The country’s urban part is said to be the third largest garbage generator in the world, which is expected to rise to 436 million tonnes by 2050. Metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata alone produce nearly 10 million tonnes of garbage. Moreover, 94% of the total municipal waste is dumped on the land and 5% is composted.
A 2009 report released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) indicates that around 62 million tonnes of solid waste is produced every year in the country, of which less than 20% or only 12 million tonnes are treated – which essentially means that the remaining 52 million tonnes of waste remain ‘untreated’ and contaminate land or make its way into rivers, lakes and wetlands.
In 2015, the CPCB issued statutory notices to municipal commissioners of 184 towns to ensure proper management of domestic sewage and solid waste, but no avail till now.
The situation has become so gloomy that overflowing landfills is another major issue that has not been addressed yet. It is said that there is no space to accommodate fresh garbage waste till date.
An expert at the Centre of Science and Environment opined that instead of constructing new landfill sites, the government should be really looking into innovative methods to dispose and recycle its waste. The reason why most landfill sites are over-flowing is because the current waste disposal system is flawed.
A study conducted by scientists at the School of Environmental Sciences in Jawaharlal Nehru University found that high levels of nickel, zinc, arsenic, lead, chromium and other metals are part of the solid waste at landfills in many metro cities, especially in Delhi.
Thus, to make this country a better place, it is suggested that the entire nation should follow the basic steps to dispose waste; the steps include: Collection; Segregation; Dumping; Composting; Drainage and Treatment of effluents before discharge.
A four bin system is advisable to simply segregate house waste. Throwing kitchen waste or organic waste in a green bin, Inert waste (waste which is neither chemically or biologically reactive and will not decompose like diapers etc.) in a black bag, a white bin for waste that is recyclable like milk packets, oil, plastics and a black bin for all the hazardous waste materials.
