The issue of flooding has been the greatest concern among residents of Chennai over the last two monsoon cycles. Drains choked with plastic bags and shrinking open spaces cause water to stagnate on the roads with the lightest of rains. Besides the flooding, the cycle continues with the dangerous aedes aegypti mosquito making its home in stagnant water sources. A report states that the Directorate General Health Services (DGHS) had filed an affidavit stating that vector-borne diseases, most commonly dengue, are widespread in different parts of the country because of the absence of efficient solid waste management. Furthermore, dumping sites near stationary water sources serve as breeding grounds.
My whole outlook towards waste has changed since I joined CAG a few months ago. I am still coming to terms with the magnitude of the problem at large and how oblivious I have been to the bigger picture in handling garbage.
The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016, places some emphasis on overhauling the waste management system from a centralised to a decentralised system. On October 2, 2017, the Greater Chennai Corporation had notified 5,714 bulk waste generators in the city to manage their waste on their own. Interestingly, GCC states on its website that a majority of garbage generated in Chennai is green waste (32.3%) – the type that can be dealt with at source. Therefore, as a researcher at CAG, I began to look into how BWPs in the city plan on transitioning to a decentralized waste disposal system.
Between June and September 2017, CAG had filed a series of Right to Information (RTIs) under the RTI Act, 2015, to acquire insights into the list of BWPs in the city and their current disposal mechanisms. The response obtained from the Corporation officials was ambiguous and generic. Hence, I set out to map some of the BWPs in different wards of Chennai by crowdsourcing data of large waste producers.
The prime objective of mapping the BWPs is to provide citizens an open source platform that allows to easily identify generators of large amounts of waste in their ward. These maps are intended to be a resource for the local community members and for the academic community, which will help plan a strategy around management of waste in their locality.
Who are bulk waste producers and what are their responsibilities?
Sec 3 (8) of the SWM Rules states that a bulk waste producer (BWP) includes buildings occupied by the central government departments or undertakings, state government departments or undertakings, local bodies, public sector undertakings or private companies, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions, hostels, hotels, commercial establishments, markets, places of worship, stadia and sports complexes an average waste generation rate exceeding 100 kgs per day.
The SWM Rules mandate that all resident welfare and market associations, gated communities with more than 5000 sq.m area, hotels, and restaurants should, in partnership with the local body, ensure segregation of waste at source, facilitate collection of segregated waste in separate streams, handover recyclable materials to either authorised waste pickers or authorised recyclers. The biodegradable waste generated by these entities should be managed either by means of composting or biomethanation within the premises. On the other hand, the non - biodegradable waste should be given to the waste collectors or agency as directed by the local body.
Learning from the best - A case study from Trivandrum, Kerala
Kerala has successfully pioneered a zero-waste approach to manage solid waste and most importantly doing away with defunct landfills without hazardous burning of waste.
Recently, I had attended a workshop at Thanal, an NGO based in Trivandrum, that works on multiple environmental issues. I had the opportunity to examine the functioning of BWPs in Trivandrum, particularly the Trivandrum Club.
The Trivandrum Club has multiple recreational activities, marriage halls and resorts always buzzing with activities. The Club produces a minimum of a tonnage of waste every day. Due to the strict regulations laid out by the Trivandrum Corporation, the Club manages waste produced within the premises. In order to deal with large amounts of wet waste in situ, initially, a biogas plant was setup to produce biogas that was used as cooking fuel. However, the Club has had some difficulties in the maintenance of the plant. Hence, a separate composting shed was built within the premises to carry out composting of food waste.
To speed up the process of composting, an organic waste composter (OWC) is used to break down the food substances into a finer paste (Image 1). The simpler substance such as food waste is further mixed with coco peat and left for 15 days to decompose. For the purpose of breaking down complex materials like large amounts of slow-decaying banana leaves, a shredder is used (Image 2).
Image 1: Composting machine
Image 2: Banana shredder machine
Image 3: Compost derived after 15 days
The compost material is used as manure for the Club’s terrace garden (Image 3), where garden vegetables such as tomatoes, chillies, brinjals, and lady’s finger are cultivated on the terrace grounds (Image 4). The produce obtained, is distributed among the members of the club or is sold at a subsidised rate to non-members. The compost is also used for all the beautiful ornamental plants grown in the premises.
Image 4: Terrace garden at Trivandrum Club
While most BWPs manage their own waste, others such as smaller hotels and restaurants in and around Trivandrum city send their waste to private corporations that in turn carry the waste to piggeries. The residual waste generated by the BWPs is sent to scrap shops or waste paper marts in the city. Plastics collected by privately owned corporations such as Clean Kerala company shred the plastic and deploy the shredded material for laying down roads.
Image 5: A waste management flow chart of BWPs in Trivandrum
Before Trivandrum made its headway to a zero-waste city, its landfills ran out of space, and garbage lay on streets, backyards, creeks, lakes, etc. The burn-bury-and-dump waste model was widely practiced. Only when the residents of the village where Trivandrum’s waste was dumped forced the landfill closed, did the people realise that they had to find a different way of managing their waste. In Chennai, BWPs like commercial establishments, industries, schools and educational institutions account for 32% of the waste entering our landfills. While the law makes it mandatory for BWPs in Chennai to manage their own waste, compliance remains poor and enforcement weak. This is where well-informed citizens can come together to make a difference; from questioning the system in place to taking to task BWPs polluting a locality, residents are instrumental in creating a narrative for responsible action.
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