UTILIZATION
OF DECOMPOSABLE ORGANIC MATERIAL AND KITCHEN WASTE IN
METRO CITIES
India generates about 60 million tonnes of trash every year. Ten million
tonnes of garbage is generated in just the metropolitan cities: Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata. The landfills of most of these
cities are already overflowing, with no space to accommodate fresh garbage
waste.
There are many
types of household wastes that are discarded by the residents. These includes:
kitchen waste (food waste), plastic waste (plastic bags, plastic bottle,
plastic containers, disposable Diapers, etc), electronic waste, packaging
waste, medical waste, garden waste, etc. Plastic waste takes many decades to
decompose. Cigarette
Butts takes 10-12 years, Leather shoes - 25-40 years and Aluminium Can - 200-500 years to
decompose. Awareness about safe disposal that include recycling different types
of waste is, therefore, important. But what is really important is to
devise mechanism for collection of different types of waste from the
residential colony, hotels and hostels.
The food waste, decomposable organic
material and kitchen waste can be used to produce the bio-gas, which is an
alternative fuel for cooking gas (LPG). Also, the waste materials can be
disposed off efficiently without any odor or flies and the
digested slurry from the bio-gas unit can be used as organic manure in the
garden. The collection of different waste in segregated form is
essential for the safe disposal of waste.
Just keep your home insect free. If
lizards do not find their prey, they will naturally leave the place. Similarly,
if there is no litter, rivers will be automatically clean. When
UP government can close illegal slaughter houses, all State Governments can
also close polluting factories like Dyes & Intermediates, pesticides,
tanneries, distilleries , sugar, etc without a functional waste water treatment
plant till they install a waste water treatment plant. For this the government
may provide long term soft loan to them. This step needs to be taken without
any discrimination as any discrimination may hurt to their competitiveness in
the domestic market. Similarly those Municipalities that are draining untreated
sewer water into water bodies may be adequately fined so that they are forced
to treat the sewer waste before draining water into the water bodies. The
government must provide them necessary financial assistance for the treatment
plant/bio-digesters.
Do we need an expert
committee or an IIT Engineer to assess one, which is more cost effective: (a) cleaning
of rivers or (b) collection of decomposable organic
material, kitchen waste and electronic waste from households,
hotels and hostels in metro cities? The decomposable
organic material and kitchen waste be used as input for making bio
gas and organic manure. Construction and plastic wastes may be recycled. Electronic
waste may be disposed off as per prescribed procedures in order to minimise
their adverse impact on environment.
Second, as to whether intensive use of organic manure along with drip irrigation on the divider of busy roads & road side and in the parks for growing plants (including Jamun trees near High Ways) and grass can significantly reduce the Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter(RSPM), Suspended Particulate Matter(SPM) etc in the urban metros. I ask my-self when this is simple why it has not been implemented so far in any metropolitan city including the national capital and Mumbai which is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India. I get the following answer. This requires sincerity of both political and bureaucratic administration. In more simple words this requires a standard operating procedure (SOP), sincere and hard work of team involving many government departments and there is hardly any scope of low fruit plucking for any corrupt officials.
Second, as to whether intensive use of organic manure along with drip irrigation on the divider of busy roads & road side and in the parks for growing plants (including Jamun trees near High Ways) and grass can significantly reduce the Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter(RSPM), Suspended Particulate Matter(SPM) etc in the urban metros. I ask my-self when this is simple why it has not been implemented so far in any metropolitan city including the national capital and Mumbai which is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India. I get the following answer. This requires sincerity of both political and bureaucratic administration. In more simple words this requires a standard operating procedure (SOP), sincere and hard work of team involving many government departments and there is hardly any scope of low fruit plucking for any corrupt officials.
