Exploring Possibilities of Achieving Sustainability in
Solid Waste Management

Overview :
Bangalore City is divided into 100 administrative wards,whichhavebeen further dividedinto273health wards for functional convenience. Of these, 147 health wards are under private contract system and the remaining 126 health wards are managed through Pourakarmikas (municipal sweepers) of the corporation. Except for few wards in Bangalore there is no door-to-door collection service in Bangalore. The areas not served are mostly unincorporated or illegal settlements and slum areas with small and inaccessible streets. By contract more prosperous areas are better served, kept clean and swept on a regular basis.
Table 1:
Stakeholders
Quantity of Waste
(tonnes/day)
%
Households
650
18
CommercialEstablislunents
1436
39
-Markets
369
-
-Hotels
1067
Institutes
128
4
- Hospitals
20
- Offices
16
- Educational institutions
92
Industries 1399 39
1399
39
Total
3613
100
Waste generation: The waste generation in Bangalore is given in As evident from the table, wastes from commercial establishment make up for the bulk of the total wastes. Although industries also generate a significant amount, it was analysed that most of this is recovered for recycling and reuse and only a small percentage find it's way into the city waste stream. A typical waste composition for major Indian cities is given in Table 2. As evident from the Table above, the composition of organic waste is high in all the cities and Bangalore ranks the highest. Waste densities and moisture contents are high, which require different technology and management system. High organic content and low biodegradable waste are typical of Indian cities and hence incineration is a less appropriate option.
Table 2: Composition of urban solid waste in Indian cities (percentage by weight)

City Paper Metals Glass Textiles Plastic Ash and dust Organics Others
Chennai
Delhi
Kolkota
Bangalore
Ahmedabad
Mumbai 		5.90
5.88
0.14
1.50
5.15
3.20
 0.70
0.59
0.66
0.10
0.80
0.13		 -
0.31
0.24
0.20
0.93
0.52		 7.07
3.56
0.28
3.10
4.08
3.26		 -
1.46
1.54
0.90
0.69
-		 16.35
22.95
33.58
12.00
29.01
15.45		 56.24
57.71
46.58
75.00
48.95
59.37		 13.74
7.52
16.98
7.20
10.39
18.07

Waste 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. Waste collection and transport: Collection of waste is either done by Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) or by private contract system. In December, 2001 BMP and Bangalore Agenda Task Force (government appointed body) through ajoint initiative established a public private partnership,by launching a sustainable cleanliness program called 'Swachha Bangalore'. Twentyfive percent of the city is served under this scheme. Swachha Bangalore is mainly door to door collection of wastes using pushcarts (Plate 1). 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.Swachha Bangalore scheme also covers selected slum areas and auto tippers have been deployed for collection of wastes (Plate3). There are 6500 pourakarmikasinchargeof door to doorcollection,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 bodied or covered with a mesh (Plate 2). 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.

Transportation of wastes to disposal site is done in two ways through the same trucks by engaging 82 trucks of the corporation; through contractors by engaging 129 vehicles for layouts and markets and 72 vehicles on contract for transportation of waste. The corporation also has 13 dumper placers for transporting metallic containers of 2.5 to 3 tonnes capacity and 6 minicompactors for transportation of wastes. Waste processing and recovery: The method adopted to process waste is composting. Karnataka Compost DevelopmentCorporation handles 120 metric tonnes of raw garbage/dayin the yard. Out of 100 tonnes ofraw 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 markets in and
around the city, only 2 have been accepted for composting. Vermicompostingis also practised to handle a portion of the waste. Dry wastes such as plastic, rubber, glass and other commoditiesare later disposed off. Waste disposal: Disposal is the final stage of waste management system. About 90% of the municipal wastes collectedby the civic authorities in Indian cities are dumped in low-lying areas outside the city/town limits. The waste disposaltrendsin majorIndian cities are as given in Table 3.

Table 3 : Waste disposal trends in India.

Waste disposal methods
1971 -(40 cities)
1991 & 1999 ( 23 cities )
Land dumping
Almost all
89.8%
Composting
-
8.6%
Others(pelletisation, vermi-composting)
-
1.6%

In Bangalore, the waste collected from roads and bins is directly transported to the final disposal site, usually anopendump.Thereis the likelihoodof soilandgroundwater 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 following figure provides information on the variousSWM options in Bangalore.Recycling takes up43% and is an area to be further exploited. Thirty one percent of the waste is disposed, which is mainly burnt or simply dumped in open spaces.

 

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