6 Conclusion |
The audit has brought out the key issues that need immediate attention and minor lacunae that pose major hindrances in the further process of the system. In the storage function, only 49% of the present bins are covered. 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. 3.14% of waste reduction is achieved through composting and 60.71% of the waste is disposed in dump yards and 21.14% is disposed in open quarry sites.
Waste disposal needs immediate attention and strict monitoring. The setting up of sanitary landfill sites has to speed-up and this needs to be given top priority. The number of treatment process 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 process plants. Proper training and education needs to be provided to the workers and public awareness programmes should be conducted regularly. The occupational and health and safety measures taken by the authorities are not sufficient. Health and safety programmes have 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.
