HT: Waste disposal in need of a solid effort: June 05, 2012

TODAY IS WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY. IN A 5-PART SERIES, HT TAKES A LOOK AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES THAT PLAGUE OUR CITY
Waste disposal in need of a solid effort….Snehal Rebello
RECYCLING WASTE Even as citizens and civic body blame each other for improper disposal of solid waste, our dumping grounds are overflowing with garbage

MUMBAI: For the past one year, Shilpa Shah, 45, has been segregating her household waste every morning into two bins marked ‘dry’ and ‘ wet’ placed in her building compound.

But her effort is wasted when the civic body’s garbage van arrives to collect the waste and dumps waste from both the bins into the van.

“The civic body needs citizens’ participation for waste segregation and we’ve been following it. But the corporation’s collection van ends up mixing all the dry and wet waste back into the dump yard. So what’s the point?” asked Shah, a Chembur resident.

With Mumbai generating 6,500 tonnes of waste every day on an average, environmentalists said the lack of waste segregation is responsible for landfill fires in dumping grounds used for garbage disposal. The waste from the Chembur area is dumped in the Deonar dump yard. Tonnes of rotting garbage releases poisonous gases in the atmosphere with toxic chemicals leaching into the soil.

Landfill fires are caused by the heat building up inside waste beds due to decomposing organic matter. Solid waste also generates green house gases such as methane, which is said to have 21 times more potential to warm the globe than carbon dioxide.

With the Deonar dump partially closed, environment activists now fear that the twomonth old Kanjurmarg dump yard that receives about 4,000 tonne of garbage every day may go the Deonar way if the waste is not effectively segregated and disposed off. The Kanjurmarg dump yard, which used to be saltpan land, is surrounded by mangroves and is located around 200 metre from the Thane creek.

“The story of the city’s garbage is a sad one. Despite awarding a tender of Rs 4,500 crore, a processing plant to segregate waste at Deonar has not been installed yet. If only waste is recycled, the existing landfills can last for a real long time,” said Rajkumar Sharma, convener, Clean sweep Forum. “We hope the Kanjurmarg yard is managed well.”

“The civic body does collect waste separately and there are many wards where vans collect dry waste twice a week,” said Mohan Adtani, additional municipal commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. “But since there is not enough citizen involvement, our solid waste management efforts have been devised in a manner where the processing in landfills needs both wet and dry waste.”

“The civic body can regulate 5% deviation for those not following rules. But we do not have the machinery to handle 40% deviation,” said Adtani. “Our solid waste management policy is therefore centered around waste processing, which requires both wet and dry waste.”

Apart from landfill fires, open burning of waste also pollutes air, soil and groundwater. According to a 2010 study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute found that open burning and landfill fires are major sources of air pollution in Mumbai, emitting nearly 22,000 tons per year of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide open burning contributes to 19% of air pollution in the city.

Source: Hindustan Times, Page No.:7, Dated: June 05, 2012