Introduction
Sunday afternoon is for relaxation. You are sitting in the balcony, basking in the fresh sunlight, when suddenly a high pitched voice echoes across the streets: ‘Kabadiwala!’ You get up and ruffle through the collected pile of old newspapers hoping to get a good deal out of the trash collector.
It is a scene quite common in North Indian households, because the raddi and the kabad from every domestic house is collected (usually on the weekends) by local kabadiwalas who depend on this job for a living. Everyday wet and dry waste is packed up in black polybags and kept at the appointed places. The daily waste picker comes in his cart, van, truck, rickshaw, or even on foot, to haul it away.
At this point, it is fair to wonder – where does all the waste go? Does this waste get sorted, dumped, recycled, and treated property? What about the sanitary and hygienic working conditions of the employees? Are they even proper employees? Also, what about the mounting pile of E-waste that’s gathering dust in your drawers. What about the old cables, mouse, phones, smartphones, computer screen, or even refrigerators? Where do they all go?
Condition Of Indian Waste Management
India produces 62 million tonnes of waste annually, and the amount is growing each year. Rapid urbanization and heavy consumption patterns have accelerated the rate of waste production in the country. The problem in the waste management keeps mounting up posing risk to human health, environment, and wildlife.
A major portion of waste streams coming from the domestic sectors are handled by the informal sectors including waste pickers or the rag pickers. The employees mostly work without protective gear like gloves, boots, masks, or equipment – resorting to bare hands to manage and sort the trash. Furthermore, the collected waste is processed in a primitive or hazardous manner. It is burnt in open air, dumped in water or unsanitary landfills from where it harms the environment and life.
These landfills can be viewed at the edge of major cities like Delhi where their hill sized sides are littered with multicolored plastics lying amidst the stench of the rotting biodegradable waste. A large flock of crows often compliments the scenery. Litteread waste can also be seen spread along the paths, floating in drainages, dumped all around trash sites, and found at any random place in the country. Often cows, dogs, cats, and other stray animals in the city can be found scavenging the trash to look for nutritious meals but plastic wrappers threaten to choke them.
Who Is Responsible For Waste Management In India?
Waste management in India is handled by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change. The basic goal is to ensure proper treatment, recycling, and disposal of waste generated during the entire cycle of production, transportation, handling, disposal etc. It is the nodal point within the Ministry for management of chemical emergencies and hazardous substances. It also follows international protocols like Basel Convention, Rotterdam Convention, Stockholm Convention, and Minamata Convention.
It is one of the only ministries to acknowledge and work with the unorganized sector including the daily waste picker and rag picker into the operation. However, it also recognizes the multiple problems, failures, and scope for modifications in the management system for better disposal of waste. Currently, more than 1/3rd of the waste remains untreated and blends with toxic waste streams to create health hazards for the entire nation, but especially to vulnerable communities. Recognizing the scale, complexity, toxicity, and urgency of the problem, the ministry has adopted various plans, schemes, and strategies to upgrade the waste management system in India.
Currently, the [policy] is in effect, according to which certain rules and guidelines are followed which involve – Segregation of waste on domestic level into biodegradable, non biodegradable, and toxic/hazardous waste. [Other rules are as follows and can be viewed here.]
Why Is Waste Management Important?
Toxic waste can even function as a form of silent epidemic in India. The clogged drainage, choked naalis, hill sized landfills, plastic filled rivers, and littered roads all across the country pose serious health risks to people, wildlife, and the environment. Workers and laborers employed in the sector are at the epicenter of this threat drawing attention to the unsanitary and non-humanitarian working conditions and disrespect.
Solid Waste Management (SWM) in India is a serious problem in India, with rules and protocols not being able to cope with the vast amount of waste streams generated from all over the country. Segregation of biodegradable waste from dry waste is essential for resource efficiency, and the proper disposal of toxic waste is rudimentary for human,wildlife, and environmental protection. Unfortunately, all three types of waste end up adding to the problem demanding urgency, awareness, initiatives, innovations, funding, government support and civic cooperation in solving the crisis.
Seelampur: Case In Point
Everyday domestic waste finds itself wrapped up in black plastic bags and dumped in landfills or processed at treatment sites. However, E-waste in India does not share the waste.
India is the world’s 3rd largest producer of e-waste amounting to ~ 3 million tonnes annually. The numbers are projected to increase rapidly by the end of the decade bringing attention to the threat of toxic hazards spreading in the environment.
According to a report, the boom in the Information & Technology sector coupled with urbanized consumption patterns has triggered an unprecedented increase in electronic devices and objects in everyday household and large scale industries alike. More and more people end up buying things like smartphones, computer screens, and television, and rapidly shift to the latest technology discarding the older items. This e-waste circulates and blends with other waste streams ending up at landfills.
E waste in India is often processed informally, resulting in the release of toxicants in the environment. Furthermore, valuable and finite resources embedded in the device are forever lost due to the unorganized method of collection and disposal. These old devices and e-waste contain lead, [x] elements whose reaction with the environment result in serious health hazards. The Trafalgar incident of 2006 highlights the political and disastrous consequence of dumping hazardous waste in human inhabited areas.
The culmination of the unorganized sector, improper management, hazardous working condition, and the rising pile of waste and e-waste can be perfectly observed in a small town in Delhi called Seelampur.
Famous for its Gully. No 4 where’s housed the piles, hills, mountains, and factories of dumped e-waste, this site is the source for more than 50,000 daily wage earners to gather their income. Men, women, and children can be found engaged in the segregation of metals like copper, scavenging through the trash to find resellable devices, and burning toxic lead metal in open air.
They sport no masks, gloves, glasses, or equipments necessary to execute the task. Furthermore, they lack the resources and knowledge to carry out the disposal of the toxic e-waste in appropriate manners. More often than not, all the people work in appalling conditions risking their lives on a daily basis and also harming the environment on a massive level.
Featured in the 12th chapter of NCERT English textbook (published in [2005]), the conditions on Seemapur have barely improved, if not deteriorated. The waste yard, employees, and mounting pile of waste all reveal the income generating potential of the sector and demand urgent response from the ministry to improve working conditions, introduce advanced waste management system, and form coalition with innovative entities to solve the problem.
Conclusion – Policies, Civic Education, and Innovation
The condition of waste management in the country is not up to the mark, but there are many areas where growth and development can bring positive results and a cleaner environment.
Economic models like the circular economy along with initiatives like the ESR can reintroduce the waste stream into the economy, enhancing the cumulative value of each item, and giving more incentives to industries and companies to optimize resource efficiency.
Governmental support coupled with International cooperation and creation of well implemented policies and regulations can systematize the entire process, organizing the sector to be well equipped in dealing with daily, monthly, and annual challenges. Furthermore, research, scientific advancement, and technological innovation can convert industry from endless waste generating field into a promising economic venture capable of cleansing the environment, generating jobs and income, and prompting sustainable solutions.
The Waste management crisis demands urgency and attention from every individual of the community. It is not just a governmental problem, but ranges from house to house, and invites civic inputs, responsibilities, duties, and cooperation. Awareness, education, and planned action towards development of better waste management systems can bring about positive and healthy change all over the country and globe. Thus, waste management is a responsibility of every individual.
