On
1.
Solid waste comprises
of all the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally
solid and that are discarded as useless or unwanted. Solid waste consists of highly heterogeneous mass of
discarded materials from commercial, industrial, agricultural and mining
activities. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is generally consist of non-hazardous
components but sometimes hazardous too such as product packaging, waste cloths,
glass and bottles, newspapers, paints, batteries, industrial dust, ash, tyres,
metal cans and containers, dead animals, medical waste, abandoned vehicles,
insulations, conduits and including sewage and sludge comprising all toxic
wastewater and night soils etc. The present generation of Indian MSW is ranged
from 100-500g/person respectively in small and large town. Among it only 13-20%
is recyclable content.
2.
Seeing the scenario of
increase in waste generation, improper utilisation and disposal of waste in the
country the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has developed “the Municipal
Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000”, which states that
“Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is commercial and residential wastes generated in
a municipal or notified areas in either solid or semi-solid form excluding
industrial hazardous wastes but including treated bio-medical wastes. These
solid wastes are generally disposed off in a low lying area called sanitary
landfill areas by the municipal authorities. These rules have specified many
compliance for the management of solid waste for the State Committee and
Pollution Board, which includes proper segregation of solid waste into
biodegradable waste, recyclable and others i.e., non-recyclable wastes in
stored in coloured bins (Green for biodegradable waste, blue for
non-biodegradable waste and black for hazardous waste) at the source of
generation and properly treated, recycled and disposed to landfill areas.
3.
For estimating
effective management of solid waste and to ensure better human health and
safety, this project has been carried out for the four cities in India i.e.,
Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Dehradun, representing the small, medium and large cities in India. This study
has its importance as mentioned in “State of the Environment (2001) for India”
that “no State/Nation wise inventorisation available at the city levels to
identify and quantify municipal waste and biomedical waste except in few
places. Preparation of any waste management plan becomes difficult without such
inventories”. This project is an initiation to undertake such a challenging job
for the Indian cities.
4.
Hence, this project is
aimed to collect primary and secondary data for quality, quantity and
categorisation of municipal solid waste generated from these cities and also
analysed the waste management scenarios in these cities. This is to make
strategy for environmental management
for sustainable development. Municipal solid waste samples from landfill areas
were collected and analysed for heavy metals to understand the toxicity of
urban solid waste in these cities. This can also estimate the pollution it
likely to cause to the ground and surface water in and around that area.
Samples were collected twice from all these four cities in April- July 2002 and
September 2002- February 2003 respectively (pre and post monsoon).
5. The secondary data was collected on quantity of waste generation, physical characterization and categorization of municipal solid waste from these cities. For the primary data analysis was done on the collected municipal solid waste samples and some parameters were studied were as pH, EC, Moisture Contents, Total Carbon, Inorganic Carbon, Organic Carbon, Total Sulphur, Inorganic Sulphur, Organic Sulphur, Total Nitrogen, Total Phosphorus, C/N ration and heavy metals like Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Nickel (Ni), Chromium (Cr), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and toxic metals like Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg) in pre and post-monsoon samples in all four cities.
6.
The secondary data
showed that solid waste gathered from Chennai is 3000 tons/day, followed by
Bangalore city 2200 tons/day, then Ahmedabad 1200 tons/day and Dehradun as 200
tons/day. Whereas, the organic matter in municipal solid waste was found in
order of Bangalore > Ahmedabad > Dehradun then Chennai. Chennai has been
reported with lesser organic matter might be due to higher decomposition of
solid waste due to high temperature and followed by Dehradun, as most of the organic part of solid waste is utilised
as a manure in kitchen garden. The C/N ration of 20-40 is best to be made
compost {Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000}. The
average value of C/N ration for premonsoon and postmonsoon samples of Ahmedabad
city estimated by experimented samples in laboratory as 11, for Bangalore city
as 30, for Chennai city 21, for Dehradun city 21. This can be inferred that
Bangalore, Chennai and Dehradun samples are good for composting. The pH value
for municipal solid waste should be 5.5-8.5, according to Municipal Solid Waste
(Management and Handling) Rules 2000. Comparing these values only Ahmedabad was
found with higher pH value then recommended so it needs to process properly
before composting.
7. On comparing the metals concentration with recommended values, it has been found that Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Fe and Mn were within range. The average values of Pb and Cd were observed above 243 and 14 mg/Kg instead of 100 and 5 mg/Kg (recommended value) for premonsoon and postmonsoon samples and average value of Hg was observed as 2.5 mg/Kg for Chennai city instead of 0.15 mg/Kg recommended value so it can be concluded that in Chennai city some industrial be dumped in landfill areas.
8. On analysing the waste management scenario in these cities, few suggestions or recommendation made are given below. This should also keep in mind that the proper disposal of urban solid waste is not only necessary for the preservation and improvement of public health but it has an immense potential for resource recovery.
9. These cities were observed with solid waste dumps at the sides of the roads and in dhalaos, so there is need to study municipal solid waste collection, storage, transportation, segregation and disposal scenario from cradle to grave so that cities can be kept clean. This could be kept in mind that increase in population in the city would increase the quantity of solid waste generation and the existing set up needs to improve to manage the increased solid waste generation in the city. Thus, the policy maker and planners should take care of growth in municipal solid waste in their mind, while planning for its management.
10.
The solid waste should be disposed in appropriate place
or landfill site. Criteria for landfill site selection and its development
should be carefully adopted. The risk of the contamination of groundwater and
surface water due to leachate generation and surface runoff from landfills
should be checked. The factors like toxicity of waste, volume of the
contaminant in it, the geologic medium underlying the site, the hydrologic
conditions in the area and water body near dumping site should be properly
investigated. We observed that dumping sites/sanitary landfill sites in
Ahmedabad and Dehradun cities are near to river systems, which might results in
the surface and ground water contamination. In Ahmedabad, Sabarmati river flows
within the 3 Km distance from Pirana landfill site and is surrounded by
agricultural areas. Similarly, in Dehradun, Rispana River is close to present
dumping site and there are all chances of contamination of river water there.
It is necessary to insure that dumping sites should not be present near water
system and topography should be such that contaminants should not penetrate in
ground water.
11.
It is necessary to study the leachate generation from
dumped solid waste, as heavy metals from municipal solid waste could
contaminate ground water. There are some models available which can be applied
for analysing the movement of heavy metals to ground water or surface water
around the landfill area like Darcy’s law.
To apply this model or law is these cities, we have to do lots more
survey for it.
12.
In these cities, the effective waste management system
should be followed, which includes resource recovery through sorting and
recycling i.e., recovery of materials such as paper, glass, metals or recovery
of energy through biological, thermal or other processes. Waste transformation
leads to reduction in volume and toxicity, which helps in safe and sustainable
disposal in landfills.
13.
The practice of minimisation of generation of solid
waste needs in the studied cities. For solid waste management, minimisation of
waste generation plays key rules. This can only be possible either educating
people about it like using less of plastics or reduce waste disposal by
recovering maximum possible recyclable materials from it.
14.
The municipal solid waste should be segregated into
organic, inorganic, recyclable and hazardous waste, which has not been observed
in Chennai and Dehradun cities. This has been recommended in Municipal Solid
Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. In Ahmedabad Excel Compost factory
is making compost out of some portion organic solid waste and similarly in
Bangalore KCDC and CEE utililising waste for compost. But Excel factory feels
that they are not getting proper customer to buy this compost and according to
them it is require to popularise this bio-compost.
15.
It has been observed that these sanitary landfill areas
are getting mixed municipal solid waste, whereas they do not have leachates
collection system and proper lining system. This is also recommended in
Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. The landfills
should have non-permeable lining system at the base and walls of waste disposal
area. The liner system should be 1.5 mm high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
geomembrane or equivalent of 90 cm of soil (clay or amended soil) having
permeability coefficient not greater than 1x10-7 cm/sec. The highest
level of water table should be at least two meter below the base of clay or
amended soil barrier layer.
16.
Beside lining, there is need to give modern approach to
sanitary landfill site like one can observe in European Countries. The
integrated sanitary landfill site could be constructed as given in project
proposal, which is not observed in India and also in these cities.
17.
Two alternatives can be considered for working out the
economic value for the solid waste disposal besides land filling of solid waste
for these cities, taking all the precaution to avoid environmental damages viz.
i. Composting – from organic portion of waste
ii. Incineration- for non-recyclable portion of waste
18. A system of penalty of administrative charges or special cleaning charges for those who litter the streets or cause nuisance on the streets may be introduced and power to punish offenders may be given to the local bodies.
19. There is need to bring all stakeholders i.e., municipal authority, development authority, community, NGO’s and waste collectors together to manage solid waste in the city environmentally and economically viable manner. This requires to create awareness about the environmental aspects and to develop sustainable solid waste management public practices to all stakeholders.