Solid waste management (SWM) refers to the process of collecting and treating solid wastes. It also offers solutions for recycling items that do not belong to garbage or trash.  In a nascent effort to look beyond toilets and kick off its ODF+ phase — that is, Open Defecation Free Plus — focussing on solid and liquid waste management, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) has included the prevalence of plastic litter and water-logging in villages as indicators of cleanliness in its 2019 rural survey.

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Current Situation of SWM in India:

• ULBs are responsible for segregated waste collection, transporting waste in covered vehicle, processing, recyclables, separating domestic hazardous waste and disposing inert material in sanitary landfills
• Various studies reveal that about 90% of MSW is disposed of unscientifically in open dumps and landfills, creating problems to public health and the environment.
• Over 377 million urban people live in 7,935 towns and cities and generate 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste per annum.
• Only 43 million tonnes (MT) of the waste is collected, 11.9 MT is treated and 31 MT is dumped in landfill sites.
• Most cities have confined themselves to collection and transportation of solid waste. Processing and safe disposal are being attempted only in a few cases.
• The CPCB report also reveals that only 68% of the MSW generated in the country is collected of which, 28% is treated by the municipal authorities. Thus, merely 19% of the total waste generated is currently treated.
• According to a UN report, India’s e-waste from old computers alone will jump 500 per cent by 2020, compared to 2007.
• Disappearance of urban water bodies and wetlands in urban areas can be attributed to illegal dumping of Construction & Demolition waste.

Some of the major issues concerning solid waste management are:

• Absence of segregation of waste at source
• Lack of funds for waste management at ULBs.
• Unwillingness of ULBs to introduce proper collection, segregation, transportation and treatment/ disposal systems.
• Lack of technical expertise and appropriate institutional arrangement
• lack of infrastructure and technology
• lack of involvement from the private sector and non-governmental organisations
• Indifference of citizens towards waste management due to lack of awareness
• Lack of community participation towards waste management and hygienic conditions
• Lack of sewage management plan.
• About 70% of the plastic packaging products turn into plastic waste within a short period.
• Unorganized vendors and markets, existence of slum areas and Corruption are other issues plaguing MSWM.

Measures needed:

• State governments should provide financial support to ULBs to improve their waste management system under various schemes and programs.
• Initiatives like Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT should provide significant funding to improve civic services infrastructure.
• The key to efficient waste management is to ensure proper segregation of waste at source and to ensure that the waste goes through different streams of recycling and resource recovery as stated in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• Waste to energy is a key component of SWM. Installation of waste-to-compost and bio-methanation plants would reduce the load of landfill sites
• There is a need to encourage research and development so as to reinvent waste management system in India.
• The focus should be on recycling and recovering from waste and not landfill. Further, it is important to encourage recycling of e-waste so that the problem of e-waste
• Public- Private Partnership models for waste management should be encouraged.
• Construction and demolition waste should be stored, separately disposed off, as per the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• Responsibilities of Generators have been introduced to segregate waste in to three streams, Wet (Biodegradable), Dry (Plastic, Paper, metal, wood, etc.) and domestic hazardous wastes (diapers, napkins, empty containers of cleaning agents, mosquito repellents, etc.) and handover segregated wastes to authorized rag-pickers or waste collectors or local bodies.
• Sensitization of citizens as well as government authorities, community participation, involvement of NGOs. Littering should be prohibited.
• International Best practices should be emulated. South Korea is one of the few countries to separate and recycle food waste. It has also launched landfill recovery projects such as the Nanjido recovery project which have successfully transformed hazardous waste sites into sustainable ecological attractions.

Conclusion:

Solid waste management (SWM) is one of the major environmental problems of India. The need of the hour is scientific, sustainable and environment friendly management of wastes.