BEST PRACTICES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT 2010

1. BEST PRACTICES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT 2010 Mrs Almitra H Patel, MS MIT Member, Supreme Court Committee For Solid Waste Management almitrapatel@rediffmail.com 0 98443 02914 www.almitrapatel.com

2. BASIC REQUIREMENTS OF MSW RULES 2000 Keep waste off the road, collect door-to-door Collect wastes Unmixed, ‘wet’ every 24 hrs. TRANSPORT WASTES UNMIXED: Wet = Food waste, Dry = Recyclables, Inerts = Road dust, drain silt, debris MINIMISE WASTE : Compost wet waste Landfill only pre- and post- compost rejects, NOT MIXED WASTE even with soil cover !

3. SURYAPET, A.P. is the only Zero-Dustbin AND ZERO WASTE TOWN Got ISO 14000 in 2006. Secret of success: Only Administrative WILL with No Excuses. TOTAL COMMITMENT to Waste Management by BOTH Commissioner AND Councillors. Achieved by Cmr Khadar Saheb in 18 months from 2002 only with own Mpl labour and NO State or Central funding, NO user charges to citizens, NO NGO support. (Suryapet’s Powerpoint available)

4. For 1.03 lakh town in 2002, 8 Self-Help Groups given Transport Contract in own SJSRY Tipper-Tractors. Stops every few houses to pick up UNMIXED waste. Dry waste compartment was raised with wire-mesh cage for higher volume. Suryapet Waste is TRANSPORTED UNMIXED so citizens cooperate

5. Wet waste tipped out first for stack- and vermi- composting

6. Dry Waste unloaded next in Mpl shed with sorting bays. Waste-pickers hired for sorting & baling for sale, net income upto Rs 1 lac pm

7. ½ km drains per man, silt directly into wheely-bins unloaded into truck along with debris, for roadside widening & pot-hole filling. Senior citizens enjoy evenings on stone benches over odor-free drains now. Inert waste collected SEPARATELY in afternoon.

8. Managing construction waste is very important to keep streets clean. Sweeping should be done by long-handled brooms.

9. Decentralised waste mgt can use city spaces. Park wastes must be managed on-site, with once-a-week collection of garden waste.

10. Market waste is easy to compost or feed to goats/goshala. Can collect stall-to-stall hourly for fresh waste, spotless market.

11. Unload handcart drums into covered bio-bins instead of open waste-points or street dustbins or dumper-placers. Mumbai’s ALMs replaced street open dumps or dumper-placers with bio-bins and pretty plants. Biotreatment services by an NGO. Bio-bins can be paid for by free advertising rights to sponsors. TRANSPORT SAVINGS EASILY PAY FOR DECENTRALISED BIO-BINS TO BIOCULTURE-TREAT WET WASTES

12. Two biobins 6’x3’x2.5’ high serve 1-200 apts. Waste added daily is sprinkled with bioculture or 5%-cowdung-water or good compost and turned daily with a three-prong fork

13. Every ground-floor occupier must keep clean the open drain and footpath adjoining their frontage. May need city Rules. Hand-sieve bio-bin-stabilised compost to beautify street, or sell if there is demand.“Mera Aangan Saaf” policy keeps drains clean, locals happy, less desilting cost.

14. Collect Dry Waste SEPARATELY from Wet waste, at a different time or fixed day of the week or month. Provide Ward-wise Collection Points or cash counters to Wastepicker Associations.

15. Compost is just well - Stabilised waste, sieved. After the 1st 8-hour operation of Mysore compost plant, volume of thin plastics, right, (only 8% by total weight) was more than volume of sieved fine compost, on left, awaiting blending and bagging for sale. Plastic wastes are a major problem in composting and need very costly machinery to remove

16. T N Rural Dev Dept gave plastic shredding machines to self-help groups, purchased it at Rs 12 per kg to replace 10% bitumen by weight, making far better roads at no extra cost. Collect through schools: 1 free pencil for 1 kg plastic; Sell pooled class collection for Eco Club activities. SHREDDED PLASTICS MAKE EXCELLENT BITUMEN ROADS : 1200 km in Tamil Nadu in 1 year!

17. DO NOT WAIT FOR PERFECT SOLUTIONS! STOP dumping of mixed waste at once! Stop ’dozing & levelling untreated wastes. In the same spot, unload waste in rows, use JCB to form wind-rows (long heaps) and spray with composting bio-cultures. This BIO – STABILISING reduces volume fast, controls odour and flies, and reduces offensive liquid leachate formation . Heap gets very warm, this kills pathogens.

18. To bio-stabilise waste, first unload it in 2-meter-high long heaps called wind-rows, with space between for air and 4-6 weekly turnings

19. Spray heaps with bioculture before and after forming a new heap

20. After spraying, shape the heaps into windrows 2 meters high.

21. Turn heaps weekly by hand or JCB, and spray with water if it is too dry. It is ready for sieving after 4-6 weeks.

22. Use simple mechanical sieves to sieve matured heaps for sale as compost, which farmers badly need today.

23. 20-yr Dryland Millet yields decline without Farm Yard Manure:

24. Paddy, 6 wks after transplanting. City compost used on left-side plot

25. Sona Masuri paddy benefited from compost use AT NO EXTRA COST: With Mysore city compost Without compost 0.5t city compost = Rs 1750 0 15th day DAP 100 kg Rs 800 200 kg Rs 1600 35th “ 19:19:19 100kg 800 200 kg 1600 55th day urea 50 kg 230 100 kg 460 potash 75kg 350 150 kg 700 Total Cost = Rs 3,930 Rs 4,360 Bellary photo March 2004 Bellary and data from Vennar Organics. City compost used from next year on 60 acres after this 1 acre trial.

26. IPNM = COMBINED USE OF CITY COMPOST & CHEMICAL FERTILISER BENEFITS:Humus helps retain Soil Moisture Avoids re-sowing if rains delayed. Less wilting. 4-5 waterings per crop instead of 6-7. MICROBES HELP FERTILISER UPTAKE : Urea absorption 40% goes up to ~ 90% STRONG ROOT SYSTEM=HEALTHY PLANT: Less pesticide required, less flower drop. Better size, colour, flavour, shelf life in fruits vegetables and flowers.

27. Compost also helps saline soils (top)to grow crops again (below, after 1 year)

28. OLD OPEN DUMPS MUST BE IMPROVED For small scattered heaps, make them convex to prevent rainwater pools on top and percolation, forming leachate. Make diversion drains on uphill side to keep out groundwater flow. Collection drain on downhill side. ‘BIO-MINING’ is best for larger heaps, successfully done at 6 locations, being started at many more. It removes 90% of waste to almost-level ground, no pollution. Do not use soil cover as leachate and methane will still form underneath. Do not use plastic Capping for unlined open dumps. It makes them an environmental time-bomb as at Malad, Mumbai. Methane escapes from sides into nearby bldgs.

29. HOW TO BIO-MINE OLD OPEN DUMPS 30-cm layers of waste are loosened and shaved off the top of old open dumps Bulky waste is hand-picked and sold or land-filled Composting bio-culture is sprayed on this, along with odour-control bio-cultures if required Then it is moistened & shaped into normal 2m high aerobic windrows, and turned weekly, 4 times. Temperatures reach 60-70oC, volumes reduce by 40%. Resultant “bio-earth is used in parks or to cover road/rail embankments for revegetation

30. BENEFITS of GARBAGE BIO-MINING:RECYCLING OF LAND SPACE Clear old dumpsites rapidly to almost ground level and reuse for waste stabilising or as landfills for stabilised or inert wastes. Useful recycling of organics for use on road/rail embankments or to blend with fresh compost. Drastic volume reduction of waste needing landfilling. Extend life of precious site, no objections. Inner-city land is levelled, with near-zero emissions of leachate and methane, so can use at once for parks or playgrounds.