Keep It Simple, Stupid

Focussing on citizens’ behaviour and segregation at source brings results

- Lola Nayar

India doesn’t know how to manage its waste. The solid waste management (SWM) rules notified in 2016 clearly spell out how best to segregate and manage urban solid waste at the source to ensure minimum dumping in landfills. But hardly any municipalities have bothered to enforce these rules, and the urban waste crisis in many cities has reached “explosive” dimensions. “The simple task of enforcing segregation of waste at the source, a standard practice in much of Europe, has become a very complex problem in india. There is a need to transform social behaviour towards waste. There is also a need to push civic and regulatory systems out of their inertia. Or we will only burden future generations with the toxic impacts of our waste,” says Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group.

India produces over 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of waste daily, one of the highest in the world. Waste generation per capita varies from 170 grams per person per day in small towns to 600 grams in cities. A parliamentary committee observed in 2016 that out of all municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in the country, only 0.33 lakh tonnes were being treated and disposed per day. “Waste is a circular economy. The key to this circular economy is to not talk of waste disposal but waste management,” says Wilma Rodriques of Bangalore-based NGO Saahas, which has been striving to promote zero waste.

Saahas is among a growing number of NGOs in Bangalore that are promoting on-site composting and waste segregation. Rodriques says the effort is to formalise the informal sector engaged in waste segregation and provide the field staff with a minimum wage of Rs 15,000. “There is a need to recognise this as a professional service,” she says. After segregation, all the waste is sent to different authorised end destinations.