Page 40 - Plastics News October 2018

FEAturES

Current Scenario not following the mandatory rule, leaving citizens in
India is well on its course to achieve its objective of lurch for no mistake of theirs. Had BMC implemented the
electricity for all, and after electricity, water will need SWM Rules 2000, by now it would have had effective and
tremendous attention of the government. After water, efficient solid waste management capabilities in place.
waste management will become the most important Recycling
area for the government, as currently almost all cities According to a CPCB report, in 2014-15, 91 per cent of
are facing enormous challenge in effectively dealing solid waste was collected, of which, only 27 per cent was
with solid waste management. With growing population treated and the remaining 73 per cent was disposed at
dump sites. A recent study indicates that India would need
a landfill of 88 sq. km, nearly the size of Bengaluru, to
dump all its waste by 2030. As our material consumption
is expected to triple by 2025, recycling offers a viable
and sustainable domestic option for meeting the country’s
growing material demand.Thus, a transition is imminent,
a paradigm shift, to raise the quality of economic
growth from the depletive ‘produce-consume-dispose’
led linear economy to a ‘reduce-recover-reuse-recycle-
redesign-remanufacture’ led circular economy which
is more regenerative and restorative in nature. Waste
from industrial, municipal, agricultural, construction and
demolition (C&D) and other processes normally contain
and rapid urbanization, waste generation in India has base materials in the form of scrap, like ferrous metal,
increased significantly over the last decade. India non-ferrous metals, plastics and glass.
produces nearly 62 million tonnes (mt) of municipal solid Low Recycling rate
waste annually. But the system to manage such wastes is In India, recycling rates are way below international
practically dysfunctional, suffering from organizational benchmarks; for packaging paper, it is 27 %; Plastics, 60
inefficiency, distorted incentives, decrepit infrastructure %; and metals, a mere 20-25 % whereas in Scandinavian
and suboptimal funding. More than 70% of collected countries, the average recycling rates have reached 90
urban waste is dumped at landfills. And most of them per cent. Indian recycling rates are languishingly low for
are brimming. It has been estimated that annual waste a variety of reasons. First, there is neither strong social
generation in India is likely to supersede three times to awareness nor enough political will to promote recycling
165 million tonnes by 2030 and 450 mt by 2045. This means as a way of life. Second, waste collection and segregation
that 66,000 hectares of land will be required to set up a mechanism is largely unorganised leading to scrap
landfill site that is 10 meters high and can hold 20 years’ contamination. Third, most municipal infrastructure is
worth of waste. To put things in perspective, that is almost dated and inadequate in terms of collection, transportation
90% of Bengaluru’s area. If the current waste management
scenario does not improve, one can soon expect to be
buried in our own muck.
Almost all the Municipalities are struggling to effectively
manage waste generated across different cities. Municipal
Corporations are staring at brimming landfills, fire related
issues in landfills, lack of processing capacities and as a
result has resorted to force citizen participation in solid
waste management. MCGM, has decided not to pick solid
waste for societies / complexes, of more than 20,000
square meters or those producing more than 100kg wet
waste per day. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
(BMC) has issued notices to 23,161 housing societies for

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