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The subject of solid waste management was never more relevant than it is
now. In fact Delhi alone produces around 8,000 tonne garbage per day, while
the estimate for the country is 27.4 million tonne per year.
“In India, the municipalities are still using the conventional method of either
burning or burying to dispose off garbage,” elaborates Krishna, adding that
the zero waste approach is being promoted and followed the world over.
“Again the landfills are neither well managed nor lined properly to protect
against contamination of soil and groundwater,” he points out.
Exnora has tied up with Technomedia Solutions Pvt Ltd to come up with a
Delhi plan to deal with solid waste management. “Our Delhi plan will be to
start working with resident welfare associations (RWAs). We will first conduct
workshops with these residential colonies or societies and then these RWAs
will come up with their own action plans. We will give our expertise and
guidance to them to manage their own waste,” says Nirmal. “We believe that
the efforts to improve existing conditions can only be successful through
local participation and capacity building of...
Why Panipat? Not because it’s the site of ancient battles, but because it has
an unusual industry: scores of the city’s inhabitants make a living spinning
blankets from woollen rags. Known as shoddies, these coarse, low-cost
blankets are made on looms set up in backyards, and everyday consume
over four containers of cut rags imported from the US and Canada.
Both raw material and finished product are cheap, and it generates
employment. It is this vibrant community industry that Noorzai wanted to
take back to his war-ravaged country.
Scavenging angels. And it’s not blankets alone. The town boasts of a huge
subsidiary market that runs on discards. "Zippers, buttons and cloth lining
are salvaged from the tonnes of woollen garments everyday," says Puneet
Agarwal, S.K. (India) Marketing, in the business for 15 years.
Agarwal and his ilk are only now being recognised for their gutsy
entrepreneurship. Over the years, they have battled reluctant bankers, poor
product acceptance and the lack of coherent policies.
Now, we have waste entrepreneurs all over the country–people who have
tinkered with technology and come up with the best way to not just dispose
of garbage but to convert it into solid, money-making proposals. Which
should not really be such a surprise. After all, Indians are no strangers to
recycling and its merits. Every little thing is salvaged and reused in several
incarnations over several generations. Add a profit angle to this, and there
you have your waste entrepreneur. As N.B. Mazumdar, chief of waste
management at Hudco, says: "Conservation and thrift are integral to our
attitude."
Initiatives in this field are wide-ranging. On one end of the spectrum, you
have housewives like Delhi-based Asha Pandey who converts milk bags,
thread and paper to teaching aids and rugs. On the other end are giant
waste-to-energy (WtE) units like the Rs 78 crore power unit in western
Maharashtra driven by bagasse from sugar mills. Ranging from the usual
suspects like plastic, metal, glass or paper, right down to human hair, dog
fur, animal and human excreta–there seems to be little that cannot be
reconverted and sold.
Gold from dross. Much of the action can be attributed to judicial activism and
the subsequent stipulations of the Municipal Solid Wastes (management and
handling) Rules, 2000 and Biomedical Wastes (management and handling)
Rules, 1998. This makes it mandatory for municipal bodies to set up waste-
processing/disposal units before December 2003.
In the US, the solid waste industry generates $43 billion in annual revenue
and contributes $14 billion as direct and indirect taxes. Over 27,000
companies, employing 3,67,800 people, are engaged in this business, which
accounts for 0.5 per cent of the GDP.
Private players are now being enticed to take on the task. The
announcement in Budget 2002 of a Rs 500 crore Urban Reform Incentive
Fund and a City Challenge Fund, which seeks to rope in the private sector in
the provision of civic services, may trigger activity here. The Mumbai-based
Excel Industries has set up aerobic (microbial treatment) composting plants
in 12 cities. The municipal bodies supply free MSW, the entrepreneur runs
the plants, and Excel provides the know-how. "Over 500 tonnes of MSW are
turned into 200 tonnes of compost in a 45-day cycle," says Excel’s Ramesh
Gade.
In 20 Class 1 towns of Rajasthan, including Jaipur and Jodhpur, the state has
offered 30-year land leases for MSW projects at a mere Re 1/sq.m/year.
Hyderabad and Pune have given private parties the task of collecting and
disposing hazardous waste from hospitals and small clinics.
Money from MSW, hospital waste, ash... the possibilities are endless.
Intelligent Investor looks at six areas where entrepreneurs have made money
from muck.
The sludge was mixed with soil and then pelletized in a disk type pelletizer.
The pellets were dried and then fired in a laboratory scale electrical furnace.
The bulk density, crushing strength and water absorption capacities of the
pellets were determined. The pellets can be used as light weight
aggregates.
The process for making common masonry brick, lightweight aggregate and
blended cement utilizing the sludge werecompared. Considering the local
condition of industrialization, the process for making common masonry
bricks using the sludge seems to be the most promising one for eliminating
the problem associated with disposal of the sludge.