Waste management and disposal in India: organising informal sectors (Waste Pickers) in SWM

Abstract

Solid Waste Management problem is arising in all Indian cities especially in metrocities. This is affecting public health and environment both. There is need to implementmodern technologies to cater this problem. India is lacking in policy regulations and itsimplementation. There is need to form and implement stringent policy measures to tackle thispublic issue. The problem of disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) is exaggerating due torapid urbanization, increasing economic status of population. This policy talks about formaland informal techniques for disposal of Municipal solid waste (MSW) in India. Recycling,Recovery and Reuse are the techniques used for disposal of MSW. For this Aerobic andAnaerobic Composting, Bio-Remediation (Landfill Mining), Mechanical BiologicalTreatment (MBT), Bio-Methanation, Waste-to-Energy (WTE) combustion, Refuse DerivedFuel (RDF) etc modern systems are discussed. This study includes the visits to informal recycling units (Waste pickers), wastedealers shop (Kabaadi), composting plants, WTE combustion centres, landfills (sanitary and unsanitary), RDF centres, municipal offices and various landfill mining sites. The main objective of this policy is to organise the informal sectors (waste pickers) in managing SWM and to find cost effective and environmental friendly ways to dispose of the enormous amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) by recycling, recovering, reusing materials and energy form solid wastes.