Reaffirm your commitment to the Mother Earth

This day -April 22, has been designated as Earth Day. What is a better way to reaffirm our commitment to the Mother Earth than to adopt the Green Hobby of 'Home Composting'? It is the best and most humble form of giving back to the Mother Earth. So do not let your organics go waste, convert them into manure and use it for nurturing saplings, plants and trees.

For more details on home composting, visit our website www.green-ensys.org.

Sincerely
Asit NEMA

  

How Can Waste Pay for Itself ?

Our policy makers are still holding on to the line that the "waste should pay for itself" ! It is amazing that after several years of no compliance of the MSW Rules and after several treatment plants having been closed for a variety of reasons, we are expecting that the treatment plants will convert the garbage into gold. The two terms/ phrases 'Waste' and 'Pay for itself' are contradictory and therefore the sentence "Waste should pay for itself' becomes an interesting oxymoron ! If it were to pay for itself, it would no longer be called 'waste', and people will not discard it at all. Unfortunately due to the poetic imagination of some, 'waste' is being termed 'resource', while the reality is that waste is some thing which has lost its purpose, use and value for its owner and therefore it has been discarded. For the rag picker and Kabariwala it may have some residual value, but there is a limit to which one can stretch this argument and decide not to build appropriate solutions comprising, among others, sanitary landfills.

Considering the growing mounds of garbage across the length and breadth of the country, it is time we realise that waste will not pay for itself, but we have to pay to get rid of it. 

Romanticizing with municipal solid waste

Recognising the potential threat to the environment and public health, the HonorableSupreme Court of India intervened and effected enactment of  Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 in the year 2000. At that point of time the Court directed 40 Class-I cities to clean up in 3 years. However in 2013, after 13 years of introducing the Rules and after having spent considerable resources in setting up solid waste treatment plants, we are no where close to the desired state. Officially we do not know how many Class-I cities are in a position to  claim compliance with the MSW Rules, 2000 and how many treatment plants are working effectively. The fact is that not a single municipality is in position to claim full compliance with the Rules and not a single treatment plant across the country is working satisfactorily. Another fact is that across the length and breadth of the country we do not have a single well designed and operating sanitary landfill site in place. Apparently a considerable investment has been made in potentially risky treatment plants but no significant efforts have been put in place to create landfill infrastructure.

It appears that we have been romanticising with the waste for far too long. Instead of recognising the threat to public health and that of the animals (please watch this gut wrenching video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SifRIYqHfcY to find out what happens to our holy cows and how the society is indifferent and apathetic to the plight of the docile and sacred animal) we have been aiming to convert our garbage into gold - 'waste to wealth' or 'waste to energy' and not realising that it does not happen on its own. We have been using these beautiful phrases like 'Waste is not a waste, but a resource at the wrong place';  'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle'; 'Source segregation'; 'Resource Recovery', etc....But we have not been able to show that by use of these polemics we have even a single city in the country which can claim to have achieved full compliance with the Rules. It appears that we are Romanticising with the Waste for far too long and using these beautiful phrases as excuses for not taking the serious measures of creating most reliable infrastructure of sanitary landfills or mass burn plants.

We must remember that "Waste is something which has lost its purpose, use and value to the owner" (Mataki 2010) and once something has reached its end of life it deserves only two measures - either a dignified cremation or a dignified burial. In the context of solid waste management dignified cremation means mass burn with state of the art emission control system and dignified burial means sanitary landfilling. Municipalities have to take the responsibility of creating and effectively operating these infrastructures at their own costs without expecting private players to give a Mida's touch and convert their garbage into gold. Waste loads are rising rapidly in line with the living standards of the urban population and it is not possible to address the challenges with these nice sounding business as usual approaches. 

Kerala dumps its waste, does not collect it - Indian Express

On July 5th Indian Express came out with a story on the pathetic situation of municipal solid waste management across the state of Kerala (see the link below):

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kerala-dumps-its-waste-does-not-collect-it/970383/0

It is indeed a very sorry state of affairs. For a problem of industrial dimensions, quacks are still chest beating on source segregation and decentralized solutions and activists are offering their hair-brained ideas on biogas and rag pickers, etc.. Some are hoping that the army of rag pickers will solve the problem! Its like going to traditional healers specialising in exhorcism while we have a full blown cardiac problem on hand (and there are no qualified cardiac surgeons around) !!  (whatever happened to 'Mother India needing organic carbon' paradigm!!). No wonder 'God's own country' is now finding itself buried under a mountain of trash. (BTW isn't it that the term 'God's own country' was coined by the party that professes atheism!?). 

Remember what we diagnosed back in 2006 ?! Wonder if you figure out that its all coming true after couple of thousand crores down the drain - The Thiruannanthpuram plant has been officially closed down, all the three plants in Vishakhapattanam have been shut down permanently, all the 10 odd plants constructed under the 'Air Force Station' scheme of the MoUD have closed or malfunctioning, and numerous others - of which I lose track !!

While we tried to convince the community, but we were shot down!! There was expectation that some day a PPP player with Midas touch will come and will convert all our trash into Gold (recently heard a senior IAS officer heading a 6 million + ULB claiming that trash is their asset !! see the previous post) !! Unfortunately the PPP market is now seeing new levels of aggressive bidding with unsustainably low tipping fee quotations !! Developers are wondering whether they can pull it off in the long run !! Operators themselves are wondering when they would be forced to close down operations. We are hoping that there will light some day ! Until then ....

God Bless

Recently during a discussion in the context of payment of tipping/gate fee to operators of MSW treatment plants, it was very interesting to hear a very senior municipal official say that "solid waste is our asset". My reaction to this was "Do they consider their open dumps of waste as fixed deposits?"

Our municipalities are still hoping that some day a private operator will provide Mida's touch and convert their MSW into gold ! With this as the over-riding paradigm, it is very difficult to help them realise the need for payment of gate fee to the operator in lieu of the essential service being rendered by the latter for (a) reducing waste volumes (b) rendering it safe for disposal into a landfill, and above all (c) assisting the former in discharging their constitutional responsibilities for protection of environment and public health.

With the concerns raised by the Hon. Minister of Urban Development recently on sustainability of MSW and sewage treatment plants, let's hope that we will soon hear the ULBs taking a call on this difficult issue.

It is interesting to note that some people at pretty high levels still consider solid waste management to be just 'brooming the streets' ! No wonder we miss the point and find ourselves in the present situation as seen across the entire urban India.

Wonder when the domain of MSW will be recognised as an operation involving 3 M - Material, Man and Machine and when sound industrial management principales for optimum performance on all the three fronts will be adopted ? Let's not forget that the bottom line is optimising the finances involved in capex and opex and deliver an acceptable level of service to the users/ customers.

Radioactive waste at a scrap dealer shop

Recently radioactive waste from Delhi University found its way to a scrap shop and the owner and some workers got exposed. This week one of them has died. This is not an isolated case, as reports say that recycled steel exported from India has been found to contain traces of Cobalt-60.

The issue is when highly learned scholars and medical practitioners can not be relied to segregate the certified hazardous waste then how do we expect humble housewives and maid servents across the country to segregate nasty banana peel and other food waste (collectively called biodegradable or 'green waste') from the rest of the household waste day-in and day-out ? MSW Rules, 2000 have embraced this paradigm of source segregation, however the reality is far too complex, given vast disparity in socio-economic and educational background as well as the level of awareness and concern. The high profile educated strata of the society is least concerned and for the underprivileged this issue is not on the radar. No wonder efforts to promote 'segregation of domestic waste' at source have failed across the country. Because it is simply not possible to overcome the overwhelming entropy that prevails in the country, look what the DU scholars did - they sold radioactive material along with scrap metal to generate some small money!!! despite stringent regulations.

Let's hope some positive lessons will be drawn from this incident and the ambition of source segregation of household waste and resource recovery from rotting stuff will be toned down. Because like the radioactive waste, MIXED MSW also deserves to be only given a degnified burial in a sanitary landfill. Otherwise like the gama rays that come out of the former, MSW when disposed of openly will continue to release lethal viruses and bacteria and jeopardise public health - yours and mine.

Of course an easier option for domestic kitchen waste is always there - just promote home composting !! That is the most sustainable Earth Friendly practice.