What India needs for effective waste management in times of the pandemic

1. What India Needs To Manage The Trash Effectively During A Pandemic COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the world in a short period. At the same time, many types of pollution are declining, the sky is becoming clearer, there is more life in the water bodies, and haze is dissipating to reveal blue skies. However, a brand-new type of pollution has been identified: coronavirus waste. Wearing masks, gloves, and other single- use personal protection equipment has become the standard in this new environment, and people are adjusting to it. Solid waste management in India was not one of the best but, we have evolved a lot in the time of the pandemic and people are getting aware of hygiene and sanitation. Sanitation in rural areas in India has always been a complex thing, but with the help of government initiatives like the Swachh Bharat Mission and other cleanliness missions, we are doing a lot better now. The world’s activities, particularly those of businesses whose waste creation has been a major concern for years, have changed because of the global pandemic. The demand for various online goods has grown significantly over the last several months, which has resulted in an increase in garbage production—primarily packaging waste made of plastic, paper, cardboard, etc. At #PlanetTalks hosted by Impact Policy Research Institute and India Water Portal, Prof. Brajesh Kumar Dubey of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, spoke on methodologies, best practises, and technology related to waste management and offered advice for practitioners and policy-makers. India’s problem with the garbage According to estimates from the World Bank, over 1.3 billion Indians produce a tenth of all rubbish worldwide, the most waste of any country. According to Prof. Dubey, the globe generates 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal waste annually, a number that might increase to 3.4 billion tonnes by the year 2050 as a result of growing urbanisation, population expansion, and economic development. While administrations disregarded concerns like garbage management, our megacities like Mumbai and Delhi are sitting on a mountain of trash. A parliamentary committee stated in a report dated 2018 that “the laxity of the civic bodies of Delhi also gets reflected in the height of Ghazipur dump site having risen as high as 65 metres, which is just eight metres less than the height of the national monument Qutub Minar.” Only around 22–28% of the rising tide of municipal waste in India is processed and treated; It is simply transported the rest to the suburbs and disposed of at random. Only about 75– 80% of this growing tide of waste is collected in India. According to the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2016, segregation of waste components should be promoted at the point of

2. generation, however, cities continue to dump waste carelessly, causing an increasing amount of space for landfills. Finding a facility that can handle mixed wastes that are sent to treatment plants is frequently challenging. In order to ensure source segregation and resource recovery, Prof. Dubey argues we should start by separating “wet” trash, which includes food scraps and other organic wastes, from the remaining non-biodegradable wastes. He believed that although India faces a significant waste management burden and has the technological capability to process the garbage, our current waste management, and disposal system is ineffective. The execution of the waste management regulations, particularly those that control how generated waste is disposed of and handled, has been a failure. In our nation, there are a lot of engineered landfills and material recovery plants. However, both their needs and the quantity depend on the accuracy of the waste data gathered. A waste audit is a necessary component of waste management and provides information on the type and volume of trash produced by businesses, families, institutions, etc., according to the expert. The properties of the garbage define what it can be changed into, even if organic waste needs to be diverted from landfill sites to composting operations. This determines whether a region needs a compost facility or a waste-to-energy plant. Even though there are a few composting and vermicomposting facilities, bio-methanation plants, refuse-derived fuel facilities, and waste-to-energy facilities, most of them struggle to treat the waste because much of the garbage that reaches the facilities is comprised of both wet and dry wastes. Segregation at the source is crucial, he continues. No significant attempts are being made to execute the government’s smart waste management recommendations, which include waste collection, transportation, and disposal. Except for a few small and mid-sized cities that are better at managing trash, our cities are getting more and more unhealthy and dirty, according to a 2018 assessment on 20 cities across 10 states from the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. So, the people of our nation should focus on reducing our waste, as that will be the best way to tackle all the problems caused by waste and pollution.