price. They don’t know the difference between dry and wet waste.”

Wet (organic) waste includes leftovers of food. The waste is biodegradable and can be processed by composting it. But when wet and dry wastes get mixed, the mixture cannot be disposed of completely as dry waste is non-biodegradable in nature.

According to Francesco, a huge percentage of wet waste is fit for composting, but only if doesn’t get mixed with the dry waste. “If recyclable waste is separated and wet waste is composted, very little would have to be sent to saturated landfills. Plus, it is cost-effective,” he says.

At present, unsegregated garbage is collected from households by sanitation workers or ragpickers who take it to the nearby dhalao, the municipal dump. They sort through it for anything which can be sold and leave the rest.

The stinking area is then visited by dogs that further spread the waste, leaving the area dirty. Effective segregation, in which biodegradable waste can be taken to the composting area and non-biodegradable waste sold by ragpickers or sent for recycling, will mean a cleaner city with fewer dhalaos.

The whole activity will also reduce manpower and transportation costs for the municipality.

Failed efforts
Various schemes and efforts to adopt segregation have failed.
In 2003, a system was introduced in Delhi under which segregated garbage from homes would be transported to municipal bins through specially designed handcarts with two compartments.

But the scheme didn’t take off
In fact, a few years ago civic agencies set up ‘green’ and ‘blue’ dustbins, meant to make waste segregation easier, in various parts of the city. But in vain. Most of these bins have either been destroyed or are being used as ordinary bins.

“Much more money needs to be put into awareness programmes. Free bins should be distributed and fines should be imposed on those who don’t segregate,” Francesco suggests.

However, Piyush Mohapatra of the NGO Toxic Link argues that even if source segregation happens, eventually all waste gets mixed up and is dumped together as India has not developed an advanced system of recycling and composting waste.

“At least 60 per cent waste is biodegradable. There is no developed way to channelise the segregated waste properly. The compost plants are defunct and most of it goes to the landfill only. There is no serious effort by MCDs,” he says.

However, the civic agencies claim that the workers employed by them or the ragpickers segregate waste after collection is completed.

“We have a compost plant in Bawana and a waste-to-energy plant in Okhla. So, automatically segregation happens there,” a senior municipal corproration official said.

Manoj Kumar, Executive Engineer, Department of Environment Management (DEMS) in North Corporation says that the area generates 3,200 metric tonnes of waste per day and around 65 per cent of it is segregated and treated.

But most of them agree that Delhi has not come up with any efficient way to segregate waste, and no study has been done by the civic agencies to understand or develop any new method.

An official of central zone of South Municipal Corporation says out of 650 metric tonne waste collection per day, some segregation happens in dhalaos. Also, around 20 per cent of the garbage is sifted by a private concessionaire hired by the department. But the bulk is taken to the landfill site.

The civic agencies claim they undertake awareness programmes in schools and sit with resident welfare associations to make them understand the importance of segregation.

However, the NGOs working in this sector say there is very little awareness among people and feel penalising those who don’t segregate can be an effective measure.
Another worry cited by the NGOs is that there is some harmful kind of waste – including sanitary napkins and medical fluids – which can cause infections to ragpickers.

“There is no proper solution for sanitary pads till date. Most of it goes with the kitchen waste,” Mohapatra says.

Sailesh Kumar, Executive Engineer, DEMS, West Zone of South Municipal Corporation agrees that the workers are not equipped to handle this type of municipal waste and a system should be developed for its proper disposal.

Another category of waste is hazardous waste like battery cells, cleaning fuel and pesticides which can cause danger to health or environment. The civic agencies say they have installed collection centres for dumping hazardous waste at some areas but hardly anyone comes there.

However, segregation by residents (if any) will only work when the corporations have a complete door-to-door waste collection system and waste pickups have separate containers for dry and wet waste.

For example, the south-western zone doesn’t have any door-to-door collection service and instead relies on “street collection”, in which sanitation workers take rounds of different localities and collect waste from the streets.

Despite the indifference towards segregation, there are some shining examples of local communities or efforts by NGOs. 

Chintan’s ‘Safai Sena’ project is one such example. The NGO has tied up with “bulk generators” of waste such as the Navy headquartes and the Taj Group. Their ‘safai sena’, or the sanitation workers, take their waste to ‘material recovery units’ set up at three different sites in Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and near New Delhi Railway Station.

The workers segregate the waste into wet and dry at the units and process it further accordingly. Though the NGO agrees that source segregation is not happening even in this case, they say at least it is happening at the second step.

“If source segregation is not possible, the MCDs should clean the dhalaos, and transform them into small material recovery facilities where segregation can take place,” Francesco says.

Another enterprising example which can be emulated by other localities in Delhi is of the residents’ welfare association of D block in Vasant Vihar where residents with the help of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, recently launched a composting facility at Shaheed Raj Guru Park.

Here, household green waste will be converted into compost to make manure to be used in the park, cutting down the amount of trash that goes to garbage dumps by 75 per cent.

Francesco says, “The attitude of people towards waste as being something untouchable should change. We can’t completely blame the municipal authorities and put all the onus on them.”