75% of municipal waste in India dumped without processing

Barely 35,600 metric tonnes (MT) or a quarter of the 1.43 lakh MT of garbage generated daily in Indian cities gets processed. The remaining three-quarters about 1.1 lakh MT are dumped in the open. Only eight of 35 states process more than half the daily garbage generated in their cities and not one has achieved 100% processing.

State-wise data on the website of the urban affairs ministry shows that states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand don’t process even 10% of their municipal garbage while Arunachal Pradesh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli don’t process municipal garbage at all. J&K processes a mere 1%.

Chhattisgarh (74%) tops the list and is one of only four states that process more than 60% of municipal garbage. Telangana (67%), Sikkim (66%) and Goa (62%) are the others in this category. Delhi processes 55% of its daily garbage. There are 84,000 municipal wards in India and 61,846 or almost three-quarters of these wards have achieved 100% door-to-door garbage collection, according to the website. Yet, without proper disposal facilities this makes little difference.

Civic bodies in Maha generate most garbage

Municipal bodies in Maharashtra generate maximum garbage — 22,570 MT daily — followed by Tamil Nadu (15,437 MT), Uttar Pradesh (15,288 MT), Delhi (10,500 MT), Gujarat (10,145 MT) and Karnataka (10,000 MT).

Municipal bodies are dumping waste on to landfill sites, which are overflowing their capacity and polluting the surrounding land, groundwater and air. According to the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), cities are now running out of land on which to dump their waste and have begun throwing it in the ‘backyards’ of smaller towns, suburbs and villages.

CSE has advocated a waste management strategy that emphasises segregation at source and recycle and reuse, instead of centralised approaches like landfills. Solid waste management should move towards behaviour change and local solutions, without which the ‘clean India’ goal cannot be met, according to the CSE.

Source: Times of India:30/07/2018