Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is associated with the control of waste generation, its storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing and disposal in a manner that is in accordance with the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics, public attitude and other environmental considerations. Presently, most of the metropolitan cities MSWM system includes all the elements of waste management. However in the majority of smaller cities and towns MSWM system comprises only four activities storage, collection, transportation and disposal (Sharholy et al., 2008; Ramachandra, 2009; Ramachandra et al., 2011)

A SWM system refers to a combination of various functional elements (figure 1) associated with the management of solid wastes and details are provided in Table 5. The system, when put in place, facilitates the collection and disposal of solid wastes in the community at minimal costs, while preserving public health and ensuring little or minimal adverse impact on the environment. The functional elements that constitute the system are:

1. Generation and storage

Waste generation quantity and composition depends on the life style of houses. Segregation at generation or source level is to segregate the waste into different categories like; organic waste and inorganic waste. In the conventional method, partial segregation of news paper, milk pouches, etc. happens at house level, but rest get mixed up during waste storage. In few places with the active participation of NGO and community, segregation at source / at house level is in place (Pattnaik and Reddy, 2009; Ramachandra, 2009). However, it is still at very preliminary stage. Informal recycling sector play an important role in waste segregation and waste management (Sudhir et al., 1996). Storage of waste means the temporary containment of waste, at house level or at community levels. At household level, old plastic buckets, plastic bins and metal bins are used for storing waste and at community level, wastes are stored in masonry bins, cylindrical concrete bins, metallic and plastic containers (Joseph, 2002; Kumar et al., 2009).  Stored waste is then collected and transported to the transfer station or processing site at regular interval.

2. Collection

Waste collection is removal of waste from houses and all commercial places to collection site from where it will go for further treatment or disposal. Its efficiency is a function of two major factors; workforce and transport capacity (Gupta et al., 1998). Community bin and door-to-door collection are prevalent in India (Kumar et al., 2009; Kumar and Goel, 2009; Pattnaik and Reddy, 2009; Ramachandra, 2009). Indian cities are shifting from community bin collection to door-to-door collection to improvise the existing waste management system. Most of the cities are either fully or partially covered with door-to-door collection (Kumar et al., 2009). Door-to-door collection facility is only limited to 60-61% in present collection system in Kolkata (Chattopadhyay et al., 2009; Hazra and Goel, 2009), where as in Bangalore it has reached up to 94-100% of total waste collected from residential area (Ramachandra and Bachamanda, 2007; Kumar et al., 2009).

3. Transportation

Transportation of the stored waste to final processing sites or disposal sites at regular intervals is essential to avoid bin overflow and littering on road. Usually light and covered vehicles with carry capacity of around 5 tons per trip are used for transportation of wastes (Rajabapaiah, 1988; Ramachandra, 2009). In small towns bullock carts, tractor-trailers, tricycles etc. are mainly used for transportation (Sharholy et al., 2008).

Fig. 1.  Functional elements of solid waste management

4. Treatment (Aerobic and Anaerobic)

Treatment is required to alter the physical and chemical characteristics of wastes for energy and resource recovery and recycling. The important processing techniques include compaction, thermal volume reduction, manual separation of waste components, incineration, anaerobic digestion and composting. Organic fraction of the waste is processed either through composting (aerobic treatment) or biomethanation (Anaerobic treatment). Composting through aerobic treatment produces stable product- compost which is used as manure or as soil conditioner. In metropolitan cities, compost plants are underutilized due to various reasons, most important reasons are unsegregated waste and production of poor quality of compost resulting in reduced demand from end users (Kumar et al., 2009; Chattopadhyay et al., 2009; Ramachandra, 2011). Vermi-composting is also practiced at few places. Biomethanation through microbial action under anaerobic conditions produces methane rich biogas. It is feasible when waste contains high moisture and high organic content (Chanakya et al., 2007; Kumar and Goel, 2009). Recyclable waste which can be transformed into new product like plastic, rubber, glass, metal and others are collected separately and auctioned by recycling industries (Agarwal et al., 2005).

5. Disposal

Waste disposal is the final stage of waste management. As in urban area, uncontrolled and unscientific disposal of all the categories of waste including organic waste has lead to the environmental problems such as contamination of land, water and air environment.  In larger towns or cities the availability of land for waste disposal is very limited (Gupta et al., 1998; Mor et al., 2006; Ramachandra, 2009). In many places, a major fraction of urban wastes are directly disposed in low lying area or in hilly area at city outskirts (Lakshmikantha, 2006; Talyan et al., 2008; Chattopadhyay, 2009). In this backdrop, MSW rule 2000, GOI (Government of India) was introduced to regulate all components of waste management. Landfilling or disposal is restricted to non-biodegradable, inert waste and other wastes that are not suitable either for recycling or for biological processing as per MSW rule, 2000.

Table 5: Wardwise auditing of functional components of MSWM

Function	Technique		Shivajinagar	Malleswaram	Koramangala	IISc	HMT	Airport road	Chickpet	Average (%)
Storage	Community bin	Percentage of covered bins	30	–	–	33	–	–	84	49*
Collection	Community bin	Percentage of area covered in commercial area	40	0	0	–	–	–	30	17.5**
	Door to door	Percentage of area covered in residential areas	100	100	100	60	100	100	100	94.29
		Percentage of waste segregated	0	0	20	5	0	0	0	3.57
Transfer		Transfer station	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
Transport	Truck	Truck with mesh (%)	100	100	100	75	100	100	100	96.43
		Truck with mesh and polythene cover (%)	75	40	75	0	0	0	100	41.43
Process	Percentage of waste recycled	Informal	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18
		Formal
	Percentage of waste composted				22					3.14
	Percentage of waste for anaerobic digestion
	Percentage of waste incinerated
Disposal	Sanitary landfill
	Dump yard		85	85		85	85		85	60.71
	Quarry				63			85		21.14
A = Absent * Only the area having bins are taken into consideration. ** Only the commercial areas have been taken into consideration i.e. Shivajinagar, Malleswaram, Kormangala and Chickpet. Source: Ramachandra and Bachamanda, 2007

 

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