GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN SWM

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GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN SWM

• Almitra H Patel
• Member, Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste
  Management in
• Class 1 Cities in India
• almitrapatel_at_rediffmail.com
• www.almitrapatel.com

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CORRUPTION IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN SWM

• Doable low-cost technologies are ignored in
  favour of costliest options, in choice of both
  equipment and processing options.
• Buffer Zone is a statutory must around
  waste-processing and disposal sites. It is often
  not declared or arbitrarily reduced, to help land
  speculators to buy cheap, force closure of site
  and sell at inflated value.
• Compensate farmers falling in Buffer Zones.

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STRICT MONITORING OF WASTE - MANAGEMENT SITES
IS A MUST

• Compost plants awarded to private parties are not
  monitored, often on purpose.
• City pays them (and someone shares?) Tipping
  Fees to allow open-dumping waste transported by
  ULB to ULBs own land given on long lease at
  trivial cost.
• Tipping fees abroad are for return on massive
  capital investment in private land

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OPEN DUMPING OF MIXED WASTE INTO QUARRIES IS
DISASTROUS

• Leachate formed in anaerobic waste enters
  ground-water under pressure of 40ft head and
  cannot be captured for treated in unlined
  quarry-pits.
• That is why EU now bans all below-ground
  landfills and allows only land-hills where
  leachate will flow out at ground level for
  observation and capture.
• Fill quarries with debris first, then can manage
  waste-stabilising above it later.

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BIOREACTOR LANDFILLS ARE AGAINST MSW RULES

• Only inert waste and pre- post- composting
  rejects are allowed in landfills. Indias first
  attempt at it is now an open dump in a lined hole
  because of admin problems.
• Soil cover on open-dumped waste makes both
  unusable and un-recoverable, besides destroying a
  hill or field somewhere. Bio-mining will be
  useless with soil mixed in organic fraction after
  sieving.

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EXISTING OPEN DUMPS MUST BE IMPROVED AND
REMEDIATED

• Abandoning existing sites is not an option, it
  favours land-speculators.
• Bio-mining is the best option. It removes all
• material down to near-ground-level, leaving
• 15 rejects no methane-generating waste.
• At Gorai, 1 hectare of 12 meter height was
• cleared in 4 months for Rs 10 lacs, recovering
• land worth Rs 600/sft or Rs 28 crores/hectare

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BIOMINING OPTIONS

• Loosen top 6 of waste with cultivator,hand-
• pick out large wastes, heap into windrows.
• Add biocultures or old compost and turn as
• for fresh waste. Sieve out organic fraction.
• Malegaons Balwan garbage sorter leaves
• almost no waste behind gives clean plastics,
• clean fine organics, clean sand / gravel.
• Can start work at many points around dump.

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DONT CAP UNLINED OPEN DUMPS

• Landfill gases seep out from sides with
• disastrous results on health of electronics
• nearby residents, as seen at Mindspace
• Complex at Malad, Mumbai.
• Methane capture is max 55 even in best
• lined landfills. Plateau above 30o slope is only
• 1/3 rd area of base which biomining can give.
• Indian bio-mining needs carbon-credit recog-
• nition like forced air landfill mining.

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MUNICIPAL WASTE TO POWER IS A SCAM

• Thermodynamically unviable on low-calorie
• Indian waste,so burn technology disapproved
• by SAARC. 2 plants secretly used paddy-husk
• or ground-nut hulls. 33 non-starter MoUs.
• Biometh is okay. Even large-scale conversion
• of hotel waste to CBG Compressed BioGas at
• 10 below LPG is now viable with subsidy cap
• Biometh good for slaughter-wastes too.

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USE BIOGAS FOR HEAT, NOT POWER

• 75 energy is lost if heat energy is used to make
  steam to make electricity !
• Compost is waste-to-energy too, as it can halve
  the use of fossil-fuel-based chemical fertilisers
  at no extra cost.
• IPNM Integrated Plant Nutrient Mgt uses
• city compost along w chem-fert less water
• needed for crops strong roots less pesti-
• cide better fruit yield,colour,flavour,shelf-life

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Paddy, 6 wks after transplanting. Left plot
replaced 1/2 chemical fert with city compost at
no extra cost
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NEVER OUTSOURCE OVER 50 COLLECTION TRANSPORT

• Ensure healthy competition, avoid both union
• pressure and monopolistic private practices.
• Ramky is a disaster in Aurangabad
• Never give CollectionTransport Process-
• ingDisposal to same party without stringent
• city 3rd-party monitoring. A2Z is a scam in
• Kanpur. Shows 400 tpd recd but actuals are
• 40 tpd. Regular complaints in press, DTE etc.
• Blacklist such Cos so others do not suffer.

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CLUSTERS ARE WORST OPTION !

• They will be nobodys baby,just like Common
• Effluent Treatment Plants. Substandard
• waste will reach it, like Akbars milk hundi.
• Small Medium Towns now have advantage
• of manageable quantities of waste and many
• can easily become no-outside-dump cities
• with unmixed discards decentralised SWM.
• Villages resisting outside waste will force this

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• Two biobins 6x3x 2.5 high can take 40 kg wet
  waste in 300 Kochi apts.Waste is added daily,
  with bioculture or 5 old compost and turned
  daily with a three-prong fork. Compost ready in 1
  month. See www.cleancity.in
• 45 tpd mgt onsite in Kochi alone.

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Plastic in mixed waste is a major problem in
composting and needs very costly machinery to
remove
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BEST Door ToDoor COLLECTION IS PRIMARY cum
SECONDARY

• In Nasik, Madikeri etc a tractor stops every
• few houses to collect waste. In Suryapet, wet-
• dry wastes are transported clearly separate to
• waste-processing point. Ideal for Small/Med
• Towns. Further dry-waste separation is done
• outside vehicle at sorting and baling point.
• Pushcarts bins allow full sorting at doorstep

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BENEFITS OF DECENTRALISED SWM

• Savings in transport labour, diesel, repairs
• can pay for biobins on homes waived cess.
• Good onsite compost for residents and city.
• Fewer traffic jams, carbon emissions, no
• pollution of distant unmonitored spaces.
• Plan for dry waste sorting spaces DWSS in
• every Ward to accept ALL dry wastes, selling
• recyclables and baling low-value unwanteds.

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OPTIONS FOR UNWANTED PLASTICS

• Shred low-value plastics, laminates for
• Plastic Roads which should be mandatory
• within all ULB limits for far better road life.
• P2F Plastics To Fuel will soon become viable.
• Useful as AFRAlternate Fuel Resources in
• cement kilns to replace coal. Densify for use.
• Only PVC releases dioxins when burnt, phase out
  then ban short-life applications.

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MSW Rules only require BIOLOGICAL STABILISING of
wet waste.

• E.g. in windrows, with 4-6 weekly turnings.
  Compost plant is not required.
• Only needs parking-lot discipline, with sincere
• officer to ensure waste is unloaded in rows.
• Use wastewater for composting, not virgin
  groundwater if avoidable.
• Give stabilised waste to farmers to get space.

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COMPACTORS ARE TOTALLY UNSUITABLE FOR 2dy
TRANSPORT

• Compacting dry waste makes it unsortable and
  unusable for the recycling trade
• Compacted wet waste is mostly incompress-ible and
  turns anaerobic and smelly
• Matching vehicle design for primary-to-
• secondary waste transfer remains a challenge
• and leads to compactor use only because
• they can be loaded at ground level.
• Decentralised SWM avoids this need.

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ADMINISTRATIVE POLITICAL WILL is ABSOLUTELY
NECESSARY FOR SUCCESSFUL SWM

• Technology is never the problem, solutions at all
  scales of operation are available.
• Payment-by-weight encourages mixing of debris and
  silt into household waste, making all unusable.
  So pay by household served, or by volume-adjusted
  wt of max 0.5 ton per cubic meter of vehicle
  capacity.

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BEGIN AWARENESS TRG IN ULB

• Awareness for PKs / SKs and their maistrys
• / supervisors on SEPARATE TRANSPORT of
• dry waste, pure wet waste, mixed-wet waste.
• Citizens cooperate fast whhen they see this.
• Give new councillors MLAs a good SWM briefing
  to help them take sound decisions.
• Give maistrys upwards imprest 1 days pay for
  rapid response in the field.