As mentioned in Introduction chapter number 1 of volume I, Zero waste is gaining ground as being practicably achievable in Indian cities, which have the advantage of significant recycling and reuse in the solid waste management system. Those can be improved and coordinated with the view to moving towards ‘zero waste’ scenarios. Further, in order to achieve the SLBs, waste management techniques can be improved in all types of settlements. Some of the solid waste best practises are covered in this section, these are:
Vellore Municipality, 2000
Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC)
Amritsar Municipal Corporation
M.2 Case: Vellore Municipality, 20005
A zero waste management (ZWM) project in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district is an example of a successful Solid Waste Management programme and its benefits. ZWM is a technique of handling solid wastes that attempts to recover, recycle and reuse maximum waste.
Waste segregation at source: This practice leads to reduction of space requirement for waste segregation at later stage.
Minimizes pollution: ground water, land and air pollution created at landfill sites is avoided by doing away with disposal of wastes at dumpsites and landfills.
In Vellore Municipality, citizens were informed about the concept of ZWM and taught how to segregate waste at the household or respective source. Red and green dust bins were provided to each household unit for initiating waste segregation. Teams with two street beautifiers each, were formed. Each team was assigned 300 households and provided a tricycle and a set of hand tools. The tricycle had two compartments, one green and the other red, to collect organic and inorganic waste respectively.
The street beautifiers collect domestic garbage in their allocated zones. The waste collected in the households in green and red dust bins are emptied in the colour-matching compartment of the tricycle and brought to the zero waste centre. Inorganic waste is separated into more than 25 items under categories like bottles, plastics, metals, cardboard, paper, PVC etc. They are then packed and sold to local waste collectors and recyclers every month. Mixed waste (10-15 percent), which cannot be recycled, is sent to landfills.
The organic waste is composted and treated in two stages: (a) cattle dung/bio-dung composting (b) vermicomposting.
Cattle dung composting: the organic waste is laid in a composting yard in large compartments and spread in different layers. Each layer is treated with cattle dung microbial inoculums. When the height
5India Sanitation Portal: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), P Amudha
of a layer reaches 5 feet, it is covered with a polythene sheet. This first stage of composting takes 45 days. The polythene sheets trap the heat generated during anaerobic composting and increase the internal temperature to 70-75 degrees Celsius. This high temperature kills the pathogens. The moisture evaporates and condenses on the underside of the polythene. The cyclic movement of water also cycles the bacteria aiding rapid decomposition and reducing the volume to about one third in 15 days. After 50 days, the compost can be harvested, sieved and packed in bags for sale.
Vermi-composting: semi-decomposed organic waste is put into vermi-composting beds after 15 days. The vermi-compost can be collected after 45 days. The rich composted manure is sieved and packed for agricultural purposes and afforestation activities.
The Vellore solid waste management project is now managed by village Panchayats supported by Residential Welfare Associations and SHGs. Each household and shop pays for waste collection. The funds collected from monthly subscriptions and sale of inorganic waste and organic manure are used for paying the street beautifiers and supervisors. The pilots in Vellore district are successful because of informed communities and their participation. Equally crucial to the success is the full involvement of local bodies and their commitment.
Due to information technology in Municipal Solid Waste Management (SWM) sector has equipped this sector with better management of this crucial mandatory functions under the urban domain, as per 12th Schedule of 74th CAA. Better management of SWM includes GPS based vehicle tracking system, tracking clearance of secondary collection points, GIS based shortest route identification to landfill / dumping site etc.
M.3 Case: Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC)
Pimpri-Chinchwad is one of the cities who has done pioneering task of monitoring its SWM services through the use of ICT.
The city of Pimpri-Chinchwad located northwest of Pune, has an area 171 sq. km. with an estimated population of over 12.5 lakhs. PCMC deployed GPS based vehicle tracking system due to low capital cost of deployment and ease of operation. A step by step implementation strategy was followed at PCMC:
Step 1: Selection of technology partner
Step 2: Installation of GPS system on waste collection vehicles
Step 3: Geo Coding of bins across the city
Step 4: Development of web based application and public information system
Step 5: Stabilization of system and training to stake holders
Brief on Solid Waste Management – “GPS & GIS enabled”
Geo coding of the all the bins across the city were marked on the GIS mapping database and real time vehicle movement (GPS location of the vehicle on which a GPS device was installed) were monitored against them as per route. Overall city vide 75 different routes were identified and geo coded with GIS
6JnNURM: Best Practices in e-Governance, MoUD (http://www.jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/BP\_SWM.pdf )
map. An intelligence algorithm/logic was developed in web based application to flag the bin as “Served”, when a waste collector vehicle stops near a bin within a specified distance for a sufficient period.
Table M.1: Prior Conditions and Achievements of the Project
| S. No. | Situation prior to proposed ICT based SWM system | Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monitoring of actual pick-up of the waste from the assigned bins/locality and the same was recorded purely on manual recording basis. | Monitor the actual movement and real time position of the vehicle. |
| 2 | Monitoring actual movement of the fleet and its productivity i.e. no. of bins picked by each vehicle on schedule basis. | Analyse the bin pick up status in real time. |
| 3 | Difficulty in tracking the non-compliance to the schedules. | Improve service delivery mechanism and achieve better information management. |
| 4 | Processes for validating the productivity of the fleet and payments were done purely based on manual records of no. of trips made by each vehicle. | Reducing the unwanted trips/detours/stoppages and enhance the productivity/utilization of the fleet. |
| 5 | Difficulty in locating the bins in a manual process. | Generate MIS and exception report to take informed decision. |
| 6 | Difficulty in monitoring actual pick up of the waste from the assigned bins/locality and dumping in the dumping yards and recoding of data is a manual process. | Greater accountability on field level staff. |
| 7 | Difficulty in preparing status reports as it is a manual process and takes a lot of time. | Timely completion of job with greater efficiency. |
| 8 | Measuring service level with benchmarks, making it compulsory to each ULB to achieve the benchmarks. | |
| 9 | Improve public image and also offered a tool for RTI. |
Source:JnNURM: Best Practices in e-Governance, MoUD (http://www.jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/BP\_SWM.pdf )
M.4 Case: Amritsar Municipal Corporation
Prior to the project, Amritsar city had no door-to-door collection of waste and heaps of garbage was seen in most of the localities. The sanitary conditions were very poor due to lack of unorganized system of collection and transportation.The Sanitation Zones of 4, 5, 6 and 7 were selected for collection and transportation of waste. The job was awarded to a private party in 2008 for operation and maintenance of the project facility.
The major activities under the project included:
Provision of adequate machinery, equipment and staff for the project upgrading door to door services and SWM infrastructure.
Vehicles have alarm system for house to house collection.
Primary and secondary storage in bins.
Prohibition of waste littering and arbitrary disposal of waste.
Public awareness for better sanitation/ waste management.
7JnNURM-Toolkit for Solid Waste Management
Provision of mobile covered bins and synchronized transportation mechanism, has removed dhalaos and kudaghars.
Uniforms for the safaisewaks, drivers and supervisors etc.
Transportation of waste through high capacity, covered vehicles.
Provision of centralized complaint redressal system by the Contractor.
Arrangement for processing facility with multiple product recovery (work is in progress through private participation)
Project Achievements:
Improved door to door collection and efficient, hygienically safe transportation of waste to the landfill site.
Improvement in the environmental conditions in the selected zones.
Negligible littering in the streets due to awareness of the citizens, adequate bins, timely and effective collection of waste from the source and its regular transportation.
Replacement of old dhalaos/kudaghars with colourful collection points, improving aesthetics of the area.
Reduced manual handling of waste in collection and transportation.
Greater awareness among citizens about cleanliness/ waste management.
Reduction in expenditure on improving the waste collection/ transportation under SWM Rules.