Waste to Wealth or Waste of Wealth - another example in vicinity

Couple of years back a friend attempted to take social entrepreneurship through the solid waste management route. He felt 'waste to wealth' a very tempting proposition to do some good for the environment and the urban poor. What could have been better then to try this out next to a place of worship - with God watching and presumably extending all the blessing ! The Sai Baba Temple at the Lodi Road was chosen for this innovative initiative and the management was motivated to take on this project.  A machine was bought at a cost of Rs. 200,000 to grind waste flowers from temple. It was presumed that devotees will come forward to purchase 'perfumed powder' for use as 'samagri' / sacrificial offering in the sacred fire/ hawan performed on special occasions in many Hindu households. However with rapid modernisation of the society, such rituals are becoming rather infrequent and devotees did not show any interest in using such innovative samagri.

Leaving the lack of devotion apart, operation and maintenance of the machine itself was becoming a liability for the temple committee. The electricity bill was mounting while the machine itself was giving some blues - break downs, rusting, etc...As per a news item published in today's The Hindu the machine has been discarded and is found rusting between two flower shops near the temple (see the photo below). The Committee intends to sell it off as a scrap.  See the full article on the link below:

‘Stench of decayed flowers unbearable’  

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/stench-of-decayed-flowers-unbearable/article7563543.ece?ref=tpnews

So much for attempting wealth from waste ! It proves again the futility of 'waste to wealth' paradigm; and also that wealth creation happens only from application of sound knowledge/expertise, hard work, perseverance, etc. and not from 'waste on its own' under the approach as was tried out in this case.

Hopefully makers of our MSW Rules will take note of this experiment (which took place not too far from where the Rules are framed!) and help save lots of national wealth going down the drain in the name of treating or adding value to waste. 

Landfills: The good, the bad, and the trashy

Here is a link to an article by Linda Tufano of Waste Dive which attempts to dispel some misconceptions about sanitary landfills.

http://www.wastedive.com/news/landfills-the-good-the-bad-and-the-trashy/403880/ 

In India there appears to be strong opposition to the idea of sanitary landfill by the sons and daughters of the soil, under the perception that there is severe paucity of land, however not recognising that increasing affluence is leading to rising consumption pattern in the society and thereby increasing quantities of solid waste including construction debris and demolition waste. For instance my neighbour on the top floor decided to convert his perfectly fine DDA flat into a penthouse - demolishing all the internal walls and changing to granite/marble flooring (not bothering about inconvenience to others) and in the process generating significantly large quantities of CDD waste ! (MCD did not listen to our pleas!). Where did all this waste go? Evidently into an open dump on the back side of the colony !

The revised Draft MSW Rules, 2015 are also asking for treatment of MSW ad infinitum and ad nauseum without recognising the fundamental unsustainability of this paradigm; without recognising the impracticality of segregation in a highly disorganised society which is characterised by high level of indiscipline (open defecation, open urination, spitting, red light jumping and other minor and major traffic violations, etc....) and low level of  'education awareness, concern and commitment towards environment'. Wonder when our MSW Rules will be aligned to the socio-economic reality of the Indian society ? Or they will continue to be a copy of some of the developed societies e.g., Western Europe, Scandinavia and Japan, etc. - a result of some exposure visits and .....?

The challenge of the Draft MSW Rules 2015!

If the Draft MSW Rules 2015 get approved and notified, then in the name of decentralisation we will have a biogas plant in every colony, every campus and every mall ! The smell will be a bonus; Likewise every locality may have small scale composting - mismanagement and nuisance will come for free ! In the name of decentralised treatment some die hard solid waste management experts are planning to create mayhem in Indian cities; It appears they do not perceive the need of getting expert advice from town planners, landscape specialists, architects, real estate agents etc. who perhaps bring more balanced perspective on matters related to urban spaces, layouts and aspirations on quality of life, aesthetics, etc. 

The authors of the Draft Rules perceive Indian society to be as educated, aware, concerned and committed towards environment as those of Japan and Western Europe ! The assumptions are simplistic and utopian....We are expecting segregation of sanitary napkins and diapers in a separate category called 'sanitary waste' as if the 'green' and the 'brown' or the 'wet' and 'dry' or 'biodegradable' and non-biodegradable' were not enough !! And the RUles give a further surprise - they state that the sanitary waste should be wrapped up in a newspaper and kept along with 'dry waste' (as if newspapers have enough strength to hold onto it after it gets soggy from the moisture) !! Moreover the Rules do not mention how this category of waste will be collected, stored at the CWDs, transported and disposed of ! It appears that we are not drawing lessons from the experience of last 15 years where the segregation paradigm has not been successful.  

The Rules are heavily in favour of treating the waste and therefore use the term 'processing' as if there will be significant value addition. The purpose of treatment is being disregarded - it is reduction of volume and nuisance, not to generate positive cash flows. As shown below, we have a long list of failed plants all across the country.

STATUS OF MSW TREATMENT PLANTS ACROSS GEOGRAPHY AND TECHNOLOGIES

Technology	Plant status
	Closed	Operational
Composting	Thiruannanthpuram, Kollam, Vijaywada, Bangalore (2); Thane, Mumbai (3); Kolkata,  Asansol, Durgapur, Shillong, Jagannathpuri; Delhi (3), Shimla, Gwalior, Bhopal; Yamunanagar; Air field Stn. (6), Bareilly, Kanpur; Ahmedabad, Rajkot.	Delhi and Bangalore
Vermi-composting	Mumbai  (400 MT/d); Suryapet, Ramagundam; Chalisgaon, Phaltan; and a number of small scale plants all across the country.
Biomethanation	Lucknow, Chennai (Koyumbedu), Vijaywada.	Sholapur; small scale plants in Pune, Mumbai, etc.
Mass burn	Timarpur @ Delhi (1988-90)	Okhla @ Delhi (2011)
RDF	Baroda,  Mumbai,  Jaipur; Bangalore,  Guntur-Vijaywada, Hyderabad. Faridabad.	Chandigarh, Ahmadabad.

Treatment is proposed for minimising or to the extent of eliminating sanitary landfills. In this regard the Rules are attempting to  embrace the European paradigm of 'Zero Waste' ! But interestingly we are already there - we do not send any waste to SLFs because we do not have any !! Unfortunately, in absence of SLFs, every city will have open dump sites with smoldering waste pile...., etc. For example, see the pictures from Shillong and Vijayawada:

The Rules also bring a strange concept of temporary landfill/ stocking, in the event of a plant facing shut down for maintenance, so that the material can be used when the plant becomes operational! However it is extremely challenging to bring this in practice. Further, the Rules expect ULBs to stock separately the combustible material and send it later to a cement factory. Good idea, but the challenge is that the material will spread odour and can catch fire.

The following picture shows the situation of few years back at the open dumpsite of Gazipur in Delhi:

PS: For a good look and feel, click the pictures to enlarge!