Good Waste Management

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ: ಉತ್ತಮ ತ್ಯಾಜ್ಯ ನಿರ್ವಹಣೆ (Kannada Version)

Improper waste management is one of the topics that has evoked huge concern and interest in me in recent times. In these days of human greed and short sightedness rapidly leading the world to be poisoned with waste and effluents, there are several people who are continuously working to increase the awareness of those who are ignorant and/or indifferent about these issues and to revive love and concern towards environment, animals and birds. This documentary is my small contribution towards this effort.

An appeal by a garbage bin in Mangaluru

If you find this short documentary effective in conveying the message, kindly share it with your friends, especially kids and teenagers. I hope to create similar love and care in the hearts of youngsters through this documentary.

A limitation of this documentary: Waste management is a very vast topic; this documentary tries to showcase only a few angles of the problem. Instead of conveying too many issues in a short documentary that may confuse the viewer, I am trying to keep it simple and effective. Also, the garbage bin in Mangalore is only an example; Open garbage pails and improper waste management is a problem all over India.

 

Waste Management: Current Scenario

For most urban municipalities managing waste means transporting the garbage to a sub-urban, less populated area and dumping it there. It is a welcome change to see that people affected by such dumping have started protesting against it and pressurizing the government to better manage collection and disposal of waste. It is also heartening to see some of the urban population trying their best through efforts such as “Daily Dump”. These developments give new hopes and dreams towards future.

It is not fair to just blame the administrative authorities, we need to acknowledge that there are several positive steps even from their end. This country is not only plagued by corruption, but also by a population that lacks civic sense. Therefore, it is important to continuously build awareness among people. Let’s all walk hand in hand to leave this world a better place for our next generations.

 

What are the attributes of a good waste management system?

·         Segregated collection of waste at the source itself

·         Less transportation

·         Best and the most comprehensive treatment

Segregated collection of waste at source - what does this mean?

Separating different kinds of waste, when and where it gets created, before it is given out for further processing, is the best way of segregating waste.  Once they get mixed up, it is not only difficult; it becomes next to impossible to segregate them and mostly go towards landfill. This can cause damage to the environment in many ways. Not just that, it is not uncommon to find reusable/recyclable things in the landfill and typically poor children hunt for these items for very small wages putting their health and education at stake.

 

Segregation of Waste

Following are some ways in which waste can be differentiated:

1.       Bio-degradable and non-biodegradable items

2.       Toxic and non-toxic items

3.       Recyclable and non-recyclable items

Other than the above, considering people’s knowledge, practicality of situation and general opinion, waste can be segregated at homes in the following manner:

·         Dry Solid waste

·         Organic waste (including kitchen/food waste)

·         Chemical/toxic waste (Ex: electrical and electronic waste)

·         Others

* Industrial waste, effluents and their management are kept out of the scope of this article

It is better if Dry Solid Waste can be further segregated into Paper, Plastic, Metal and Glass.

 

Wealth out of Waste

Are you paying money to dispose waste? How would you like to make money instead? You may have seen old metallic items, newspapers and magazines, milk packets and glass bottles, etc. being collected by the ‘raddiwalas’ in exchange for money. These days, organic waste is also collected by other such collectors to make manure or generate energy.

 

Comprehensive Waste Treatment

The final step of comprehensive waste treatment is really the most important step while others mentioned above are supporting factors. Upon analyzing waste processing/treatment deeper, the following can be observed:

1.       Recycling, whatever possible

2.       Recovering “energy” (Ex: extracting cooking biogas from organic waste)

3.       Process/treat the remaining ‘true’ waste in a manner that does not harm the environment

4.       If any of the above three is not possible, dispose the possibly “toxic” waste very carefully

Lot of research has been going on on each of the above steps of waste processing, however covering the details of the research in this small article is out of scope.

 

Waste Generation

Waste processing is really the second step; before that comes generation of waste itself. Wouldn’t it be better to prevent rather than cure? Can we not generate lesser waste, than worry about disposing the same? If care is taken in the first step, the second step is will be a lot less burdened. Therefore, this fundamental subject becomes relevant here.

 

How can we reduce waste generation?

Here are some thoughts on how this can be done:

·         Necessity vs. Desire vs. Greed, weigh the need and shop mindfully

·         Use environmental friendly items as much as possible

·         Buy locally produced items so that there is less of transportation involved

·         Reuse, Recycle as much as possible

·         Get out of ‘Use and throw’ mentality – Try to get items repaired rather than buying new items

·         Pass on items to people in need instead of throwing them out

See, there are so many ways in which we can reduce the generation of waste itself, right?! If it’s not possible to reduce, recycle or repair and when something becomes totally useless, only then should processing of waste come into picture.

 

The Last Word

We must be thoughtful about every step we take and live responsibly and carefully. Only then can human beings and animals live in a healthy manner side by side and also maintain the balance of this beautiful earth that we currently enjoy, to hand over to the next generation. It is not easy to do so in this fast-paced life that we are living, but it is definitely possible to reduce harming the environment around us if not stop totally.

Looking forward to your comments, suggestions and feedback…

Yours sincerely,

Krishna Shastry

P.S. Thanks to my wife Smitha for doing most of the translation work from Kannada to English