SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: ACHIEVING COMPLIANCE WITH MSW RULES

1. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: ACHIEVING COMPLIANCE WITH MSW RULES Mrs Almitra H Patel, MS MIT Member, Supreme Court Committee For Solid Waste Management almitrapatel@rediffmail.com

2. COMPLIANCE REQUIRES ONLY ADMINISTRATIVE WILL !!! Suryapet A P (pop. 1.03 lac) has Zero Waste in the town or for ultimate disposal through segregated door-to-door collection, composting + vermi and dry waste sorting, all with OWN staff. SEPARATE lifting of inerts (drain silt, debris). NO Govt funds, citizen payment or NGOs. SJSRY program for collection + transport.

3. A COMPLETE ROAD MAP IS AVAILABLE SINCE 1999 It is in the Supreme Court Committee Report on SWM in Class I Cities. (I can give reprints in English or a Hindi translation). The MSW Rules 2000 are largely based on this but apply to ALL ULBs (= pop. over 20,000).

4. OBJECTIVES OF SWM : 1 Keep waste off streets and drains ! Achieve a dustbin-free city through: • Daily doorstep collection • Of Wet waste, for • Bio-stabilising (+compost/vermi) • Preferably Decentralised, to • Prevent pollution outside ULBs.

5. TRANSPORT SAVINGS EASILY PAY FOR DECENTRALISED BIO-BINS TO BIOCULTURE-TREAT WET WASTES Replace open waste-points or dumper-placers or street dustbins with covered bio-bins. Can be paid for by free advertising rights to sponsors. Kochi has 2 bio-bins of 6’x3’x2.5’ high for every 100 households, served by Kudumbashree self-help groups: professional Waste Business. Mumbai’s ALMs replaced street open dumps or dumper-placers with bio-bins and pretty plants. Biotreatment services by an NGO.

6. OBJECTIVES OF SWM : 2 Separate Collection of Dry Waste (recyclables), weekly or fortnightly, preferably by Informal Sector. In each Ward, provide a space for daily purchase of PET bottles and other recyclables: cash counter for ragpickers. Working well in Bombay, Bangalore. Also keeps drains clean through dustbin adoption and drain adoption by rag-pickers: Contact Geetanjali Industries at jainj@rediffmail.com

7. SEPARATE COLLECTION OF INERTS: DRAIN SILT, ROAD DIGGINGS & DUST, DEBRIS & CONSTRUCTION WASTE USE productively: for plinth filling, Improving road shoulders, embankments. Hillside gully-plugging and check-dams to prevent mud runoff into town drains. Ravine-filling is safe and nuisance-free. Reward informants of night-dumping. Make architects accountable for disposal.

8. OBJECTIVES OF SWM : 3 NO BURNING of garbage or leaves. NO PESTICIDE USE on garbage (S.Court Order 28.7.1997 in WP 888/96). Try Bio-cultures to control odour and flies. Phenyle etc kills natural bio-degraders. Separate collection of garden waste, (compost locally), tree trimmings (for local fuelwood use) & dairy wastes (use as bioculture for waste stabilising).

9. HARDWARE REQUIRED : SMALL TOWNS: Tractor-trailers for direct door-to-door pick-up (e.g. Suryapet) but TWIN COMPARTMENTS A MUST, if Wet & Dry wastes are collected at the same time. MEDIUM TOWNS: Tipper trucks stop along roads (e.g. Nasik) to receive waste directly from homes & shops for onward transport to compost plant.

10. HARDWARE FOR LARGE CITIES: Door-to-door Primary Collection in handcarts, tricycles or autorickshaws (e.g. Cochin), all with liftable buckets/bins. Push-frames with second-hand barrels are cheaper than wheelbarrows. Dumper placers are least preferred option: Invites filth all around, covers missing. Attracts cows, dogs, street waste-picking/spills. Corpus Fund is a MUST for their costly repair and replacement. (Paint inside & bottoms with molten tar for corrosion resistance). Ditto for Street Sweeping machines, or system collapses.

11. MICRO-PLANNING REQUIRED : Wardwise Parking Spaces for tools & Primary Collection vehicles. GOOD Scheduling & Time Managemt for unloading Primary Collection vehicles directly into secondary transport, to avoid unloading any waste onto any public space even briefly.

12. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS DAILY Reporting, DAILY Analysis and DAILY CORRECTIVE ACTION on: SKs on duty Vehicles on road, number & time of trips Waste quantity collected, areawise. Paymt by weight invites mixing of heavy inerts, stones. Payment by volume is far better, saves cost. When & Where Unloaded: on-site staff a must ! Chennai & Vizag are good models for MIS

13. MODEL NOTIFICATIONS under MSW Rules Sch II (3) : “MERA AANGAN SAAF” for flood control through spotless drains: Every ground-floor occupier/owner (esp. in commercial areas) must ensure cleanliness of drain adjoining their property, including upto centre of road. Also service lanes if any. Polluter Pays charges for allTrade waste (hotels, hostels, shaadi baghs, shops, offices, banks, colleges, dairies) at SWM Cost (Indexed)

14. KEEP CONSTRUCTION WASTE OFF THE ROADS Notify monthly collection drives: e.g. Ward 1 every 1st of the month… Collect SEPARATELY surplus Sand, Stone, Bricks found on roads on that date without special permission, and stock for repair of schools etc. Sand must always be contained in a ring of bricks to prevent vehicles spreading / spilling it into drains. All raw mtl must be INSIDE plot after first centering is removed, otherwise daily “cleaning charges”.

15. TAKE-BACK RULES FOR HAZ WASTE Tubelights and fluorescents are worst. Sellers must take back for safe disposal. Also for those purchased for streetlights. Compulsory take-back by sellers or distributors of aerosol cans, esp of insecticides and pesticides. How can cities exercise such powers?

16. MONTHLY COLLECTION OF DOMESTIC HAZARDOUS WASTES Notify fixed day of month for pickup of Button Cells from shops for cameras, cell-phones, electricals, watches. Batteries drop-off at convenient stores. If no safe recycling, can immobilise in concrete block-making plants. Enforce Biomed Rules. Collect Sharps from clinics on notified schedule.

17. NOTIFY & ENFORCE BUFFER ZONE AROUND WASTE PROCESSING SITES Approved sites are precious as resistance to sites outside city limits is very strong. Involve locals in an Advisory Committee from Day One and keep them informed. Host Village MUST BENEFIT collectively: give roads, buses, more power or water, school/hospital; transit toll per garbage truck? Give 1 ton free compost per head per year or season to ensure good quality is produced without objections. REMOVE REJECTS !!

18. NO WASTE TO ENERGY SCHEMES ! SAARC’s Dhaka Declaration 2004 has resolved that burn technologies shall not be an option for urban solid waste. Supreme Court has frozen further funding for WTE in view of massive failures. Only SMALL biometh use on-site succeeds. Rajasthan needs to conserve ALL of its precious biomass thru Stabilisation.

19. WHY NO RDF WASTE-TO-ENERGY ? UNVIABLE: Our Indian waste has only 800-1000 kcal/kg, vs ~3600 reqd. Energy is lost in evaporating moisture, heating large ash & sand content, so no surplus energy available. So Hyd & Vijayawada use 90% paddy-husk, while municipal waste, accepted to get subsidy, piles up in stinking heaps around both plants. DANGEROUS: RDF from mixed Indian waste produces Dioxin on burning : from PVC in film, packaging, labels, bottle caps, vinyl, tubes.

20. WHAT ABOUT BIOMETHANATION? IMPOSSIBLE WITH HIGH INERTS. Can’t run a gobar-gas plant on 45% mud ! Never consider unless a city has 12-month record of separate collection and max 5-10% drain silt, road sweepings. SUCCESSFUL ON MICRO SCALE where biogas from canteen waste is used on-site in kitchen, not for power (max 30% efficiency of converting heat to power).

21. COMPOSTING SAVES ENERGY TOO Urea production needs both costly naptha and factory power to produce it. City compost use can save 50% of normal urea dose, and gives ~15% higher yield with ~30% less water need and less pesticides. But demand is v seasonal. “Biological processing for stabilisation of [biodegradable] wastes” is mandatory. Sieving it to sell as compost is not a must.

22. BIOSTABILISED URBAN WASTE CAN WORK WONDERS FOR RAJASTHAN : Use it to vegetate & stabilise moving sand-dunes, for wind-breaks and erosion control, and mandatory revegetation of mining spoils. Improve fertility & productivity of sandy soil. Retain soil moisture and reduce irrigation water needs and fights over water. Let India’s most popular Tourist State become also India’s first Model State for cleanliness.

23. DO NOT WAIT FOR PERFECT SOLUTIONS! STOP landfilling of mixed waste at once! Stop ’dozing & levelling untreated wastes. In the same spot, unload waste in rows, use JCB to form wind-rows (long heaps) and spray with composting bio-cultures or inoculums. This reduces volume fast, controls odour and flies, and offensive leachate formation. Heap gets very warm, this kills pathogens.

24. IMPROVE EXISTING DUMPS/’LANDFILLS’ The idea is to keep rainwater out and prevent it percolating through waste. Shape the area into a smooth convex pile with very gentle slope. No depressions where water can collect and seep in. On sloping ground, have a diversion trench uphill (like army tents) to keep out water. On lower side, have a collection trench and pit to collect runoff. RECIRCULATE LEACHATE onto the warm heap, to get clean water vapour. Solids are left behind in the stabilised waste.