Sustainable Futures: A Waste Management Perspective - India

@2013, ICE, All rights reserved
Sustainable Futures:
A Waste Management Perspective - India
Prepared by:
Ankush Samant & Prashant
Vutha
ICE, India.

Table of Contents
• Introduction to waste management in India
– Why waste management?
– Classification of waste
– (Re)Uses of waste
– Stakeholders involved in waste management
• Global scenario
• Global trends
• Waste management challenges in India and proposed solutions

Introduction – Why Waste Management?
• Urban India generates 188,500 tonnes per day (TPD) of waste at an
average rate of 0.5 kg of waste per person per day.
• The increasing waste generation has a link to the increasing GDP. As per
capita income increases the spending power increases that results in
increased waste generation.
• Urban India produces 68 million tons of MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) per
year, which is a 50% increase in waste generation since 2001.
• At this rate, urban India will generate 160.5 million tons per year by 2041!
7/22/2013 3

Classification of Waste
• Organics – 51%
• Inert Waste (Dust and related
waste materials) – 31%
• Recyclables (paper, plastic,
metal, glass) – 17.5%
7/22/2013 4
Organics
Inert Waste
Recyclables

Waste As Per City Type
7/22/2013 5
37%
24%
8%
5%
4%
5%
6%
5%
6%
Percentage Share of Waste
Metro Class A Class B Class C Class D
Class E Class F Class G Class H
Source of Data:
http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Sustainable%20Solid%20Waste
%20Management%20in%20India_Final.pdf

Urban Waste: (Re)Uses
Current techniques to use waste:
• Recycling – Reuse of materials that are not
biodegradable. E.g., plastic.
• Aerobic Composting – A way to treat kitchen
and garden waste that otherwise would have
been dumped at landfills.
• Small Scale Biomethanation – Conversion of
organic material into biogas through biological
processes. Residue can be used as agricultural
manure. Biogas has numerous uses.
• Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) – Fuel produced
using waste as raw material, using mostly
combustibles (plastics) and biodegradable
materials.
• Waste to Energy (WTE) – Conversion of waste
into electricity or heat for commercial purposes.
7/22/2013 6

Stakeholders Involved
1. Study of waste in urban households
2. Policies & guidelines
3. Seek funding to set up
waste treatment plants
4. Technical
guidance &
feasibility study
5. Proposal
submission for
plant set-up
6.Implementing waste
management programs
POLICY MAKERS
URBAN &
LOCAL BODIES
COMMON
USERS

Lifecycle Of Waste
Collection through NGOs - 70-90% waste 90% of the collected waste is dumped at landfills
10-20% of the collected waste
in landfills is openly burnt
Such open burning of
waste releases 22,000
tons of pollutants every
year…this is only in
Mumbai!
Waste segregation
at source still a
major problem

Global Scenario & Trends
Global Waste Management Trends

Global Scenario
India has alliances for
knowledge transfer with
Sweden & Denmark

Bottle Bank Arcade, Sweden
Many people throw away their
plastic bottles and cans. Very
few people recycle their glass
bottles. One reason is that we
don‘t get appropriate value in
return for our cans and plastic
bottles.
An idea was proposed in the Fun
Theory competition, an
initiative of German automaker
Volkswagen. A machine was
developed to gamify the
activity of collection of waste
bottles, so that people are not
just rewarded with a good
conscience but also get a
smile in return. Bottle bank
arcade glass recycling is an
innovation in which a glass
bottle collection bin was
refitted to resemble an arcade
machine.

Plastic Gold, Cameroon
Constance Gubong Tangu was
tired of seeing plastic waste
clog the streets and streams
of Bamenda, the capital of
Cameroon‘s Northwest region.
So in 2010, Tangu, a teacher
and craftswoman, became an
environmental entrepreneur.
She decided to transform the
city‘s waste into jewelry.
She and four friends started the
New Era Foundation in 2010.
The organization oversees
several environmental
projects in Bamenda and
trains women to produce
jewelry from recycled paper
and plastic.

Waste Creates Music, Paraguay
Social worker Favio Chávez was
looking to provide local children in
Caterura, Paraguay an activity to
keep them occupied and away from
garbage heaps. He came up with an
interesting project along with a
garbage picker named Nicolás
Gómez. The project was to create
musical instruments using waste as
the raw material.
The large landfill provides the waste
materials that are used to make
musical instruments such as
violins, drum sets and cellos. These
instruments are then sold to
generate revenues.
Now a group of filmmakers, producers,
and photographers are trying to tell
the story of the orchestra through a
documentary titled Landfill
Harmonic.

Waste Cloth As a Resource, India
Goonj – mobilizing urban waste
cloth and repositioning the same
for rural India
One of the preliminary causes of
death in India is lack of proper
clothing. Also million(s) of rural
women are forced to use
unhygienic means due to non-
affordability of quality sanitary
pads.
Goonj uses vast quantities of
underutilized or waste cloth from
urban homes as a resource to
cater to the clothing and other
basic needs of the rural and
poor community.

Vertical Garden From Soda Bottles, Brazil
This vertical garden was created as
part of the TV show Lar Doce Lar
(Home Sweet Home), in which
producer Luciano Huck and the
designers at Rosenbaum
collaborated to transform the homes
of several dozen poor Brazilian
families.
The beautiful vertical garden is made
out of hundreds of recycled soda
bottles. The bottles are suspended
on the wall of a walkway outside the
home and contain edible plants like
lettuce and herbs so the family can
grow their own organic vegetables.
The response to the Rodriguez
family's wall garden was so
overwhelming that Rosenbaum
eventually released the garden
design plans so people could build
their own.
The design plan -
http://www.rosenbaum.com.br/blog/r
osenbaum-responde-ldl-48-horta-
vertical/

Landscaping With Printer Cartridges, Australia
It is very difficult to recycle Printer
cartridges. They are often complex bits
of equipment with lots of small
components made from different types
of plastic and metal. So, even after
extracting reusuable materials recyclers
are left with a mix of plastics that is
effectively unusable.
An Australian company ‗Close the Loop‘
came up with eWood. It looks like
hardwood, feels like hardwood and can
be worked and shaped like hardwood,
but it's actually made from the leftover
bits of plastic from printer cartridges
that is melted down and extruded into
bars. It is safe to use in gardens, as
Close the Loop uses a method that gets
rid of the brominated flame retardants
present in plastics. Hence, the plastic is
100 percent recycled.

Biodiversity From Waste, Singapore
The island nation of Singapore faces some unique
challenges in waste management. Space is at
a premium on this densely populated island,
and with the country's last remaining landfill
approaching capacity in 1999, the government
needed an alternative solution.
The government implemented a recycling program
that took care of around 54 per cent of waste,
and an incineration program for most of the
remaining waste. This resulted in ash as the
leftover.
This was when an innovative idea of the world‘s
first offshore landfill was conceived. Pulau
Semakau a new island is built with sealed cells
filled with incinerated rubbish. Semakau landfill
receives about 1400 tonnes of incineration ash
and 600 tonnes of non-incinerable waste
everyday.
But Pulau Semakau is far more than a dump. A
careful waste management program has been
in place that has made this island a bio-
diversity hotspot- home to flourishing
mangroves, rich coral reefs and a wealth of
bird and marine life. It has even become a
tourist attraction in its own right.

Redistribution Of Medicine, USA
While 1 out of 3 adults in the United
States does not have the means
or access to prescription
medicines, a staggering $5 billion
of usable medicine ends up being
destroyed in incinerators!
Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute
Unused Medicine (SIRUM) is a
social enterprise started by
Stanford University students to
decrease the amount of medicine
and medical supplies that go to
waste by redistributing unused,
non-expired drugs to free and low
cost medical clinics.
SIRUM‘s online platform connects
health facilities, manufacturers
and wholesalers to people with
needs in safety-net clinics. SIRUM
also coordinates the logistics
including itemized drug manifests,
tracking and shipping.

Reverse Logistics of Food, USA
In a survey by the NRDC in USA, it was
discovered that 30% of the fruit produce
never makes it out of the farm because
they are not ―visually correct for large
retail entities.‖ Grocery stores throw out
43 billion pounds of food each year.
About $15 billion worth of produce is
unused or in excess of the demand.
FoodStar (USA), offers a solution in the
same way that a discount clothing
retailer sources factory overruns.
FoodStar teamed up with the California
grocery chain Andronico‘s- customers
were able to buy these fruits at hugely
discounted prices. Instead of becoming
cattle feed or garbage, these apples
actually reached people.

Waste : Form of Art, USA
Founded by photographer and sculptor
Dwayne Bass, TWOvital strives to
create awareness of environmental
issues and promote sustainability
through its art.
TWOvital has created additional
sustainable sculptures as part of
green building projects throughout the
Southeast and in Washington DC.
These sculptures have been crafted
from a number of different materials
including metal, wood, foam
insulation, PVC piping, and recycled
rubber—all taken from construction
sites and buildings that were being
demolished or renovated.

Furniture Using Waste As Raw Material, US
RUBBLOX is a furniture line created
by Dwayne Bass, founder of
TWOvital. It is manufactured from
recycled rubber (such as car tires)
in the state of Georgia. They take
rubber that is no longer suitable for
use and have all the fibers, steel
belts, and impurities removed in
order to work with the finest and
cleanest shredded rubber. The
rubber is then dyed using
organically mined dyes which are
non-toxic for children, pets and the
environment. They then shape and
mould the recycled rubber into
cubes, cylinders and many other
shapes to meet all design needs.

Upcycling, South Africa
Upcycling - creative green designs that
incorporate the old with the new.
The imaginative work of Cape Town
designer, Katie Thompson, is
something special. Her work blends
the romantic and nostalgic with the
practical and current for a fresh and
whimsical vibe. Her initiative Recreate
offers innovative home décor designs
using old and discarded items.
One such product uses vintage suitcases
to make comfortable yet whimsical
chairs and settees.

India: Challenges and Solutions
Waste Management Challenges in India and Proposed
Solutions

@2013, ICE, All rights reserved 7/22/2013 24
Potential Loss in India
Snapshot of the potential loss of resources in India:
• 6.7 million TPY (tons per year) of recyclable material, which could have
been used as secondary raw materials in manufacturing industries, due to
the absence of source separation.
• 9.6 million tons of compost, which could have been used as a fertilizer
supplement, due to the absence of source separation and enough
composting facilities.
• 58 million barrels of oil energy equivalent in residues of composting
operations, which could have been used to generate electricity and displace
fossil fuels in RDF (fuel generation) co-combustion plants or WTE (Waste
to Energy) power plants, due to the absence of WTE facilities.

The Pressing Issues
• Issue 1: While technology and knowledge transfer arrangements
with the West are already in place for treatment of waste, e.g.,
different colored bins to segregate waste at source, ―the basic
issue in India is lack of awareness and education about the
importance of waste segregation at source.‖
• Issue 2: Currently the transportation of waste from collection points
to the transfer stations is done through informal channels like
NGOs and ragpickers. The mixed waste is taken to the transfer
stations where it is segregated manually. The waste is carried in an
open truck thus also risking the spread of harmful bacteria.

Issue 1 – Segregation of Waste at Source
Although a simple way is to create color-coded bins to encourage collection of
segregated waste at source, the bigger question is will people actually pay
attention to detail and make the effort of throwing the right waste in the
right bin?
Problems:
1. Mixed waste collection
2. Fowl smell and spread of
germs
3. Lack of motivation among
people to find a garbage
bin and dispose waste
4. Collection and segregation
of waste becomes a time
consuming and costly
affair
5. Desired results are not
achieved since many
waste treatment
techniques require
segregated waste as input

Proposed Solution: Game to Spread Awareness
An Angry Birds theme-based mobile application game can be developed to gamify
the entire exercise to educate people about segregation of waste at source.
Through the game we can try to habituate people to put the right waste in the right
section. By making the game addictive and fun, we can attempt to achieve an
ecosystem where people dispose of waste in a segregated manner with a smile on
their face!
Points for right basket
Minus points for wrong basket
If you go wrong too many
times YOU STINK !!!

Issue 2: Collection & Transportation
Collection either by cycles or small trucks
Transfer Station – Manual
Segregation DisposalProblems
1. Mixed waste collection
2. Time lost in manual
segregation
3. Risk of fowl smell and
bacteria spreading due to
unhygienic transportations
4. Collection by informal
sector thus no set
protocols followed
5. Time consuming & costly
activity (Rs. 1500/ton)

Proposed Solution: Jugaad Waste Cart
The innovative waste cart will be an effort to ―formalize‖ the efforts of the otherwise informal
sector involved in waste collection. This will ensure that the segregated waste is
collected in a more hygienic manner and can be quickly transported for treatment. The
bikes and cycles used can be old and unused ones which are collected through a
“donate your bike/cycle” campaign.
Innovative waste cart that is hygienic, eco-
friendly (made from recycled material). The cart
can be either fitted to a bike or a cycle
depending on the transportation need for the
area covered.

Address:
No. 184, Mission Street,
Puducherry - 605001
India.
Tel : +91 413 4210583/4/5
+91 413 4210583 / 4 / 5
ice.humanfactors.com/
facebook.com/uxtrendspotting
@UXTrendspotting
Contact ice@humanfactors.com for any further queries and
feedback.
7/22/2013 30
Thank You!

References
• http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Sustainable%20Solid%20Waste%20M
anagement%20in%20India_Final.pdf
• http://eco-wise.blogspot.in/2010/07/waste-reduction-starts-at-home.html
• http://www.nswai.com/waste.php
• http://www.thefuntheory.com/bottle-bank-arcade-machine
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/27/paraguay-orchestra-music-from-garbage-
instruments-recycled-trash_n_2370798.html
• http://www.attero.in/show_content.php?id=1&scat=4
• http://goonj.org/?page_id=5
• https://sirum.org/about/what_we_do
• http://twovital.com/reclaimed-furniture/
• http://rubblox.com/gallery/
• http://www.upcyclethat.com/recreate/2820/
• www.energetica-india.net/
• http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/06/21/2932709.htm
• http://www.globalpressinstitute.org/africa/cameroon/entrepreneurial-women-
cameroon-transform-plastic-waste-wealth#ixzz2ZJDvFYAD
• http://www.thisiscolossal.com/
• http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/2009/03/semakau-landfill.html

Sustainable Futures: A Waste Management Perspective - India

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Sustainable Futures: A Waste Management Perspective - India

Similar to Sustainable Futures: A Waste Management Perspective - India (20)

More from Institute of Customer Experience

More from Institute of Customer Experience (14)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Sustainable Futures: A Waste Management Perspective - India