Localised Space Allocation: The Simple Solution To Managing Our Ever-Growing Dumpyards

The NGT noted a significant gap in solid waste disposal, with 180 million tonnes of legacy waste remaining uncleared. Over half of the nearly Rs 80,000 crore fines were imposed on just four states: Tamil Nadu (Rs 15,419.71 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 12,000 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 9,688 crore), and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 5,000 crore).

These penalties have been added to the affidavits of state chief secretaries and NGT orders. In an October 2022 analysis, Down to Earth reported that a bench led by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goyal imposed fines of about Rs 30,000 crore on seven states within just five months (May-October 2022).

Central to this issue are the virtual mountains of legacy waste in our cities—under-treated waste dumped on barren or unused land parcels.

Why Can't We Collect, Process and Treat All This Waste?

In the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) 2020-2021 report, the most recent in the public realm, India's waste collection efficiency exceeds 60 per cent, with 47 per cent undergoing treatment, 20 percent directed to landfills, and 30 per cent unaccounted for.

This is only the overall picture but let's take a quick glance at what happens at each level especially collecting, sorting and treating and why do we lose out on so much of untreated waste at each level.

To learn more, we spoke to David, a BBMP waste collection worker who drives a 1-ton collection van across the city. "It all starts at the household level. How you store and dispose of your waste is crucial. Segregation is key, but most households don't do it. Residents only sort things with economic value to sell to scrap dealers. There's no incentive for segregating organic and other household waste. That's one of the biggest behavioral factors."

"As more unsegregated waste accumulates, it becomes harder to sort later as it moves from street to neighborhood to ward to zone, making it hazardous and almost impossible to treat properly. Every material has a different treatment process," he added.

But think about this: we only segregate waste if there is an economic value to it. That needs to change. Waste management should be independent of economic incentives for the ones who generate it. As most of the organic, biomedical and domestic waste in general do not hold value except items that sell in scrap, the segregation levels remain extremely low. 

To understand the collection and sorting a little more, we spoke to Akbar Ali from Hasirudala, who works with waste collection workers in Bangalore and Delhi.

“Collection to treatment can be done better. Before COVID, waste collection was door-to-door, and segregation was easily done in RWAs or gated societies with dedicated spaces. 

Post-COVID, the collection model changed. Now, collection workers must carry multiple bags if they want to segregate on the move. You can collect waste, but no space is allocated for segregation. This hurts segregation at the source. RWAs and most gated communities removed these spaces due to fears of disease,” he said.

Mountains of Waste Building Up

In Delhi, about 14,000 metric tons of waste are generated daily. Previously, 40-42 per cent of dry waste was picked up; now, it’s only 30-32 per cent. Without space for segregation, the waste just piles up and turns into mountains.

Swachh Bharat Mission deemed neighborhood-level segregation 'dhalavs' unhygienic, but now these places have become mini-dump yards. Swachh Bharat was supposed to make our cities clean, but look at the conditions of landfills like Ghazipur – the mountains of waste just keep growing.

Waste workers have one demand: proper spaces for segregating wste at society and ward levels. Allocating land for segregation will prevent the mountains of waste from increasing at this rate. Waste is increasing, and municipalities are employing more tools like waste-to-energy plants, which release poisonous gases. Simply giving land for segregation would reduce the need for increasing landfills.

Hasirudala put a phone in a waste picker’s pocket to track and the waste collection worker walked 18 km as they visited 300 houses. Delhi has 1 to 1.5 lakh waste pickers, according to government estimates. Think about how much money this saves the state in collection costs.

To understand more at the treatment level, The Secretariat spoke to Dev Patel from Excel Industries.

“We generate 7000 metric tonnes of waste but can only process 25-30 tonnes of it. We manage this small amount by sorting some waste, buying from ragpickers, or receiving a minuscule amount of separated organic waste from some neighborhoods. Due to the lack of segregation, we keep buying new machinery just to sort the waste," Dev said.

Treating and sorting are separate processes, and the worse the quality and mix of waste, the more expensive it is for waste composting and treatment companies, he explained.

“The problem doesn't end there. We have invested in and created plants that can treat 500 tonnes per day, but we are not able to run them at full capacity. Issues arise during treatment and disposal because the quality of waste doesn't meet the requirements," he added.

Opportunity For Making Fuel From Waste

There's a huge opportunity to create refuse-derived fuel from organic waste, but the high plastic content lowers the combustion efficiency of the final product.

Can cities keep up with increasing waste generation? For example, only 47 per cent of waste is treated on average. As cities get smaller, their capacity to treat waste also shrinks.

Increasingly a big chunk of urban waste comes from gig platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, and Amazon, making it harder for authorities to manage waste. We need to think about accountability and capacity building in this area.

Categorically, dump yards are not supposed to exist according to the Solid Waste Management rules of 2016; they are supposed to be landfill sites. These sites are scientifically designed and located to dispose of only inert waste, i.e., post-treatment waste. Clearing that out itself is a huge task.

A lot is at play across the whole waste management system, but let's bring back the focus to where it starts: the household level and the society level.

There is a need for segregation at the source and spaces that allow that to happen. This will bring more and more treatable waste to the treatment plant and is the only way to use the unused capacities of these plants and reduce the waste accumulating in our dump yards.