Waste Management

It has been a year since the launch of a bio-CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) plant in Chetpet by Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) in partnership with Srinivas Waste Management Solutions Pvt Ltd. Around 100 tons of vegetable and food waste from Koyambedu market and hotels are processed every day and converted into bio-CNG. This renewable source of energy is sold to the Gas Authority Of India Limited (GAIL) and various hotels whose reliance on conventional energy has drastically reduced as a result.  A similar plant at Madhavaram was inaugurated about six months ago but is yet to be functional as it…

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), has conducted the Swachh Survekshan survey annually for the past seven years. The survey assesses the cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation of India's urban local bodies (ULBs). The survey looks at the collection of waste, segregation at source, processing and disposal of waste and sustainable sanitation. While Chennai's performance has seen an improvement over the years, the city is far from meeting the criteria on parameters such as going binless, banning the use of plastic and achieving a reduction in the quantum of waste being landfilled. Reporting…

The sight of piles of waste strewn on roads, footpaths, underneath flyovers, lake beds, and other vacant areas has become so common for Bengalureans that most of us don’t even notice what it consists of. It is waste, but all waste is not the same. These piles comprise different types of waste. There is biodegradable waste, like food waste and paper, and non-biodegradable items, like plastics, metal, glass etc. However, a big volume consists of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, including concrete, stone debris, commodes, tiles etc. Have you wondered why this waste is dumped across the city and if…

Waste management in Chennai has been a problem that the city has struggled to solve over the years. With the launch of the new system of source segregation and emphasis on cleanliness as part of Singara Chennai 2.0, there was renewed hope that there will be cleaner streets. Unfortunately, the experience of the residents of my apartment complex in Anna Nagar has called into question how effective the recent efforts have been. At the heart of the issue is the placement of three garbage bins on our street and the scenes that ensued after.  Garbage bins moved near homes We…

In October 2022, the Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML), the company set up by BBMP for waste management, announced its decision to set up five new plants specifically to process construction and demolition waste. But does the city need five new plants? As one of the fastest growing cities in the country, Bengaluru is constantly being broken down and built up. This steady influx of roads, flyovers, pavements and buildings result in a considerable amount of waste being generated in the form of a variety of materials, including leftover cement, broken concrete, glass, wood, granite. Over 2,500 tonnes of…

Nazir Ahmed, a labourer, had bought a house in 1988 in the Achan area of Srinagar as land and home prices in the area were affordable for him then as compared to other areas of Srinagar. “When I shifted my belongings to the new house, I saw vehicles of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) disposing of garbage in an open area, just a few hundred meters away from my house,” recalls Nazir. Nazir did not think much of this at the time. But as time passed, the few truckloads of SMC laden with garbage from different areas of Srinagar and dumping…

On December 2nd, a performance audit report by the CAG of India on Solid Waste Management by Urban Local Bodies in Odisha got tabled in the state assembly. This CAG audit covered the five year period (April 2015 to March 2020) and was conducted with the objective to assess whether the planning of waste management in ULBs were effective, efficient and economic. The period under review is of interest to all the researchers concerned with the compliance of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, as Odisha state has been facing a legal battle with regard to compliance at National Green Tribunal,…

The phrase Singara Chennai has captured the imagination of many of us who have grown up in the city. I am one of many who have taken up the cause of improving Solid Waste Management (SWM) in Chennai. My key motivation to do so has been the desire to leave behind a beautiful, green and pristine city for the future generation without any filth, garbage or pollution. I have been a close observer of the SWM landscape in the city and the changes it has undergone in the past 20 years, ever since the first instance of roping in of…

It is a promise all three parties in the fray made - clearing Delhi’s landfills, the three main sites being Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla. Now it has fallen on the winner of Delhi's municipal elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), to fulfil that promise. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has specifically promised to get the three landfill sites cleared over the next five years; the first one to be done by 2024. Waste management overall, not just clearing the landfills, had figured prominently in the manifestos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress too. The latter had described the Ghazipur…

The usual suspects blamed for plastic pollution are littering, slums and a dysfunctional garbage collection system. But contrary to popular belief, even when waste makes it to landfills, it's not all that secure. Pollution from landfills accounts for 45% of the plastic - a whopping 4.1 million metric tonnes in 2015 - lost in the environment.  Mumbai's landfills are terrible offenders. A recent study, titled 'Risk of plastics losses to the environment from Indian landfills', and published in the Elsevier Journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling assessed the risk of plastic pollution posed by landfills in 496 urban Indian cities.  Mumbai topped the charts.…