Dear Kisanbhai and Priya,
Greetings! Nice to get your email again at last.
I entirely agree with you that too many NGOs think out of sight means Zero Garbage. I would love to see that nobody’s suggestion should be taken on board by Karmayog unless they have personally seen Deonar and the condition of its surrounding residents!
You are right that “in an IDEAL SWM program” there should be no need for a landfill at all, and that permitting landfills is a route to a cop-out of responsibility for sensible waste management. Unfortunately even the MSW Rules themselves provide this lousy loophole, by saying “Landfilling of mixed waste shall be avoided unless the same is found unsuitable for waste processing.” (Unsuitable in WHOSE opinion??) and “Under unavoidable circumstances or till installation of alternate facilities, landfilling shall be done following proper norms”. (What UNAVOIDABLE circumstances when no effort at compliance or even bio-sanitising is visible? What “alternate facilities”, the stillborn waste-to-energy schemes that keep coming and vanishing?).
However, if you see my just-sent note to Vinay which I have asked him to fwd to you (before I received this), even the most forward-looking SWM experts are agreed that presently at least 5-8% of urban waste at a minimum will require land-fillling unless someone has deeply quantified exactly what is NOT YET recyclable and finds solutions that are Techno-Economically Viable. We are, and will for a long time, be far from an “IDEAL SWM program”. So though I agree with almost everything you say, absolutely no landfill is not currently realistic.
All good wishes,
Almitra
> From: Kisan Mehta
>To: karmayog
>Cc: sudheen kulkarni
>Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 3:41 PM
>Subject: Re: Landfill has no place in environmentally viable SWM at all
>Dear Almitraben,
>Dear Vinaybhai,
>(Vinaybhai, please forward the message ot Almitra Patel.
>We do not have her email address hence could not send
>to her.)
>Not talked to you, Almitraben, for a pretty long time. Trust everything is fine with you. It is good that Vinaybhai forwarded a copy of his message to me.
>We are firm in our conviction that it is possible to avoid landfill in an ideal SWM programme and should morally and environmentally not be pursued in a programme aimed at creating zero waste condition. Frankly there is no component of waste that cannot be treated. A 100% reutilisation of waste is possible and should be pursued to achieve zero waste condition. Zero waste does not mean and does not allow dumping waste far way from my house or the area I move. Vinaybhai conveyed to Kisan that some of the Karmayog friends were interpreting `zero waste’ as no waste within my sight but allowed elsewhere away from my sight.
>If any specific component is not amenable to reutilisation even after treatment then zero waste condition can never be achievable. We shall have to identify and take out any substance not amenable to treatment.
>In the Integrated Solid Waste Managmeent Programme developed by Save Bombay Committee, with which you are fully conversant, we have provided for vertical depositing of inert rejected building materials for developing into a hill and then landscaping for creating a leisure centre for local residents. We have observed that permitting of landfill under the standards enables municipalities to take an easier option of disposing off waste as landfill that would continue to create nuisance for generations of humans. We have a Devnar Dumping Ground where major part of waste is dumped. A study shows htat a large body of leachate has been formed the toxicity of which is nobody’s guess. The BMC is not ready to check.
>The finalised McKinsey plan for the BMC provides, it appears, for `sanitary landfill’. We have visited some very elaborate santitary landfill programmes set up at astronomically high cost. Mumbai cannot afford that cost at any time. So if residents allow the BMC the sanitary landfill, like our halfbakled and never implemented programme, our authorities would pursue landfill after conveniently removing the word `sanitary’.
>About 25% of Mumbai’s population, mainly lower middle class and the poor stay iwthin 2 km circle of landfills. We had associated with the
>We urbanites amd the rich in the urban areas have the habit of dumping far away from where we stay and move. We can also hire out or buy over lands in rural areas for dumping and landfilling of urban waste. Pune hired about 30 years ago the landfilling dumping rights in a village about 15 km outside Pune mun boundaries. Save Bombay Committee objected to Pune landfilling (in actual terms dumping) outside its boundaries affectng other communities. The Government of India accepted our contention and asked
Pune has a couple of years got a promise of agricultural land outside its boundaries for dumping. Subsequent to our explaining to the villagers near the proposed dumping ground, they have objected and now the State Agri Ministry is being forced to cancel the permission to dump Pune waste in the agri area. Our friends should appreciate htat waste management has ot be ecocentric and not something htat I want to avoid from my sight. We are trying to convince Karmayou friends to presnt a cogent case to hte BMC for 100% reutlisation programme for creating zero waste condition. Many of our colleagues have no idea of conditions prevailing around dumping grounds. Best wishes
Kisan Mehta Priya Salvi
PRAKRUTI
620, Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
Mumbai – 400 014
Tel: 0091 22 24149688
Kisan Mehta – Mobile 92234 48857
Priya Salvi – Mobile 93231 96420
From: karmayog
To: Almitra Patel
Cc: kisansbc@vsnl.com
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 10:56 PM
Subject: no waste at all
Dear Almitra,
Kisanji Mehta says there is ABSOLUTELY no reason to have any landfill i.e. all garbage can be re-used without even any burning, or landfilling.
What is your opinion?
Vinay
Mrs Almitra H. Patel
Member, Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management
50 Kothnur,
Phone: 080-2846 5365
Fax/Phone: 080-2846 5195