Page 50 - Plastics News December 2016

FEFAETAUTURRESES
A tiny town in West Bengal is turning waste into piles of wealth
The initiatives of Uttarpara-Kotrung municipality helped the Kolkata Solid Waste Management
Improvement Project win a global award defeating nearest contenders Auckland and Milan
A163-year-old municipality administering a small town
in West Bengal has shown the world how to manage
solid waste in an eco-friendly way, potentially giving urban A close look at the way the Uttarpara-Kotrung project
planners and administrators the key to tackling one of
the biggest civic problems.
The initiatives of Uttarpara-Kotrung municipality helped this model closely.
the Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project
win a global award, defeating nearest contenders Auckland
and Milan in urban solid waste management category in
the C40 Mayors’ Summit held in Mexico City on December
1. Uttarpara, a 10.9 sq km small city with a population of
1.9 lakh, is one of India’s 415 cities with a population of
1 lakh or more. It also boasts of Asia’s oldest free public
library.The recognition should provide the entire country a
reason to rejoice. With rapid urbanisation, the country is
faced with a massive waste management challenge. Over
377 million urban people -- 31% of the population -- live
in 7,935 towns and cities and generate 62 million tonnes
of municipal solid waste per annum. Only 43 million tonne
is collected, 11.9 million is treated and 31 million tonne
is dumped in landfill sites.
“Waste generation is estimated to reach 165 million
tonne per year by 2030,” according to union environment
minister Prakash Javadekar. In April, Javadekar said the
revised solid waste management rules mandate all local
bodies with a population of one million or more to set up
waste processing facilities within two years. The revised
rules also ask municipal authorities to channelise the
waste to wealth by recovery, reuse and recycle and to
• December 2016 • Plastics News 50
10
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JAN 2017
19 20 21 22 23 MUMBAI. INDIA
integrate rag pickers and waste dealers in the formal
system.
reveals that the minister may well showcase it as a model,
as his grand plan for solid waste management resembles
A ride down the streets of Uttarpara – often flanked by
palatial 19th and 20th century houses – reveal roadsides
and market places that are mostly free of garbage, a
common sight in most urban centres. Municipal workers
collect bio-degradable and non-degradable solid waste
stored in designated bins at households, carry them in
vans having separate chambers and dump them separately
at the transfer centre.
At this centre, the non-degradable waste is temporarily
stored before being compressed in compactor machines
and dumped at the sanitary landfill. Here rag pickers
who scour vats in the town are seen collecting things
for selling to waste dealers. They are provided masks,
gloves, gumboots and uniform by the municipality and are
required to wear them while sifting through the garbage.
As dumping by the roads stopped, civic authorities engaged
more than two dozen rag-pickers at the transfer site.
While collecting things, they further segregate whatever
bio-degradable waste had remained in the non-degradable
lot.“We are really happy with the new system. We live
a cleaner life. Civic authorities are also considering
employing us on contractual basis,” said Kapil Bhuniya,
a rag-picker.
The bio-degradable waste goes to the adjacent compost
plant. The municipality sells the bio-manure produced
at the plant from its counter and through marketing
agents. The municipality collects 12-14 tonnes of waste
every day and produces 3-4 tonne manure daily. They,
however, have the capacity of producing up to 10 tonnes
of manure per day.
Uttarpara municipality also collects waste from the
sewerage system with suction cum jetting machines. “We
have a plan to cover all drains across the town,” said civic