Small processing units may help streamline waste disposal system

The sorry state of city’s waste disposal mechanism can be gauged by the fact that dumping still continues at the three municipal corporation-controlled landfills at Bhalaswa, Okhla and Ghazipur even after they reached their saturation point in 2006.

To deal with issue of waste disposal, a new Narela-Bawana waste-to-energy plant, with a capacity to generate 13 MW electricity with 1,300 metric tonnes of garbage, has been set up. But the new landfill site is plagued by its own set of problems.

The three corporations are desperately in the need of space for dumping 9,500 metric tonnes of garbage being generated every day in the city. “If the DDA can’t give us a big piece of land for setting up a landfill site then it should at least provide us small spaces for setting up waste-processing units,” says Manish Gupta, Commissioner of South Delhi Municipal Corporation. “There are 104 wards under the south civic agency. If the DDA provides one acre land in each ward, I can solve the problem of waste disposal in the city,” he adds.

Environmentalists say resident welfare associations can also be roped in to develop a local composting unit that aims to create zero waste colonies where kitchen waste is composted and recyclable waste can be sold.

One such example is south Delhi’s Defence Colony where the RWA collects wet waste from 1,600 houses having 4,000 kitchens. The RWA dumps the waste in one of the six pits it has developed around a park in C Block.

 They only dump organic waste like rotten vegetables, fruit peel, eggshells, tea leaves and leftover food in the pits, which are four-foot deep and six feet in length. The RWA has been composting since 2005. The manure is sold for Rs 10 per kg in the market.

Landfill problems

The waste-to-energy plant in Okhla has had its own share of controversies. In January, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee issued a show cause notice to the plant seeking explanation for the uncontrolled emission of pollutants causing serious health concerns to nearby residents in violation of environment norms.

 But experts say landfill sites and waste to-energy plants are not the solution.“The government is investing money at the bottom of the pyramid. Waste-to-energy plants and landfill sites should be the last choice. All the waste is burnt in these plants using petrol and other fuel, in the process emitting carcinogenic gases,” says Chitra Mukherjee, Outreach and Advocacy Manager at an NGO Chintan.

“Methane gas, which has a tendency to catch fire, is generated in landfills. There are pockets at Ghazipur landfill site that are burnt. It not only harms the atmosphere but also is dangerous for people working there,” she adds. “Norway is one such example where there is ban on landfill sites.”

Chintan works in the field of solid waste management with the East Delhi Municipal Corporation in Kishan Kunj and Usmanpur, covering 25,000 households.

The NGO, which also caters to 5,000 households under the New Delhi Municipal Council, says there is an urgent need to generate awareness among people to segregate kitchen or wet waste from recyclable waste-like plastic wrappers and plastic bottles.

“So that the agencies involved in solid waste management can better dispose of garbage. It will save time, and recyclable waste won’t be dumped at landfills, which generates hazardous green gases,” Mukherjee says.

The solid waste management process in the city should involve ragpickers as they are on the lookout for recyclable waste.

“They should be allowed to collect door-to-door garbage as they make money by selling plastic bottles and other non-degradable items. So they provide a huge help in the segregation process as the quantity of garbage is increasing day by day,” adds Mukherjee.