Results

5. Results and discussion

The techniques and the shortcomings of the techniques adopted have been identified in all sampled wards and Table 3 lists the Malleswaram ward. Door-to-door collection is adopted in Malleswaram area, 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, sudden waste, generated at odd hours, is disposed in the street. A few waste heaps can be found on the roadsides in commercial areas. All the trucks that are used for transportation of waste have meshes that prevent littering of waste, but 40% of the trucks have partial polythene cover and 20% have no polythene cover and this 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 off in the Betahalli dump yard, causing foul odour, scattering, leachate formation, and air pollution from burning and methane emission from decomposing organic matter.

The ward-wise auditing of functional components of MSWM is given in Table 4. In the sampled wards of Bangalore, the waste is stored in open or closed community bins. Out of the community bins present, the average percentage of bins covered is 49%. The collection of the waste is carried out by the community bin method and the door-to-door method. It is essential to have community bins along with the door-to-door collection in commercial areas to avoid littering. The percentage of area covered by community bin in commercial areas is 17.5%. The 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. In Bangalore door-to-door collection has been implemented in 94% of the residential areas. However, 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 the efficiency of the trucks is not utilised to the maximum. As per the regulations, all trucks should have mesh and polythene covering. However, only 96% of the trucks have mesh covering and 41.43% of the trucks have polythene covering. The quantity of waste processed is very small. The informal sector in the city manages the recycling sector, 18% of the total waste generated is recycled by this sector. The other process method adopted in the city is composting. 3.14% of the waste is reduced through composting. The final quantity of waste sent to the dump yard and quarry (open dump) is 60.71% and 21.14%, respectively. The compliance audit through checklist was attempted and results listed in Table 5 indicate that the regulations being followed by the authorities and private companies responsible for the MSWM. Functional unit wise compliance of regulations are as given below:

Storage. From the audit 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 a few of the commercial areas. Due to the high generation of waste in commercial areas, the waste is not always stored on site, but is disposed on the roadsides, causing unaesthetic 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 and has resulted in rusted bins having sharp edges. This can prove to be dangerous to the collection staff and also to the users. The staff must be provided with well fitting gloves for safety. Community bins should be provided with a partition for separate collection of waste and proper colouring and labelling on the bins. To improve the separation of waste at source and throughout the MSWM process, adequate staffing, supervision, procedures, training, posters, verbal reminders, reporting, meetings and equipments are required.
Collection. Adopting the door-to-door collection method has proved to have many advantages. The complaints from residents due to unaesthetic bins near their houses have stopped, the number of stray dogs and stray cattle has reduced and the no bin system has also improved the waste handling by people or residents. This method is also better suited for collection of segregated waste. However, the door-to-door collection method has its own considerations. In commercial areas, due to the higher quantity of waste generation, the shopkeepers find it difficult to store the waste on site and hence this waste ends up on the street. Though separate drums have been provided for collection of segregated waste, neither the household nor the pourakarmika carry out segregation. This is due to the poor awareness and the general attitude of public and pourakarmikas. The number of awareness programmes and training programmes carried out by the authorities need to be increased and should be 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 make it possible. The participation of NGOs in such programmes 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. The staff should be provided with gloves, footwear, apron, masks and goggles for safety, as they are constantly exposed to waste every day.
Transfer and transport. The innovative idea of synchronisation that has been adopted by the municipality to transfer waste from pushcarts to trucks has proved to be successful. This has reduced the spillage, no space is occupied for intermediate storage and collection happens on time as the workers and trucks have to meet at a specified time and location for the transfer. The transfer of small drums is also much easier and safer than the transfer of waste 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 can either be provided with partition or two trucks can be provided – one truck for the collection of organic and mixed waste and another truck for collection 384 T.V. Ramachandra and S. Bachamanda 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 less when 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 during transfer. The vehicles used for the transportation of waste should be in a good condition. Most of the trucks have a mesh covering and about 50–60% also have polythene covering. However, there is no proper enclosure provided to prevent the wet waste from leaking on to the road. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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 proposed sanitary landfill sites with integrated composting plants should be hastened.

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

Data management. To improve data management there should be commitment to improving reliability of the data on waste from the staff and authorities. Greater confidence in data will help in monitoring the efficiency of the collection, transportation, process and disposal options. Geoinformatics would help in monitoring the unauthorised activities, by monitoring the number of trucks and trips made by trucks to the specified disposal site.
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.
Health and safety programmes. 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 programmes are 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.
Involvement of the community. Community involvement in waste management monitoring programmes like that of Suchi Mitra should be encouraged and more people should be involved in such activities. This increases the environmental awareness of the participants and other people. This is one of the fastest and most effective ways to make the public understand the importance of activities like sorting.
Integration of waste pickers. NGOs should organise waste pickers, and, instead of the waste pickers retrieving waste at the dump yard which is extremely hazardous to their health, safer methods of retrieving waste from the source by the waste pickers should be developed. 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.
Planning. The waste management that is carried out currently comprises more low cost measures in order to comply with regulation and 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 led to increased public agitation and legal complications that have delayed the projects for a very long period. Although an informal approach to problem solving may have worked reasonably well while the programme was relatively small, a more systematic and proactive approach to management is required when the complexity of the programme 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 the staff has clear objectives and goals while carrying out their activities.
Monitoring. Monitoring during collection, transfer, process and disposal needs to become an integral part of the waste management system. The municipal authority not only has to monitor their own staff’s activities but also the activities carried out by the private organisations. The State pollution control board has to carry out regular inspections of the dump yards and stop open dumping as it causes serious air and water pollution problems.
Public participation. Currently the main hindrance to 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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