4. Sanitation

Garbage

Barring a few notable exceptions like Indore, most of India is literally drowning in garbage. Pune too has a massive waste problem.

This is not just an aesthetic issue but a very serious health hazard. It is responsible for the spread of infectious diseases, lung and cardiovascular conditions. And the mental strain of being surrounded by dirt and filth takes a very real toll on Punekars.

Garbage is also a hindrance in the management of the stray dog issue. The presence of BioMedical waste in the dams of Pune is a worrying phenomenon.

Pune generates over 2200 MT of solid waste everyday. 15000 government employees are employed in dealing with this. Yet the city is far from clean! The average household waste generation in the city is 0.238 kg/person per day.

But there is a huge difference between socio-economic groups. lower-income groups contributed 0.130 kg/day per person, the middle income groups 0.263 kg; and the daily waste generated by the high-income group is 0.386 kg/day per person. Obviously, more consumption means more waste. Approx 70% of household waste is organic (wet waste).

Challenges

Segregation – Wet and Dry Garbage has to be segregated at source by law for years but we have not been able to enforce this, leading to landfills. Garbage Dumps / Landfills – These are hazardous to the environment and especially to citizens living around it. It is an act of crime against humanity that we subject our own fellow Indians to such living conditions.
Littering – While personal littering at public places is a cultural issue, dumping of garbage in certain arrears is more a symptom of lack of planning and management by the government.
Burning of Garbage – Such unofficial garbage heaps are often set on fire by the local residents leading to a serious health hazard.

Existing System

SWaCH – PMC Partnership https://www.pmc.gov.in/en/swach In 2005 a pilot program implemented by KagazKach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat in collaboration with the Department of Adult Education, SNDT Women’s University enabled 1500 waste pickers to become service providers for the door to door collection of waste from households in Pune city.

This considerably improved their conditions of work and upgraded their livelihoods effectively bridging the gap between households and the municipal waste collection service.

The pilot has been operational since 2006 and SWaCH and SWaCH was formed in 2007. SWaCH is India’s first wholly-owned cooperative of self-employed waste collectors and other urban poor. It is an autonomous enterprise that provides front-end waste management services to the citizens of Pune. https://swachcoop.com/

For the longest time, Indore has been viewed as a story of successful waste processing and community engagement. But it must be highlighted that a better primary collection model exists in our city longer than Indore, completely led by waste pickers of Pune. We, as a city, make a difference in that regard.

We not only care about waste collection but also about our waste collectors. This is a heartening achievement.

The examples of Helsinki and Randwick city might be the best cases for the Global North’s demography and waste character, but in the Global South, the scenario is completely different as our waste character is totally different. It requires a different kind of handling than machines which our informal waste management sector has been contributing to significantly.

37% of Pune’s waste is recycled directly at waste pickers’ level which is believed to be the highest in the country. There are many cities in developed countries like Germany, the US etc, waste collection service is provided weekly, imagine something like that in Pune. Solutions like waste to energy/fuel are even more dangerous. They practically emit carcinogenic gases by burning plastic at very high temperatures.

So, successful models in the global north are not only expensive and fetch little success in our context but also directly pose a threat to the prevalent existence of the unorganised informal sector including waste pickers, scrap dealers, and recyclers.

Challenge

Segregation – In the 65% city that has SWaCH coverage, at source segregation rate is 98% which is commendable. We have achieved that only through engagement between citizens and waste pickers. Without any additional support system of awareness and outreach.

Solution – Focus on 100% compliance through education and awareness drives on one hand and fines for non compliance on the other. Enforcement of in-situ wet waste management must be included. It is mandated by law for any property constructed after 2000 and any bulk waste generator with over 100 kg total waste generation per day or over 50 households to process their wet waste in their own backyard. Many defaulters send their wet waste to PMC vehicles. We need a solid community engagement program for this.

Aawra is a platform that helps one understand how to dispose of waste. For eg, how should we dispose a plastic pouch full of pickle? Aaawra attempts to give guidance on how to dispose of that. https://aawra.notion.site/aawra/Search-95c8d6154c8745eba905aa3dad113a35

Best Practices

Mysore

Today, roughly half the solid waste generated is recycled at the sewage farm in Vidyaranyapuram which has a capacity to handle 250 tonnes a day. Besides this, there are nine five-tonne decentralised units as well, but only seven of them are working.

This means that almost 150 tonnes of waste still enter the landfill. To resolve this called for an out-of-the-box solution, and that’s what MCC has found. It has signed a MoU with a private company to procure all the dry, non-biodegradable waste the city generates directly from the civic workers.

Each poura karmika will be paid ₹100 a day for every 100 kg of dry waste collected and sold. After topping the list of clean cities of India for two consecutive years, Mysuru now has added another feather in its cap. The heritage city has been declared an ‘Open Defecation Free City’. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/Mysuru-declared-Open-Defecation-Free-city/article14650680.ece http://www.cips.org.in/uploads/documents/2013/27th_Dec/Best_Practices_in_Sanitation-P_M_Kulkarni.pdf https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/clean-sweep-how-does-mysuru-bag-the-cleanest-city-tag-year-after-year/article25919964.ece

Indore

Indore today generates over 1,115 MT of garbage a day and all of it is collected from the source whether it is a household or commercial establishment.
The door-to-door service was started in January 2016 as a pilot projects in two of the 84 wards in the city. It took almost a year to achieve 100% door-to-door garbage collection. Indore through its commendable collaborative efforts has achieved segregation of waste at source at 100% of its household’s and commercial units.
Citizens of Indore played a significant role in making the city neat and clean. The cleanliness scenario of Indore was changed by improved habits of its people.
Within a span of one year the Municipal Corporation successfully sensitized citizens for segregation at source and not dumping garbage in open areas.
The Swachhata story of Indore is truly transformation through community participation.

Note: as mentioned above, solutions from the Global North i.e. developed countries cannot be implemented in Pune due to cost and other factors. We have mentioned these here only for reference sake.

Helsinki

Finland’s waste management system has developed in close cooperation between municipalities, private companies involved in waste treatment and producer responsibility organizations. The leading role of municipalities in waste management formed the basis for the management of MSW, and ensured the availability of services under all circumstances. Finland has moved from collecting waste and dumping it in landfills to reusing waste as raw materials and energy in a relatively short period of time.

Automated Waste Collection Systems in Randwick City

Randwick City Council is investigating the feasibility of an automated underground waste collection system (AWCS) in Kensington and Kingsford to reduce the number of garbage bins on the streets and the number of collection vehicles as well as increasing recycling and reducing litter in the town centres. Council appointed SLR to undertake a scoping and feasibility analysis for an underground AWCS.

Stockholm

Sustainability: Stockholm’s sanitation system is designed to be sustainable. The city uses a variety of methods to reduce its environmental impact, including: https://sweden.se/climate/sustainability/swedish-recycling-and-beyond
Recycling: Stockholm has a high recycling rate of over 50%. This means that less waste ends up in landfills, which reduces the city’s carbon emissions.
Composting: Stockholm composts all of its food waste. This produces organic fertilizer that is used to grow crops in the city’s parks and gardens.
Energy recovery: Stockholm uses energy from its wastewater treatment plants to heat homes and businesses. This reduces the city’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Innovation: Stockholm is constantly innovating its sanitation system. For example, the city is testing a new system that uses drones to collect waste from hard-to-reach areas. https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/5/4/109
Integrated system: Stockholm’s sanitation system is integrated, which means that all of the different components of the system work together to ensure that waste is managed in a sustainable way. For example, the city’s wastewater treatment plants produce energy that is used to heat homes and businesses.
Focus on prevention: Stockholm focuses on preventing waste from being produced in the first place. For example, the city offers composting and recycling programs to encourage citizens to reduce their waste.
Education and outreach: Stockholm invests in education and outreach programs to raise awareness of sanitation issues and to encourage citizens to get involved in the city’s sanitation efforts

Conclusion

While we need to invest heavily in processes and systems of garbage collection, segregation and disposal, we need to focus on the community aspect of this problem.