Thursday, August 13, 2015

Landfills: The good, the bad, and the trashy

Here is a link to an article by Linda Tufano of Waste Dive which attempts to dispel some misconceptions about sanitary landfills.

http://www.wastedive.com/news/landfills-the-good-the-bad-and-the-trashy/403880/ 

In India there appears to be strong opposition to the idea of sanitary landfill by the sons and daughters of the soil, under the perception that there is severe paucity of land, however not recognising that increasing affluence is leading to rising consumption pattern in the society and thereby increasing quantities of solid waste including construction debris and demolition waste. For instance my neighbour on the top floor decided to convert his perfectly fine DDA flat into a penthouse - demolishing all the internal walls and changing to granite/marble flooring (not bothering about inconvenience to others) and in the process generating significantly large quantities of CDD waste ! (MCD did not listen to our pleas!). Where did all this waste go? Evidently into an open dump on the back side of the colony !

The revised Draft MSW Rules, 2015 are also asking for treatment of MSW ad infinitum and ad nauseum without recognising the fundamental unsustainability of this paradigm; without recognising the impracticality of segregation in a highly disorganised society which is characterised by high level of indiscipline (open defecation, open urination, spitting, red light jumping and other minor and major traffic violations, etc....) and low level of  'education awareness, concern and commitment towards environment'. Wonder when our MSW Rules will be aligned to the socio-economic reality of the Indian society ? Or they will continue to be a copy of some of the developed societies e.g., Western Europe, Scandinavia and Japan, etc. - a result of some exposure visits and .....?

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