How to Construct and Maintain an Effective Waste Management System

Problems in Effective Waste Management :- 

Constructing and maintaining an effective waste management system is easily possible in many developed nations whereas in a developing nation like ours with its huge population it is still a big challenge. Even though our government has started few large scale biogas plants and composting systems , usually maintaining them has always been a problem. So what are the few effective steps that actually work?

General Awareness :- 

 It is the fundamental duty of every citizen to make sure that all wastes are disposed of carefully and safely for a better tomorrow. Throwing wastes to roads , canals and other less occupied areas will only harm us as they can create epidemics and an unhealthy environment. Organizations and committees should come forward and take leading roles in effectively managing their area as sewage free. Waste disposal and management should be an important subject at schools and colleges .Students should come forward and become active participants in raising voices against improper methods of waste disposal.

Cooperate and support your city cooperation or private local institutions that come forward to help in managing wastes in your local areas. Try to use separate bins for biodegradable and non degradable wastes. Sell the plastic and metal wastes or give it away for recycling.

Minimizing Wastes in First Place:- 

Even if you are financially well, try to repair or maintain the damaged electronic items if possible rather than disposing them and going for a new one.

How To Manage Biodegradable Wastes

 Biodegradable wastes can be collected  and given  to cooperations that come to collect it. But this is a problem since in a country like ours we do not have a proper landfill to dispose these wastes and most of the large scale bio gas plants build are not maintained well and is usually a failure . So the best possible way is to create our own compost plants at our little garden . The following are the different types:-

Simple Pile Compost:- 

 All it need is a little space cleared of grass and a wooden or plastic bin . Place few chopped brush or other coarse material on area where bin is to be kept .Mix moistened grass leaves saw dust manure and little soil, coffee beans, bread, egg shells, fruits etc. Things that should be avoided are bones, cat and dog manure, chicken ,fish ,milk, meat and oil. The bin should be 3 to 5 feet high. Keep the mixture in the bin for two weeks and it would turn into manure. The manure or compost is ready within 2 or 3 months when it is dark brown in color and crumbly.

Manage Biodegradable Wastes

Vermi Compost:- 

All this need is a bin, a bedding consisting of long striped moistened newspaper cuttings for the worms, worms(Elsenia fetida and Lumricus rubellus)and of course the kitchen waste

If  1 pound of waste is produced then use a bin that is 3’ by 3’ Place the bedding in the bin and empty the worms into it. Set it aside for 2 days and then add the wastes(kitchen wastes).The worms will do their job.. Use a glove while doing this.

Vermi Compost Bin

Disposing Pesticides :- 

 Replace with natural manure where ever possible. While discarding triple rinse the container making sure most of the chemical is sprayed to the plant and dispose of the container .

Other ways:- 

  These include checking if flats have a proper maintained waste management system before buying instead of checking for gyms ,swimming pools and other luxuries as first priority.

Audited By  Smitha Santhosh

Major Obstacles in Waste Management System and Efficient Ways to Overcome it

A proper waste management system requires successful completion of various steps starting from waste prevention, waste minimization, waste treatment, disposal and recycling. In developing countries achieving such a system is a big challenge. Here we are focusing on such obstacles faced and some simple solutions to them.

A developing nation faces many problems like –

1. lack of organizations and systems at the local and central level .

2. lack of financial facilities to efficiently run the waste management system .

3. Lack of proper technology and lack of proper appointed team to develop or borrow new technologies.

4. Poor literacy level of the rural population.

5. large population density and the larger waste disposal requirement.

6. Lack of general awareness and interests by the public.

7. lack of support by the government authorities to train or educate the public in proper waste disposal systems.

The main procedure of waste collection and disposal in developing nations are collection from houses by simple organizations appointed by the cooperation or other local bodies sometimes as less frequently as twice a week and these garbage are collected in open trucks giving an unaesthetic look and the workers labored do not have safety dress required to handle waste and due to this they often fall sick . The wastes are then dumped into landfills without proper leachate treatment plants and these landfills are not buffered zones with people living close by leading to issues raised by them.

In developing nations the waste management cannot be entirely left to the government. Therefore integrating the private sector formal and other informal bodies can only be a solution to the success of proper waste management.

The various ways to overcome these issues are by-

1. The government should take this seriously and include a proper waste management system for next 20 years and work accordingly to reach that goal.
2. It is best for the government to encourage and educate people on the importance of disposing waste at the source level and converting waste into resource rather than opting for costlier equipments like incinerators which are of no use.
3. Plans that provide more job opportunities is to be implanted like street sweepers and safety kits for them and regular free medical check ups .
4. There should be a periodic third person investigation of the solid waste management done by the municipality
5. The government should collect a special fee from the polluter and laws regarding polluting the environment should be made more serious.
6. The government can also levy a small tax for waste management from citizens.

Many laws also should come to place like

1 . Laws that regulate higher tariff on commodities with large volume of packaging or that which produces higher volume of waste

2. Landfill areas should be declared as buffer zones and no development should take place around it for 50 meters

3.In order to encourage private sector participation grants of loans and subsidies can be given with exemption for duties for machinery etc.

4.A research and development team has to be created for researching on newer land fills and newer technologies for proper waste management

5. At the municipality level they can open fairs and exhibition where old things can be traded for the needy on fixed days monthly.

Only if there is a united effort and a true willingness in majority of the citizens mind to achieve a clean zero waste environment can a nation be fully successful in its waste management system

Resource Recovery Plant - A New Solution To Our Needs ?

Before the waste management crisis enters a crucial state in the capital city of Trivandrum, saju and family has devised an innovative method of waste disposal. The "Resource Recovery System “was devised by Mr saju three months ago at his hometown.

Waste is nothing but a misplaced resource, says saju. Using this thought he created the resource recovery system. By simply returning the waste into soil we can totally recover the resource from waste. With just rupees 250 and a 10sq inch of land this system can easily be set up.

The method is as follows-

The waste is considerably reduced by squeezing it with great force and disposed into a cylindrical furnace. The bacteria that is hazardous to humans and plants are destroyed by the exposed sunlight and heat. The waste is not turned into manure inside the furnace but becomes manure when the decomposed waste is dug into the soil. A single cylindrical furnace is filled within 3 to 4 months .Once the waste is filled the cylinder is removed and the waste inside would have turned into a cake like substance .This cake like substance is then removed and dug directly into the mud. The total disposal of waste and resource recover through an eco friendly way is the advantage of this system. Plastic wastes can also be disposed into this plant. Plastic covers and sheets are pressed into blocks and these blocks can be taken and given away for recycling .Inspired, saju’s neighbors have already started using this system.

Mr. M.A swaminathan is conducting a research on this Resource Recovery Plant.

Some Best WM Practices in Other Locations in India

 In  Many cities, Private groups are doing doorstep collection on payment .Everywhere in India , SLUMS are the most cooperative.  419 slums in Mumbai have Take-away-bin system
 

Calcutta:  80% house-to-house collection using regular Municipal staff and usual wheelbarrows

Ahmedabad: 4 or 6-bin handcarts or tricycles to avoid double-handling of waste

Nasik: Trucks move from one street-corner to  another to have a city without street waste-bins

Surat:  Pin-point beats include bins on raised platforms, near drainage manholes

Mumbai: Only wet waste lifted from hi-rises

Pune : Union of women waste-pickers collects for a fee both dry waste for recycling   +  wet waste into city bins or compost pits

Bangalore : Citywide policy of dry-wet waste  separation at source, collected at doorstep by city sweepers or waste-transport contractors

Coorg: District cleanup by school-kids bringing their dry waste to school weekly for purchase by waste-buyers. Funds used classwise for Eco-Clubs.

Calcutta: 500,000 bookmarks with year’s calendar and civic messages .Kids make pretty wall-bags for dry waste
 

SEWA:  Weekly doorstep collection of dry waste by waste-picker women’s co-op, with public-info help by Bank Officers’ union

Why Waste To Energy System Fails ?

• Developing-country waste is very low calorie
• Cost is 6-8 times higher than for composting.
• Control of air-pollution is very expensive, and necessary but rarely well-maintained
• Fails if debris and road-dust are in the waste
• Works against interests of recycling industry and thousands of waste-dependent workers

Why We need a Decentralized Waste Management System?

• It saves enormously on waste-transport costs .
• Reduces waste volumes for disposal by 90%
• Saves on manures  for park maintenance

Who should do it?

• All institutions like colleges, hostels, hotels, hospitals, clubs, marriage-halls, jails, zoos.
• Apartment-complexes, bungalows, Govt and    city offices.
• All city-owned parks and sites.
• Many individuals enjoy doing it voluntarily.

Where it is done

• In garden strips along apartment walls, on terraces or in flower-pots or window-boxes
•  In local parks, traffic islands, road dividers
•  *  In conventional large street-bins
•  In sewage-farm premises
•  On temple lands or private farms

How it is done

• Biomethanation in factory canteens
• Vermi-culture (needs animal-husbandry care)
• Aerobic wind-rows or checker-brick bins
•  Anaerobic heaps at transfer-sites
•  With or without composting bio-cultures

Why Waste Separation at Source is important?

Source-separation will make cleaner streams of ‘dry’ waste available for recycling or re-use.

• There will be less injuries to waste-pickers.
•  Health hazards will be reduced.

Resouce Recovery System - Impurity Refining Pipe

Saju and his family have created a way to refine the waste produced in their house before the collision of impurity refining system of the state. It is in this way that the impurity refining system named ‘Resource Recovery System’ stared functioning three months ago at ‘Siva ganga’, Saju’s house. Advocate R.Saju is a resident of Attukal Airanimuttam.

Don’t get shocked at its name. It’s a very simple device. Waste is considered to be the unwanted resources found at unwanted places. The device is named so by Saju because it retakes the unwanted resources and is used to make the soil fertile. The cost of constructing such a device is just Rs.250 and it requires a space of just 10sq.inch.

 How It Works

The main part of this device is a pipe that removes maximum amount of moisture from bio wastes using force. The bio wastes are deposited in this pipe. The bacterias those are harmful to both man and plants are killed using the heat from sunlight. The production of manure is not done within the pipe. It changes into manure when dumped in the soil. This pipe has to be removed when completely filled with waste. Waste can be found in the form of cake inside this pipe. It can then be dug and directly put on agricultural land or soil. Saju suggests that it is a very convenient device which helps the impurities to be taken back to its place of origin after refining without any environmental problems.

Impurities such as plastic and polluted water can also be refined in it other than bio wastes. Plastic covers and packing covers can be changed into blocks of cakes by pressing it. It can be used for recycling. Water used for washing meat and fish and other polluted water, can also be separated by undergoing Anaerobic Combustion. 

A scientific study is going on at M. S Swaminathan Research foundation about the research recovery system. Understanding the usefulness of this device Saju’s neighbours have also become its admirers.

For more details about this device contact Saju at 9847463766.

What happened in Vilappil Plant