Page 39 - Plastics News Issue October 2025
P. 39
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
have DWCCs; some have been built but not Following reports of contractors hiding con-
transferred to waste pickers; others lack basic struction debris to increase the tonnage, Chen-
facilities. Many centres do not have weighing nai adopted a service delivery model in 2017.
machines, and payments to drivers and vehicle The payment to contractors is based on evalua-
rentals are delayed, says Pinky Chandran, found- tion against key performance indicators, includ-
ing member of the Solid Waste Management ing the amount of garbage diverted from land-
Roundtable (SWMRT) and trustee at Hasiru Dala, fills through composting and recycling. But it is
an organisation working on socio-economic in- not until waste is segregated at source and pro-
clusion of waste pickers. cessed locally will the benefits of the new model
be visible.
In Pune, SWaCH workers also have their share
of problems. The PMC manages waste in 20% of Manage garbage locally
the city. “While PMC continues to provide servic-
es in many middle and high-income neighbour- Cities in Kerala have developed a decentralised
hoods, slums and lower-income areas, which are model in which, according to the state govern-
difficult to service, have been handed over to ment, 80% of the biodegradable waste generat-
us,” says Barde. ed by households is managed at the source, and
the remaining 20% goes to community process-
“Collecting user fees from low-income neigh- ing sites. With 77% of the waste being organic,
bourhoods is difficult, but not impossible if we this means a massive diversion from landfills and
have enforcement support. After home collec- resource-heavy centralised processing plants.
tion, trash is carted to feeder points and trucked
to material recovery centres. However, data Kerala’s model, too, was borne out of commu-
shows that 30% of vehicles are delayed over nity protests. Much like in Bengaluru, villagers
an hour daily, and 5% of feeder points remain living near 13 landfill sites, including the Vilappil-
unserviced. As a result, waste pickers wait, but sala panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram and the
vehicles don’t arrive, leaving trash behind,” he Sarvodayapuram landfill in Alappuzha, refused
adds. to take trash from the city. This led to the admin-
istration closing the two sites, and decentralisa-
Warped contracts tion emerged as the most workable solution.
Experts point to a counterintuitive practice: the The enforcement of India’s first set of waste
‘tipping fee’ payment model for private conces- management rules in 2000 resulted in a central-
sionaires or contractors. This model is institu- ised approach to waste management, as it fo-
tionalised in large cities where waste collection, cused more on collection and dumping. Almitra
transportation, and processing are primarily pri- Patel, whose landmark Supreme Court case led
vatised. Private players are paid by the volume to SWM Rules-2000, says she “regretted” that
they collect and bring to the processing facility her achievement had been undermined by “poli-
or a landfill. While segregation reduces the vol- tics and corruption.”
ume, mixed waste, which is heavier, fetches a
higher fee. “The inherited system of payment-by-weight for
October 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 39
