Waste management models

Abstract

Indian cities are under a serious threat of being overwhelmed by the garbage generated everyday by their citizens. More than 75% of city waste finds its way to landfills as this is the only way of waste disposal adopted by many Indian municipalities. Given the rate of urbanization, population in urban cities is expected to rise from the present 30% level to 40-50% in the next 20-25 years, with over 60 cities having 1 million plus population1. In the next 20 years, these massive cities will be dumping about 600 million Kgs2 of waste per day onto the landfills which means which more land would needed to hold waste. It is no surprise that The Energy Research Institute(TERI) estimates that 1400 sq. km. of land would be required by 2047 for municipal waste!!These colossal figures only provide a glimpse of the problem. Waste management is not only about waste lands but also about the daily fight for survival for more than a million people3 who are engaged in informal sector of waste collection (rag picking). They face exploitation by recyclers and discrimination from the society due to the long standing social stigma associated with garbage. The level of apathy is so high that they do not find shelter even in a slum and are forced to sleep next to the garbage they have sorted.4Our report begins with our understanding of the enormous complexity of this field. This is done by systematically understanding the stakeholders involved such as rag pickers, municipal authorities, garbage contractors, recyclers, local waste shops (kabadi walas), apartment owners, housekeeping staff, etc. We then trace out the hierarchies existing within the stakeholders; any inter relationships between them and the current waste management system. This analysis helped us to understand the twin challenge of any waste management model:1) Integrating the rag pickers in the main stream of society by increasing their lively hood and providing them dignity of work2) Ensuring ecological sustainability through the proper disposal and recycling of waste We then proceed to present our findings on five waste management organizations (4 for-profit corporations and one NGO) with the objectives of:1) Identify the intervention (technological, process, financial or market linkage) provided by the organization in the waste management supply chain2) Understand the intervention in terms of social impact, financial feasibility and ease of replication of the model. These practical observations and inferences are then put to test through theoretical rigor. This is achieved by understanding the evolution of social enterprises and the role these organizations play in reducing the transaction costs associated with waste management activities. Various activities are analyzed to understand the transaction cost associated with it such as: These theoretical underpinning helps in arriving at the interventions needed in solid waste management and we conclude our study by suggesting a framework for developing waste management models. This includes:1) Factors to consider while evaluating a technology for waste management2) Decision support systems required to evaluate waste management models This framework is by no means mandatory but only exploratory in nature. The field of waste management is so complex that a single decision making tool cannot factor in all the challenges. It needs to be experimented and evolved as a consensus with all stakeholders.