Garbage Management - Additional Inputs

Dear all:

The work on Garbage Management and the whitepaper from the circle has regularly been referred to by UDM Mr. Venkaiah Naidu in his meetings with Municipal Leaders.

Today, we would like to revisit the subject and seek any additional inputs you have on Garbage Management based on learnings in 120 days of Swachh Bharat as well as insights from 50,000 new members.

Please review the Issues, Root Causes and Solutions below and if you had additional comments, please post them as comments with a Prefix - Issue, Root Cause or Solution before the comment.


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Improving Garbage Management in India

Issues Identified:
1. Not enough dustbins in public areas
2. Garbage is burnt on roads which leads to health hazards
3. Garbage dumps are open creating a foul smell in nearby areas
4. Garbage overflows the collection bins
5. No segregation of wet and dry garbage
6. Increasing electronic waste
7. Indiscriminate use of plastic bags
8. Every building does not have a garbage disposal system of its own
9. Citizens' mentality of littering public places is a major issue
10. Government has no proper arrangement to sort out plastic and non-plastic garbage
11. People utilize the vacant places available near buildings or vacant plots to throw garbage
12. Municipal workers lack proper equipment to collect garbage, especially in semi urban and rural areas
13. Poor and illiterate people either have no means to dispose garbage or do not know why they should not throw garbage around the places where they live
14. Rag pickers also spread the garbage on the Roads
15. Hawkers leave the area unclean
16. Clogging of drainage system due to solid waste

Root Causes Identified:
1. Dustbins are stolen from public places
2. No fines imposed by the Government
3. Rag pickers make a mess in the dumps and also burn stuff to get metal/copper etc.
4. The Municipal collection of garbage does not happen regularly on time and hence the overflow
5. Plastic bags are cheap and available very easily
6. With the advancement in technology and its cheap availability, the old electronic devices are thrown away
7. No law/mandate from the Government to maintain a waste disposal unit area/society wise
8. People have a mental block and they don’t want to change
9. The ‘chalta hai’ attitude of the people makes the condition worse
10. Municipal departments still have an old style of working and don’t want to invest in latest equipment
11. Zero awareness about this in rural India
12. Hawkers don’t clean the area where they stand thinking the municipal corporation will get it cleaned up in the morning
13. Local Corporators & MLAS do NOT take any active part to mobilise the local people's awareness
14. Municipal workers are lazy and don’t do their job well
15. People who carry the garbage have no patience to put it in the bins
16. No research and development on waste management
17. No education in schools/colleges about waste management
18. People avoiding close proximity to bins due to smell/ filthiness and tend to throw garbage into public bins from a distance
19. RWAs are not involved in planning garbage management of their areas with the municipality
20. Lack of enforcement and monitoring by the civic agencies.

Solutions Identified:
1. Garbage must be segregated at the source , i.e. domestic/commercial/Industrial level
2. Steep fine should be imposed on throwing garbage in undesignated areas
3. More dustbins should be installed in public areas
4. Plastic bags should be completely banned
5. Garbage should be picked up from the bins by the corporation at fixed time everyday
6. Separate bins should be installed for wet and dry waste
7. People should be educated on segregating wet and dry waste
8. Various campaigns should be organised in rural India to educate people on garbage management
9. Wet Garbage can either be used to make manure or compost gas or any other useful method to reuse it
10. RWAs should be actively involved in managing waste in the societies
11. It should be made mandatory for big societies to have garbage treatment plants
12. Public awareness campaigns about garbage management/ littering the streets should be done
13. People should be educated about the hazard of garbage and spread of diseases
14. Municipal worker in town as well as rural areas should be provided modern equipment to collect garbage
15. Large furnaces should be built to dispose the dry garbage
16. The truck which comes to collect garbage can be installed with a high temperature furnace itself
17. The municipal workers should be made answerable
18. Job of garbage collection should be outsourced and the private contractor should charge a nominal fee to the residents
19. Households should be educated on how to make manure with the kitchen waste
20. Biometric attendance system should be installed in Municipal offices so that all the employees show up for work
21. Hawkers should be fined for littering
22. Government should develop better R&D centres for garbage management
23. Waste management should be taught in middle school
24. Stop illegal import of garbage (medical waste, hazardous chemicals, used end of life electronic equipment etc.)
25. All garbage vehicles (Trucks, Tempo, Lorries) should be properly closed while running with Garbage on Roads
26. Cleaning services should be outsourced to private agencies rather than government officials. There should be heavy fine in case of failure in their job and suspension from any further contracts more