Environmental Auditing: Management of Municipal Solid Waste

Ramachandra T.V. Energy & Wetlands Research Group, CES RNO 215 Centre for Ecological Sciences Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India E Mail: cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in , energy@ces.iisc.ernet.in Telephone: 91-080-23600985 / 2293 3099/ 2293 2506 Telefax: 91-080-23601428 / 23600085 / 23600683 [CES TVR] URL: http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/Welcome.html Shruthi Bachamanda Centre for Sustainable Technology, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 560 012

1. Introduction 2. Municipal Solid Waste Management Audit 3. Methods 4. A Case Study Environmental Audit of MSWM in Bangalore City 5. Results and Discussion 6. Conclusion 7. Acknowledgement 8. Reference

Abstract

    The Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) has become an acute problem due to enhanced economic activities and rapid urbanisation. It has received increased attention by the government in recent years to handle solid wastes in a safe and hygienic manner. In this regard, environmental audit of MSWM for Bangalore city has been carried out through the collection of secondary data from the government agencies, and interviewing stakeholders and field surveys. Field survey was carried out in seven wards (representative samples of the city) to understand the practice and the lacuna. The audit was carried out functional element wise in selected wards to understand the efficacy and shortfalls (if any) of MSWM. 17.5% of the commercial areas have community bins and 94% of the residential areas have adopted a door-to-door collection. Segregation of wastes achieved in these methods of collection is 3%. There are no intermediate transfer stations present in any of the wards. However, trucks at specified point at stipulated time in a few wards helps to carry out the functions of a transfer station. Among the trucks used for the disposal of wastes from wards to disposal sites, 41.43% have polythene covering. Recycling is carried out mainly by the informal sector (rag pickers) has high level of efficiency and the recyclables are being retrieved by this sector at all stages starting from collection to disposal of wastes at dump sites. As the major composition of waste is organic, waste treatment option like composting is successful in Bangalore and currently 3.14% waste reduction is achieved through composting. Ultimately, about 79.85% of the waste is disposed in dump yards.

    Keywords: Solid Waste, environmental auditing, functional elements, composting, landfill sites, Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM)

Introduction :

    Solid waste generation is a continually growing problem at global, regional and at local levels. Solid wastes are organic and inorganic waste materials produced by various activities of the society, which have lost their value to the first user. Improper disposal of solid wastes pollute all the vital components of the living environment (i.e., air, land and water) at regional and global levels. Due to rapid increase in production and consumption, quantity of wastes generated by the urban society has increased. The problem is more acute in developing nations than in developed nations, as the economic growth as well as urbanisation is more rapid. This necessitates management of solid waste at generation, storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing, and disposal in an environmentally sound manner in accordance with the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics and environmental considerations. Thus, solid waste management includes all administrative, financial, legal, planning, and engineering functions (Ramachandra, 2006, Ramachandra and Varghese, 2003).

    The environmentally sound management of solid wastes issue had received the attention of international and national policy making bodies and citizens. At the international level the awareness regarding waste began in 1992 with the Rio Conference, where efficient handling of waste was made as one of the priorities of Agenda 21 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agenda21.htm). The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 focused on initiatives to accelerate the shift to sustainable consumption and production, and the reduction of resource degradation, pollution, and waste (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/aboutCsd.htm). The priority is being given to waste minimisation, recycle, and reuse followed by the safe disposal of waste to minimise pollution.

    The government of India has taken many initiatives and implemented new technologies and methods by giving loans for setting up composting plants to encourage proper management of solid waste since 1960’s (MoEF, 2005). The MSWM problem was compounded with rapid urbanisation. Due to increased public awareness of MSWM, a public litigation was filed in the Supreme Court, which resulted in the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. Government for the first time now has included private organisations in providing this public service (DPCC, 2002). New methods of storage, collection, transportation, processing and disposal are being explored and implemented. It is necessary to evaluate the current process at this stage to understand whether the methods being implemented are suitable for the Indian scenario and to identify the lacuna in the adopted methods. This requires an auditing of all functional elements of MSWM considering the environmental constraints. An environmental audit of MSWM in Bangalore city was undertaken apart from evaluating the Indian MSWM scenario to understand the shortcomings,

    Environmental auditing first began with the principle of ‘polluters pay’ to prevent liabilities towards the government. The companies voluntarily carried out audits of its operations and processes to prove that their products are environmentally friendly, with the increasing awareness of the public about environmental protection. Waste audits are undertaken for a variety of reasons, which is to (1) ensure regulatory compliance; (2) compare actual practices to best practice guidelines; (3) develop baseline generation data; (4) identify waste minimisation opportunities; and (5) establish sustainable development indicators or bench marks (Ashwood et al., 1996).

    In general, there are three different approaches for conducting a solid waste audit namely

(i) the back end approach, which measures the material generated by the entire facility, i.e. no attempt is made to assess the manner in which the wastes and recyclables are generated within the facility;

(ii) the activities approach, which tracks the waste and recyclables as they are generated throughout the facility by performing waste audits within each activity area, e.g. an office, warehouse, or cafeteria; and

(iii) the input/output approach, which tracks the material input and output associated with each activity area (CCME, 1996, Dowie et al., 1998.).

    Environmental audit was introduced in India to minimise generation of wastes and pollution. In this regard, a gazette notification was issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on March 13th , 1992 and later amended on April 22nd, 1993. This applies to an industry, operation or process requiring consent to operate under Section 25 of the water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 or under Section 21 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 (14 of 1981), or both, or authorisation under the Environmental Protection Act, 1986 (29 of 1986) (Srivastava, 2003). The notification requires that an Environmental Statement for the financial year ending on 31st March be submitted to the concerned State Pollution Control Board, on or before 30th September of the same year.

    The improvement of solid waste management is one of the greatest challenges faced by the Indian Government. The Government and the local municipal authorities have taken many initiatives towards the improvement of the current situation (The Expert Committee, 2000). The private sector has been included in the management of the municipal solid waste recently. To understand the level of success in the initiatives, it is necessary to carry out an audit. An audit will identify and bring out the lacuna and the loopholes in the current system with respect to the compliance with environmental regulations, occupational health, resource management, pollution prevention systems and occupational health and safety. This could be one of the best ways to increase awareness about the most suitable approaches to municipal solid waste management, the issues likely to be faced and the alternative measures that can be adopted considering the local scenario.

    Developed countries have provided technical assistance in SWM to developing countries focusing SWM as a technical problem with an assumption that solid waste problem can be solved with machineries (Lardinois, et al., 1997). The “blind technology transfer” of machinery from developed countries to developing countries and subsequent failure has brought attention to the need for appropriate technology (Beukering, et al., 1999) to suit the conditions in developing countries (type of waste, composition, treatment, etc.). Composition of the waste provides a description of the constituents of the waste and it varies widely from place to place, evident from Table 1. The most striking difference that can be seen is the difference in organic content which is much higher in the low income countries than the high income countries, while the paper and plastic content which is much higher in high income countries than low income countries. This shows the difference in consumption pattern, cultural and educational differences. In higher income countries the usage of disposable material, magazines and packaged food is used in higher quantity that results in a waste having higher calorific value, lower specific density, and lower moisture content. In case of lower income countries the usage of fresh vegetables to packaged food is much higher and mostly materials that are reusable are used. This results in a waste composition that has high moisture content, high specific weight and low calorific value.

Table 1: Relative composition of household waste in low, medium and high-income countries

Municipal Solid Waste Management Audit :

    Auditing has become an increasingly popular tool to assess the environmental policies, quality of implementation, compliance with national law and regulation, etc. Auditing has also been widely used in India especially in industries. The most popular audits that are carried out in India are energy audits (TERI, 2002) followed by environmental management systems audit where waste minimisation audit is an integral part (Mannan, 2002). Audits on MSWM in India is however very rare. In western countries, however audits on urban waste management have been carried out with respect to performance, compliance, risk, monitoring, existence of waste policy, quality of implementation, etc. Most of the countries have established an auditing institution to carry out the above given assessments.

    The Estonian Government had carried out an audit to assess the necessary conditions for successful implementation of the waste wise policy. Reports and questionnaires were used for the audit and it was observed that the management had serious shortcomings such as insufficient finance in comparison to the goal, management lacking organisation, no national waste management plan and poor monitoring (Linnas, 2001). Audit Institution of Costa Rica had carried out an audit on the solid waste management in two municipalities, with multiple focus such as pollution prevention system, management system and site audit. The audit was carried out by going through the reports, questionnaire interviews, and site surveys. The various aspects that were looked into are compliance with national law and regulation, occupational health and safety, operational risk, pollution prevention and resource management. The audit identified that the ministries were not integrated resulting in repetition of many working plans. The other findings were insufficient public awareness programs, lack of new methodologies and technologies, insufficient financial support and improper monitoring. The management and control of the dump was investigated with regard to national health legislation and technical regulations. Checklists and site surveys were used as tools for this audit. From this audit it was observed that there was no urban cleanliness plan charted out by the municipal authority, serious violations of the legislations, no proper monitoring by the supervision agency and delayed closure of the dump (INTOSAI, 2002).

    This paper presents an audit of the municipal solid waste management in Bangalore city. This would help to disseminate the innovative practices that have been adopted for managing municipal solid waste. The study explores the role of various stakeholders in MSWM, the current practices, the role of each entity, the shortcomings of the current practices and issues to be addressed to improve the condition. Auditing of MSWM involved the following objectives:

a) Review of the existing practices for municipal solid waste management.

b)  MSWM auditing considering a case of Bangalore city.

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Methods :

    The approach for the case study was mainly qualitative. Information was gathered using a variety of methods to gain a better understanding of the situation, issues, perspectives and priorities. Data collection methods included document/literature review, semi-structured interviews, checklists and field observations. Audits carried out to achieve the study objectives are :

 i.) Compliance audit; to check if the current waste management process is being carried out as per the legislation,

ii.) Operational risk audit in combination with pollution prevention audit; to check the frequency with which an environmental damage occurs and its consequences. The measures that have been taken against these possible environmental damages were verified,

iii.) Resource management audit; to check the optimal utilization of water, energy and material resources, and

iv.) Occupational risk audit; to verify the measures of occupational safety.

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A Case Study - Environmental Audit of MSWM in Bangalore City :

    The city of Bangalore (12.97°N and 77.56°E), the State capital of Karnataka is located on the southern part of the Deccan Plateau at the border of two other South Indian states, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. At an elevation of 900 m it is known for its mild, salubrious climate. Since 1980s, Bangalore has enjoyed the reputation of being one of the fastest growing cities in Asia (Dittrich, 2004). The Bangalore metropolitan area covers an area of 223 sq km, and is the fifth largest city in India. However, with burgeoning population and increasing demands of the Information Technology (IT) sector for improved infrastructure, the local authorities are not being able to provide the necessary services like solid waste management, water supply, road maintenance, etc. to a satisfactory level. The authorities however have taken initiatives and measures to achieve compliance with regulations and reduce complaints from citizens especially in the MSWM sector. The case study would help to identify techniques suitable for the present scenario, the lacuna or the loopholes in the adopted methods and the possible alternatives.

    The Bangalore City Corporation (BCC), which has 100 wards within its municipal jurisdiction, has a population of 4,292,223 accounting for 75.48 percent of the total population of Bangalore Urban Agglomeration of which 2,240,956 are males and 2,051,267 are females. The decadal growth rate of population for the decade 1991-2001 for Bangalore City is as high as 61.36 percent. This high growth rate can be attributed not only to the extension of the municipal limits of Bangalore City but also to the ever-increasing population.

    The amount of waste generated in Bangalore city varies from 1700 MT/day to 2300 MT/day and the composition of waste is given in Table 2. The Bangalore Metropolitan Area is divided into 30 ranges and 100 Revenue wards under the jurisdiction of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP). BMP is responsible for the solid waste management policy, setting up the targets and objectives. Revenue wards are further divided into 294 health wards for proper management of the sanitation functions. Out of these 294 health wards 112 are managed by BMP, while 182 wards have been assigned to private agencies on contract basis.

Table 2 : Physical characteristics of Bangalore Municipal Solid Waste

    A checklist was prepared prior to the visit, to check the presence or absence of techniques used, safety measures adopted, compliance with regulatory measures and pollution prevention system adopted. Site survey was done in seven representative sample wards (Shivajinagar, Malleswaram, Koramangala, Indian Institute of Science campus (IISc), Hindustan Machine Tools colony (HMT), Airport Road and Chikpet). The presence and absence of each was marked in the checklist for techniques adopted, safety measures, compliance with regulatory measures and pollution prevention. Interviews of health Inspectors, workers and lorry drivers were done at the ward level. Discussions with Range health officers, Zonal health officers, Chief health Officer and the Special Commissioner helped in understanding the structure and management of the system, which helped to understand the objectives, strategies, success, failure of strategies and the issues faced while implementing strategies. The site surveys and ward level interviews helped to, verify the process and to identify the lacuna in each functional element. Site visits to the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC), Terra Firma Biotechnologies, and dump yards at Betahalli, K. R. Puram and Bomanhalli was done to evaluate the waste processing techniques and disposal options. The practice adopted for MSWM is explained functional element wise through a flow chart in Figure 1.

    Storage: Waste is stored in 14,000 bottomless and lidless cement bins having 0.9 meters diameter and 0.6 cubic meter storage capacity and large masonry bins for depositing waste placed at a distance of 100-200 meters. Recently 55 metal containers have been placed at different parts of the city. However not all parts of the city are provided with storage systems. In some places, the wastes are just deposited on roadsides.

    Collection: The most common practice of waste collection from households in Bangalore city is door-to-door collection followed by community bin collection. Door to door collection of wastes is done using pushcarts. There are totally 2105 pushcarts in operation in Bangalore, which consists of 4 buckets that are used to store dry wastes and wet wastes separately. There are 6500 pourakarmikas in charge of door to door collection, sweeping, emptying dustbins and clearing black spots. They arrive at a designated spot to transfer the waste to the truck. Trucks have a capacity of 4-5 tonnes capacity and are either open or covered with a mesh. The ratio of truck to ward is 4:20. Other collection systems consist of bullock carts, tricycles etc. Collection is sometimes difficult due to narrow roads and due to this waste is not picked on time causing unsanitary conditions. There are no transfer stations in Bangalore.

    In 2003, the door-to-door collection was implemented in 60 health wards. As per the BMP, all wards in the city are supposed to have door-to-door collection with the removal of community bins. However, during site survey, it was observed that many of the wards still have community bins that are in a very dilapidated state. A large quantity of organic waste is generated from 12 commercial vegetable markets. This waste is being collected twice a day using separate trucks.
The waste collected in pushcarts from lanes is transferred to a truck at a meeting point called a synchronisation point. The truck arrives at the designated location at a specified time. The waste is transported to disposal site by means of a large capacity tipper truck and in few wards by a small capacity tipper truck or dumper placers. The truck is covered with a mesh and a polythene sheet to prevent scattering. Currently, Bangalore city has no transfer stations for intermediate storage and segregation of wastes.

    Processing of Wastes: The Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) was one of the 11 composting units set up in 1975 based on the technology suggested by WHO (WHO, 2002). Within a year, 10 of these units had to be closed, because the technology suggested by WHO was unable to successfully handle un-segregated Indian waste for composting. In addition, the quality of the compost was poor due to existence of glass splinters and other non-biodegradable material due to the usage of crushing and grinding machines. In the 70’s, KCDC processed 50-60 tons of mixed waste per day. Currently, KCDC handles 150 metric tonnes of raw garbage/day in the yard.

    Disposal: In Bangalore, the waste collected from roads and bins is directly transported to the final disposal site, at Betahalli (Mavallipuram) dump yard situated 18 km north west of Bangalore city. There is the likelihood of soil and groundwater contamination due to this practice. Birds (scavengers), vermin, insects and animals are attracted to the open dump for feeding and breeding. Since many of these may act as disease vectors, their presence may constitute a potential health problem. Sometimes plastic and other contraries are burnt, which may be hazardous to human health. Landfilling of wastes is not practiced in Bangalore

    The waste is brought in by the municipal and contract lorries. This waste is dumped in the yard in a form of a heap. There are three front End Loaders in the dump yard for waste levelling. The waste is sprayed with EM (Effective Microorganisms) solution, covered with a 10 cm layer of debris and sprayed with water after levelling. The solution used for spraying is prepared by mixing 4 litres of EM solution with 8 kg of molasses or Jaggery and 150 litres of water. After mixing it is allowed to stay for 7-8 days after which the pH reduces to 3.4. The EM stock solution consists of actinomycetes, photosynthetic bacteria, yeast, Lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus sp., Streptococcus sp., Streptomyces sp., Rhodopseudomonas sp., Saccharomyces sp., Propionibacterium sp.), which speeds up the degradation process and reduces the volume, flies and odour. The observations made on the site are:

• A large number of rag pickers collect recyclable waste from the landfill and pay a small amount to have access to the waste.
• There is a recycling dealer in the dump yard itself who buys the recyclable material from the rag pickers and there is one dealer on the way to the dump yard that buys the recyclable waste from the lorry driver.
• The levelling of MSW after dumping is not carried out efficiently due to less number of front end loaders.
• The foul odour was strong and could be inhaled at long distances.
• Large number of flies, birds and stray dogs.
• There is emission of methane gas from the dump yard, due to which the waste can be easily set on fire.
• There is always a queue of at least 5-10 Lorries waiting to unload; this is due to the lack of number of front-end loaders to level the MSW.
• This dump yard has no fencing, weigh bridge and no proper approach roads.

    The Stakeholders and their responsibilities: The municipal waste management system and the relationship among the stakeholders is depicted in Figure 2. Various stakeholders are the

i.) Ministry of Environment and Forests is responsible for all of the environmental policies at the national level, including the management of waste. The Ministry has an overview of all the activities of the MSWM sector and makes sure that it is performed well.

ii.) Central Pollution Control Board keeps a check on all the activities that have potential to pollute the environment, which includes the monitoring of the municipal solid waste management in the country. It has divisions in each state that report to CPCB on the environmentally hazardous activities in the state, the actions taken towards them and the improvements made by the industries and public towards a cleaner environment (CPCB, 1998).

iii.) Karnataka Pollution Control Board keeps a check on all the activities that have the potential to pollute the environment, which includes the monitoring of the municipal solid waste management in the state. It reviews the Environmental Impact Assessment carried out by the agencies prior to the construction of a landfill site, installation of an incinerator or any other processing plants. It carries out public participation meeting to make the public aware of the proposed project to minimise the likely confrontation or agitation due to lack of information.

iv.) Bangalore Mahanagara Palike is responsible for management policy, setting up the targets and objectives. They are responsible for managing the solid waste in the city and are answerable to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. They also have the authority to privatise the solid waste management sector.

v.) Organisational Structure of the Health Department: The hierarchy of the health department in charge of SWM is a pyramidal structure headed by the Chief Health Officer. For effective administration, the city has been divided into three zones namely east, west and south. A Zonal Health Officer administers each zone. There are two Deputy Health Officers to assist him. Each zone consists of 10 ranges headed by a Medical Officer of Health. Each Medical Officer of Health is assisted by Senior, Junior Health Inspectors and Sanitary Daffedars. The field worker who is employed in the sanitation work is known as pourakarmika.

vi.) NGO: Swabhimana, Waste wise, Swachha Bangalore, Shuchi Mitras, etc. are some Non Governmental Orgainsations (NGO's) that support the MSWM. Their functions are stated below:

 

•  They carry out public grievance meetings to identify the problem spots and convey these complaints to the authorities.

•  They collaborate with authorities to carry out the door-to-door collection of segregated waste.

•  They identify public volunteers to monitor the solid waste management in their respective areas.

•  Few NGOs have also set up decentralised composting plants in residential areas and for this they also carry out door-to-door collection and educate public to segregate the waste prior to disposal.

•  They carry out public meetings in schools, colleges, public places etc. to educate the public about segregation of waste, non-littering, etc.

vii.) Private formal sector : Currently out of the 294 health wards in Bangalore city, 182 wards have been given on contract to private agencies. This includes the functions of collection of waste, transfer of waste to trucks, transport of waste to the specified dump yard. The dump yards that are currently being used are all owned by private entities. They have the responsibility of disposing of the waste by alternative layering of waste and soil, spraying it with EM solution and water. Processing of wastes is done by:

•  Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC), which is a government-aided organisation. This carries out the function of composting (windrow and vermicomposting).

•  Terra Firma Biotechnologies, which is a private organisation that carries out vermicomposting.

•  Ramky Consultants, which is a private consultancy proposing to set up a sanitary landfill site in Bangalore .

•  Srinivas Gayathri Resource Recovery, which is a private consultancy proposing to set up a waste to energy plant and a sanitary landfill site in Bangalore .

viii.) Private informal sector : The informal sector in the city is very large and plays a very vital role in the MSWM. It comprises of the rag pickers who retrieve recyclable waste from the community bins and landfills, the people who buy recyclable waste from households usually called as ‘batli wallas', the middlemen who buy waste from the rag pickers and ‘batli wallas' and sell it to either bigger dealers or to recycling factories. Municipal workers like the pourakarmika collects waste from the households and retrieve the recyclable waste, even the lorry workers retrieve the recyclable waste before transferring the waste into the lorry. The waste retrieved by them is sold to the informal sector.

ix.) Donor agencies : DCN (Development Corporation of Norway ), GTZ (Deutsch Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit) and WHO (World Health Organization) are a few of the international organisations that have sponsored projects in Bangalore . WHO has sponsored large scale composting plants all over India and DCN has sponsored decentralised plants all over Bangalore .

x.) Service users comprise of the entire public in the city and also include the tourists visiting the city.

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Results and Discussion :

    The shortcomings while implementing the techniques (functional element wise) have been identified in all sampled wards and the same for Mallewaram ward is listed in Table 3. Door to door collection is adopted in this ward, which has resulted in efficient collection of waste, and reduction of littering, foul odour and unaesthetic appearance of bins. However, in commercial areas due to the absence of community bins, wastes generated in odd hours, is disposed off by traders in the street. Few waste heaps were seen on the roadsides in commercial areas. All the trucks that are used for transportation of waste have meshes that prevents littering of waste, but 40 % of the trucks have partial polythene cover and 20 % have no polythene cover that results in scattering of waste and foul odour during transport. The recycling process is carried out by the informal sector that has resulted in high efficiency of recovery of recyclable material. There is no other process carried out leading to the entire waste being disposed. There is a large quantity of organic waste that is produced in this ward, including organic waste generated in a market. The waste is disposed in the Betahalli dump yard, causing foul odour, scattering, leachate formation, and air pollution from burning and methane emission from decomposing organic matter.

Table 3 : MSWM in Malleswaram (Ward 7)

    Ward wise auditing of functional components of MSWM is given in Table 4. In sampled wards of Bangalore, the waste is stored in open or closed community bins. The survey covers 30% of community bins in Shivajinagar and 33% in IISc campus. The waste collection is carried out by both community bin and door-to-door collection. The survey shows that, it is essential to have community bins along with the door-to-door collection in commercial areas to avoid littering. Door to door collection method has been implemented in all areas of the city as it is a suitable method for collection from residential areas and also suitable for collection of segregated waste. Even though, the door-to-door collection has been implemented in 94% of the residential areas in Bangalore, only 3 % of the waste is segregated at source. There are currently no transfer stations in Bangalore and all the waste is directly transported to the disposal site. This is very expensive, and inefficiency as the trucks are not being utilised optimally. As per the regulations, all trucks should have mesh and polythene covering. Ninety six percent of the trucks have mesh covering and of these, 41% of the trucks have polythene along with mesh cover. Even though, there is a scope for recycling and composting, the quantity of waste processed in terms of recycling or composting is very low. 18% of the total waste generated is recycled by the informal sector in the city, while 3.15% of the waste is reduced through composting. Finally, 78.85% of waste is disposed off at the dump yard.

Table 4 : Ward wise Auditing of functional components of MSWM

Function	Technique		Shivajinagar	Malleswaram	Koramangala	IISc	H.M.T	Airport Road	Chickpet
Storage	Community bin	% of covered bins	30			33			84
Collection	Community bin	% area covered in commercial areas	40	0	0	<>			30
	Door to door	% area covered in residential areas	100	100	100	60	100	100	100
		% of waste segregated	0	0	20	5	0	0	0
Transfer		Transfer station	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Transport	Truck	Truck with mesh %	100	100	100	75	100	100	100
		Truck with mesh and polythene cover %	75	40	75	0	0	0	100
Process	% of waste recycled	Informal	18	18	18	18	18	18	18
	% of waste composted	Formal			22
	% of waste for anaerobic digestion
	% of waste incinerated
Disposal	Sanitary landfill
	Dump yard		85	85	63	85	85	85	85

 

    The compliance audit through checklist (Table 5), provide insights to the functional unit wise regulations being followed by the authorities and private companies, which are discussed next :

Table 5 : Compliance Audit of MSWM

Checklist for compliance Sample Wards
Function	Regulation	Shivajinagar 79	Malleswaram 7	Koramangala 67	IISc 5	HMT 1	Airport Road 73	Chickpet 28
Storage
	No littering on the streets?	X	X	X	v	v	X	X
	No littering around bins?	X	na	na	X	X	v	X
	Are the bins covered?	X	na	na	X	X	v	X
	Are the bins cleared every 24 hrs.?	v	na	na	v	v	v	v
	The storage facility is designed taking into account the quantity of waste generated in a given area and the population density	X	na	na	v	v	X	X
	Aesthetically acceptable	X	na	na	v	X	X	X
	Bins have easy to operate design	X	na	na	v	X	X	X
	Bins for Biodegradable waste are painted green, for recyclable waste is painted white and other waste are painted black.	X	v	v	X	v	v	v
	No manual handling of waste	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Manual handling with proper precaution and safety	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
Segregation
	Organisation of awareness programs to ensure Community participation in waste segregation	v	v	v	X	X	X	v
	Arranging meeting at quarterly intervals	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Arranging meetings at monthly intervals	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Arranging meetings every once in 6 months	v	v	v	X	X	X	v
Collection
	Door to door collection/ community bin/ block collection	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
	Segregation done at source	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Collection from slums and squatter area	X	v	v	v	v	v	X
	Collection from hotels/ restaurants/ office complexes	V	V	V	V	V	V	V
	Separate collection of waste from slaughter houses/ meat and fish markets/ fruit and vegetable markets	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
	No mixing of Biomedical wastes and industrial wastes with MSW	v	v	v	X	v	v	v
	Usage of hand driven containerized carts for the collection and transfer of waste to trucks or community bins	v	v	v	X	v	v	v
	Horticulture, dairies and construction and demolition waste is collected separately	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
	No burning of Waste (garbage, dry leaves)	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
	No stray animals allowed to move around waste storage facilities	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	No stray animals allowed to move around other places in city or town	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Notification of the waste collection schedule and the likely method to be adopted for public benefit by Municipal Authority	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Has the public been educated about the law stating that it is the responsibility of the waste generator to avoid littering and ensure delivery of wastes in accordance with the collection and segregation system notified by the Municipal Authority	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Transportation
	Waste transportation vehicles are covered	v	v	v	X	v	v	v
	Waste during transportation not visible to public	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Waste not scattered during transportation	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Waste collected daily and before overflow of bin	v	v	v	v	v	v	v
	Multiple handling of waste avoided	v	v	v	v	v	v	v

 

Process	Regulations	KCDC	Terra Firma
Composting	Agreement between the private agency and the municipal authority for supply of solid waste	v	v
	Waste storage area be covered, else should have an impermeable base with facility for collection of leachate and surface water run-off into lined drains leading to a leachate treatment and disposal facility	v	v
	Precautions shall be taken to minimise nuisance of odour, flies, rodents, bird menace and fire hazard;	v	v
	During breakdown of plant the waste intake is stopped and is diverted into a landfill	v	v
	Segregation prior to process and constant removal of rejects	X	X
	Constant removal of rejects post processing	v	v
	Recyclables routed through appropriate vendors	v	v
	Non-recyclables sent to well designed landfill sites	v	v
	For windrow composting provided with impermeable base	v	na
	Made of concrete or compacted clay, 50 cm thick, having permeability coefficient less than 10-7 cm/sec.	v	na
	The base shall be provided with 1 to 2 percent slope and circled by lined drains for the collection of leachate or surface run-off;	v	na
	Ambient air quality monitoring is regularly carried out	v	X
	Compost quality as per standards	v	v
	Treated leachate complies to standards	na	na

 

Disposal	Regulation
Site selection (proposed sites)		Mandur	Mavallipura
	The landfill site shall be large enough to last for 20-25 years	v	v
	The landfill site is away from habitation clusters	v	v
	The landfill site is away from forest areas	v	v
	The landfill site is away from waterbodies	v	v
	The landfill site is away from monuments	v	v
	The landfill site is away from National Parks	v	v
	The landfill site is away from Wetlands	v	v
	The landfill site is away from places of important cultural, historical or religious interest.	v	v
	The landfill site is at least 20km away from airport including airbase	v	X
	If not, necessary approval should be obtained	na	X
	wastes processing facility shall be planned as an integral part of the landfill site.	v	v
	A buffer zone of no-development is maintained around landfill site and incorporated in the Town Planning Department's land use plans	X	X

 

i.) Storage : It was observed that the placement of bins has not been done keeping in mind the population density and the quantity of waste generated. There is a lack of community bins in few of the commercial areas. Due to the high generation of waste (39%) in commercial areas, the waste is not always stored on site, but disposed on the roadsides causing anaesthetic appearances. Well-designed community bins have to be placed in commercial areas depending on the quantity of waste generated. The maintenance of the present bins is poor, which is evident from rusted bins with sharp edges. This can prove to be dangerous to the collection staff and also to the users. The staff must be provided with protective gadgets like well fitting gloves. Community bins with partitions, proper colouring and labelling would help in segregated waste collection. To improve the separation of waste at source and throughout the MSWM process, adequate staffing, supervision, procedures, training, posters, verbal reminders to defaulters, reporting, meetings and equipments are required.

ii.) Collection : Adopting the door-to-door collection method has proved to have many advantages like removal of unanaesthetic bins, and reduction in stray dogs and cattle menace. This has also helped in improved waste handling by residents. This method is also better suited for collection of segregated waste. However, door-to-door collection at stipulated time has its own limitations. For example, in commercial areas, due to higher quantity of waste generation, the shopkeeper finds it difficult to store the waste on site and hence this waste ends up on the street. Even though, separate drums have not been provided for segregated waste collection, public and pourakarmikas are following segregation of wastes while disposing off in bins. This is due to lack of awareness and general attitude of public and pourakarmikas. This highlights the need for awareness programs and training programs at a regular frequency. It has to be kept in mind that such practices are not easy to instil and will take many months or even years to implement. Here again, adequate staffing, supervision, procedures, training, posters, verbal reminders, reporting, meetings and equipment are required to achieve success. The participation of NGO's in such programs can prove to be very helpful to the authorities in making this a success. During door-to-door collection the pourakarmika manually segregates the waste. It is very important that this is carried out with proper protection like gloves. The staff should be provided with gloves, footwear, apron, masks and goggles for safety as they are constantly exposed to waste every day.

iii.) Transfer and Transport: The innovative idea of synchronisation points that has been adopted by the municipality to transfer waste from pushcarts to trucks has proved to be successful. This has reduced the spillage, space requirement for intermediate storage. Apart from this, collection happens at stipulated time as the workers and trucks have to meet at a specified time and location. The transfer of wastes from smaller drums is also much easier and safer than from large community bins. The trucks that are currently used do not have provision for separate collection of waste. This results in the mixing of waste even if the waste is collected separately. Trucks with partition or two trucks can be provided - one truck for the collection of organic and mixed waste and another truck for collection of recyclable waste. The truck for recyclable waste can have a frequency of once in three days as the quantity of recyclable waste generated is much lesser compared to organic waste. Transfer of waste is carried out manually so it is very important to have proper safety gear like gloves, apron, masks and goggles for porakarmikas. The vehicles used for the transportation of waste are in a good condition. Most of the trucks have a mesh covering and of these, about 50-60% has the polythene layer along with mesh cover. It is very essential that all trucks have mesh and polythene covering with a proper enclosure to prevent scattering of waste, foul odour and leakage while travelling on crowded roads.

iv.) Treatment Process: The only treatment option that is provided for Bangalore city is composting. This is carried out only for 400 MT/day while the total amount of waste generated is about 2300 MT/day. Of this, KCDC handles 150 metric tonnes of raw garbage/day in the yard. Out of 100 tonnes of raw garbage, 55 tonnes of compost is obtained. Due to constraints of land, finance and demand, the facility can handle only 120 tonnes of wastes. As such out of the 369 vegetable markets in and around the city, wastes from only two markets are being processed for composting. Vermicomposting is also practised to handle a portion of the waste. Dry wastes such as plastic, rubber, glass and other contraries are later disposed off. There have been proposals for setting up three integrated waste management sites that have composting and sanitary landfills. This action needs to be hastened to prevent the excessive damage being caused by open dumping of large quantities of waste every day. Other treatment options also should be considered like decentralised anaerobic digesters near markets. This will not only produce biogas but also reduce the transportation cost of waste to landfill sites. Waste to energy plants like production of refuse derived fuels and incineration plants can be set up to use waste from commercial areas once the source segregation process is set in place.

 v.) Disposal: In the current MSWM system, the function that has been totally ignored is that of final disposal of MSW. The current method of disposal adopted as explained earlier is extremely hazardous to the environment and can cause irreversible damage to the surrounding areas. The unauthorised open dumping of waste is also carried out near crowded slum areas. This is extremely hazardous to the people living around that area. The identification and closure of such dumps should be given the topmost priority. The setting up of the sanitary landfill sites integrated with composting plants should be hastened.

Some important factors that need to be considered for the overall improvement of the waste management system are:

  i. Data management : Geographic Information system (GIS) consisting of spatial and attribute information along with Global Positioning System (GPS) would help in monitoring the unauthorised activities, by monitoring the number of trucks and trips made by trucks to the specified disposal site. To improve data management there should be commitment to improving reliability of the waste data from the staff and authorities. Greater confidence in data will help in monitoring the efficiency of the collection, transportation, processing of wastes and disposal options.

ii. Training and Education : Environmental education is a way of increasing understanding of problems, cooperation among stakeholders, environmental entrepreneurship and environmental performance. The training should be a regular feature of MSWM with hands on training on sorting and collection. After training, there should be follow up of the practices.

iii. Health and safety program : It has been a common observation that in Bangalore , maintenance staffs do not use the protection gear that is provided to them. Regular health and safety programs is required to educate the staff on the ill effects of manual handling of waste, walking bare foot in dump yards and continuous exposure to waste. Regular health check ups should be carried out to monitor the health of the workers.

iv. Community participation : The community involvement in waste management monitoring programs like Suchi Mitra should be encouraged and more people should be involved in such activities. This increases the environmental awareness of the participants and the surrounding people. This has proved to be one of the effective ways to bring awareness among public about waste management.

v. Integration of Informal sectors: NGO's should organise waste pickers and methods of retrieving waste from the source by the waste pickers should be developed, instead of the waste pickers retrieving waste at the dump yard which is extremely hazardous to their health. Additionally, the waste pickers should be paid to retrieve waste from process plants and dump yards, instead of them paying to access the waste. Ways of improving the working conditions of the waste pickers and providing safety gear for them should be developed.

vi. Planning: The waste management that is being carried out currently is more of low cost measures to comply with regulation, avoid public agitation and complaints. There is no environmental management planning that is taken into consideration. Improper planning before setting up the sanitary landfill sites has lead to increased public agitation and legal complications that have delayed the project for a very long period. Although an informal approach to problem solving may have worked reasonably well, a more systematic and proactive approach to management is required when the complexity of the program increases. This would help to ensure that requirements are handled in a consistent and professional way and problems are addressed promptly and effectively. This would also ensure that staffs have a clear understanding of objectives while carrying out their activities.

vii. Monitoring: D uring waste collection, transfer, process and disposal, monitoring needs to be an integral part of the waste management system. The municipal authority not only has to monitor their own staff activities but also the activities carried out by the private organisations carrying out their services. The State pollution control board has to carry out regular inspections of the dump yards and stop open dumping as it causes serious air, land and water pollution problems.

viii. Public participation: Currently the main hindrance for the implementation of the sanitary landfill sites is due to lack of information dissemination to the public. It is very essential that before any project is implemented, a public participation meeting be held to make the public aware of the technology used in sanitary landfill and the impacts.

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Conclusion :

    The audit has brought out the key issues that need immediate attention and minor lacunas that pose major hindrance in the further process of the system. In collection 17.5% of the commercial areas have community bins and 94% of the residential areas have adopted the door-to-door method, with these methods of collection only 3% of waste segregation has been achieved. There are no transfer stations present and out of the trucks present only 41.43% have polythene covering. Recycling is carried out mainly by the informal sector achieving a high level of efficiency. 18% of the total waste generated is recycled by this sector in the city. 3.15% of waste reduction is achieved through composting and 78.86% of the waste is disposed in dump yards.

    The waste disposal needs immediate attention and strict monitoring. The setting up of sanitary landfill sites needs to be given top priority. The number of waste processing plants has to be increased to manage total quantity of waste generated. Many new techniques have been implemented for storage, collection, transfer and transportation. These techniques have brought about many positive changes and have increased the efficiency of the MSWM system. However, segregation of waste at each step is not being carried out. The segregation of waste during storage, collection and transportation has to be set in place for the efficient running of the waste processing like composting. Proper training and education needs to be provided to the workers and public awareness programs should be conducted regularly. The occupational health and safety measures taken by the authorities are not sufficient. Health and safety programs has to be conducted regularly to check the health condition of the workers in the various areas of MSWM and they should be educated on the health hazards related to their work and the importance of wearing the safety gear.

    MSWM in Bangalore has definitely improved in areas of collection and transportation however, waste processing and disposal is still a pressing problem. The informal network is very active in areas of recycling as this constitutes their only livelihood. However, there are various issues or constraints that have to be tackled to achieve significant strides in waste management. The issues that have to be addressed are:

•  Provision of closed container and mobile waste storage depots and abolition of open waste storage sites.

•  Processing of wastes for generating compost, power and other useful products.

•  Disposal of wastes in an environmentally acceptable manner through establishment of sanitary landfill site.

•  Improving the financial health of the local urban bodies.

•  Encouraging private sector participation in waste management.

•  Institutional strengthening and human resources development

•  Use of Geoinformatics (GPS, GIS with land use information)

•  Provision for enforcement of sanitation laws and rules.

•  Effective public participation in segregation of recyclable wastes, primary collection of wastes and storage of waste at source.

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Acknowledgement :

    We thank the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India and Indian Institute of Science for the financial support. We are grateful to the officials of the government agencies and in particular, Mr Shridhar Murthy, Council Officer, BMP, Dr Vijay Kumar S. Biradar, Medical officer of Health and H.C. Anathswamy, Chief solid waste engineer, BMP for extending the cooperation during field visits and data compilation. We thank all the BMP officers and staff for providing me information and support.

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