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Today, in the era of rapid urbanisation, cities seem inclined towards consuming more and more of different goods, over the years. There is a lot of waste that is generated as a result of different processes that these products go through, starting from production to consumption. Managing this waste is quickly becoming a complex problem.

We usually look at cities in the Global North as clean cities. In those countries, the major chunk of the produced waste is dry waste (60 to 70 percent). In India, the share for the same falls to 30 to 35 percent, while the bulk of daily waste comes from wet waste (more than 55 percent). That is the main reason why waste management policies cities in the Global North cannot

Waste Management and Governance Systems: An Overview ANEESH

LAVALEKAR (Batch 2015 - 17)

Clearing at intermediate facility

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SWaCH waste pickers, PMC

almost all the cities their coverage is limited only to the population from lower middle class to upper class. The lower classes still find these contraptions inaccessible. This is why there isn’t any widespread waste collection mechanism in any of the cities. This, as of now, makes it impossible to arrive at a solution. In a city like Pune, the big bins have been removed from the drop in spots, to facilitate door-to-door collection. That is why one can see unattended heaps of wastes at different locations in the city.

In communication issues, the chief problem is the relationship between the collector and the residents. The collectors, by virtue of not being municipal employees, do not hold any powers. Thus, one cannot be assured that these workers will always be treated honourably. This job for common people is not a dignified one. Thus, the treatment of these collectors tends to be dismissive and disrespectful in many cases. Normally they are looked down as just poor rag pickers. We as citizens fail to understand the importance of their job and the role they play in the whole chain. This is one of the chief reasons why this profession faces a high turnover rate, as the workers tend to shift to a better livelihood as soon as they get a chance. This is clearly evident in the inconsistent performance of the system.

be directly applied in India. Technically, the responsibility of waste management is with the governing bodies in India. For that, the central government has recently issued a new set of rules in 2016.

In the municipal corporations of big cities, waste management can be roughly divided in three phases, namely collection, transportation and treatment. Most of the corporations take care of the collection and transportation phases, though the methods may differ from place to place. As an example, in Pune city collection is done by SWaCH and transportation is overseen by the municipality itself whereas in Bengaluru, Hasirudala and other such NGOs look into the collection while the transportation is handled by a private player named Ramkay. Here, the government acts as a mediator and not as a facilitator. Now we will see what the problems can be in each of the phases.

CollectionIn these cities, small contraptions such as hand-carts are used for door-to-door waste collection. Normally, the wet and dry waste is segregated at this stage only. The major issues in collection are of two types: technical and communicative. The technical issues cover issues such as outreach of these contraptions. Even today, in

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Leachate that can be toxic

TransportationTransportation mainly consists of the process of taking waste from the collection centres to the treatment centres. The issues here are chiefly technical. Although the system that we have is fairly modernized, it still lacks some essential facilities (e.g. two different compartments for storing wet and dry waste separately.). This is where we lose ground that we gain in the phase of collection. The enormous size of the transportation vehicles is also a major problem. Firstly, this tends to worsen the traffic congestion during crunch hours as these vehicles unreasonably take up a lot of space. Secondly, some collection centres get deemed out of coverage as these vehicles fail to reach them.

TreatmentIn India, till date, there are no designated methods of treatment. Landfilling is the treatment method that is most widely used. But, due to lack of proper services, they cannot be managed and facilitated. Deonar of Mumbai, Uruli Devachi of Pune and Mavallipura of Bengaluru are prime examples of this. The situation everywhere is the same. The garbage trucks from the respective cities come to the aforementioned landfill sites and are just emptied, creating heaps of unsegregated

garbage. Although there is a system to sort the waste and recover valuables, at some places, it is highly unorganised, and covers a very minute portion. Thus, landfills are clearly inadequate. In addition, the open decomposition of waste not only poses a threat to the environment around, but the leachate that flows out of the dumps and into the ground also contaminates the groundwater aquifers and the adjacent farmlands.

There have been plans to generate compost (Pune has 15 designated decentralised biogas and compost plants, out of which most are dysfunctional for a variety of reasons; Bengaluru has a centralised compost manufacturing plant that operates at 30 percent of its capacity) and energy at different levels in the aforementioned cities. These have mostly failed. The chief reasons behind their failure is a mix of limitations and torpidity on the part of the state, unwillingness of the private sector to get engaged and lack of clarity and awareness in society.

What Lies Ahead?Just because the experiments till date have failed, it does not mean that there is no solution to the issue of waste management. A lack of coordination and synchronization can be seen

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in the efforts that were made till date. There have been discrete efforts of management of organic waste by different people in different cities. These have not been popularised, and as a first step a platform can be provided so that their positive experiences can be brought to the fore. The state should encourage such efforts by the citizens and make certain things mandatory to ensure citizen participation. As an example we can look at enforcement of strong segregation rules since February 2016 by Bengaluru’s municipal body. Similarly, the Pune municipal corporation has made it mandatory for every new construction in its jurisdiction to have its’ own organic waste treatment facility. Also the older constructions that decide to build one are entitled to a discount on property tax. Big corporate bodies can possibly be made to commit a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds in the waste management system of the city (or cities) where they are situated. Governing bodies should focus on synchronization and co-ordination of these efforts. There should not be any disruptive interference from their end.

Additionally, we observe that many companies have revamped packaging methods of their goods to make them look more attractive. New packaging has by default resulted in an

increased amount of waste. These companies are not willing to take responsibility for this additional waste. It is their staunch belief and expectation that the consumer should be held responsible for its disposal. Doing away with such a responsibility is totally wrong and absurd from an institutional angle. Just because there is no complementary rules or legislations that could address this, no infrastructure can be created to tackle this matter. As a solution to this, efforts are being put in to bring in the framework of EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility). If such a framework is brought about, it will be the producers’ responsibility to manage the packaging waste, which might arrest the creation of packaging waste in the first place.

Many such efforts are being currently made all around us. If someone wants to know about them in detail, they could visit the websites of Hasirudala, or Two Bin One Bag, that work in Bengaluru, or Pune based organisations such as SWaCH or Rudra Envirotech.