India’s Solid Waste Data draws urgent attention
India generates 52.9 Million Ton per Annum (MTPA) of solid waste, out of which, only 46% is processed. Maharashtra generates maximum of 8,238,050 MTPA followed by Uttar Pradesh 6,132,000 MTPA and the NCT of Delhi 3,832,500 MTPA. Daman & Diu generates the least 11,680 MTPA of solid waste. Union Territory Chandigarh that generates 172,280 MTPA of solid wastes tops with the maximum 85% of processing, Dadra & Nagar Haveli processes 0% out of 12,775 MTPA of solid wastes. As per estimates by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) 0.18 MTPA of Bio-medical waste (BMW) is generated in the country, out of which 97% is treated. Further, 7.17 MTPA of hazardous waste is generated, out of which 91% is recycled or treated.
It is estimated that India generates nearly 12 MTPA of the Construction and Demolition (C&D) Wastes. In spite of the provision under the C&D Waste Management Rules, 2016 that makes it mandatory to procure 10–20% of the material in municipal and government contracts in order to encourage recycling and re-utilization of such wastes; such wastes are unutilized and unsafely dumped. India being reckoned as one of the top five e-waste producing nations is estimated to have generated nearly three million tonnes in 2018. According to an Assocham-KPMG analysis, industries are the major contributors, generating 70% of the e-waste while about 15% comes from the household. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is undertaking research and development projects for e-waste recycling and recovery. It has set up three demonstration or pilot projects. Demonstration plant at Bangalore on “Environmentally Sound Methods for Recovery of Metals from Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) — Phase II” operated by Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Hyderabad and E-Parisara, Bengaluru. The second pilot plant at National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur involving physical separation and chemical leaching methods for recycling/recovery of electronic waste. And demonstration plant at Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Bhubaneswar on converting plastics from e-waste to virgin master batch for use in value-added products. The process is capable of converting about 76% of waste plastic into the masterbatch. According to a study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) conducted in 60 major cities of India it was estimated that around 4059 Tonne per day of plastic waste is generated from these cities. Extrapolating this data to the entire country, it is estimated that around 25,940 Tonne of plastic waste per day is generated in the country. The range of plastic waste in the municipal solid waste varies from 3.10% to 12.47%. According to CPCB study, Chandigarh generates least and Surat leads the chart with a maximum generation of plastic wastes. The CPCB in its guidelines for collection, segregation & disposal of plastic waste has prescribed for technology solutions including utilization of plastic waste in road construction, coprocessing in Cement Kilns, conversion of plastic waste into liquid RDF (Oil) and disposal of plastic waste through Plasma Pyrolysis Technology. Although it is not exactly seen in the ground, many State Governments have notified complete or partial ban on the use of plastic carry bags and single-use plastic.15 States and 4 UTs have issued notifications/orders for a blanket ban on plastic carry bags and/or other single-use plastic items. In an interesting move, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has banned the use of single-use plastic items at 16 of its airports across the country. The airports declared on 7th January 2019 as single use-plastic free are: Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Indore, Kolkata, Madurai, Pune, Raipur, Trichy, Tirupati, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijayawada, and Vizag. Thereby, air travelers will not get any single-use plastic items such as straws, plastic cutlery and plastic plates, water bottles etc at passenger terminals and city side. Accordingly sources, AAI has engaged Quality Council of India (QCI) to assess the implementation of the ban at 34 airports handling 10 lakh passengers per year, which is expected to be completed by 31st January 2019. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has issued guidelines for collection, categorization, transportation, and disposal of solid waste. MoHUA is also implementing the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) under which, during the mission period of 2014–15 to 2019–20, an allocation of Rs. 7424.24 Crore has been made for solid waste management related projects. A full-scale view is not encouraging. It is essential to implement zero tolerance in the implementation of available regulations and legal framework. Often segregated wastes are further mixed by the waste collectors as they are not fully equipped to transport segregated wastes. Our regulations are frequently being amended. It is equally necessary to adopt the provisions by all the responsible parties. Thank you for your attention and valuable time.
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Originally published at enviroannotations.blogspot.com.
