Urban Management Report

URBAN MANAGEMENT PP-236

Project Report on

Solid Waste Management in the Cultural Triangle

Abhishek Minz | Francesco Isola |Ishan Pendam | Louise Ben Kiran 11/12/2013

Background The role of culture and cultural activities in providing both a social as well as an economic anchor for cities that are undergoing changes dues to liberalization and globalization is being increasingly realized by policy makers and government. Cultural activities add to the richness of everyday life, involve a diversity of people of different age groups, help reduce social tension and crime, and at the same time, create alternate avenues for employment and livelihood. Given the slowing down of economic growth in India, after more than two decades of relatively higher growth, this is perhaps a good time to turn our attention to culture and what it can do to re-energize the city. Kolkata has often been referred to as India’s “cultural capital” because of its strong emphasis on the arts, music, theater and literary traditions. Such activities enhanced the quality of life of the city and despite its many failures in other aspects, made life decently livable for its middle class. A number of important institutions were built by the government and also by the private sector philanthropists to encourage cultural activities. However, over the years, with the growth and spread of the city, the old cultural centers have lost some of their appeal, partly due to poor upkeep as compared to the new facilities provided elsewhere. But many of the old institutions still have much to offer, and, if revitalized, could regenerate these areas and bring back people to the center of the city. Keeping this in mind, our project focused on what is often called the “cultural triangle” of Kolkata. It is a small compact area located in central Kolkata at the junction of Chowringhee Road, AJC Bose Road and Cathedral Road. It is an old area showing up in the Lottery Committee’s map of the city and its environs dating back to 1825-32. At that time, it was largely empty except for a large pond. After independence, the area began to emerge as an important hub of cultural activities partly because of its ideal location between north and south Kolkata. It is for this reason that the area is an important transport interchange junction. The cultural triangle, as it stands today, is made up of a group of important buildings which are as follows: Academy of Fine Arts, Rabindra Sadan, Nandan (a movie theatre complex), Kolkata Information Centre, Nehru Museum and Library, Rotary Sadan, Birla Planetarium and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The objective of the project is to study the area and come up with suggestions for its improvement. Specifically, our project would be focusing on the solid waste management in and around the area and how to make it a zero garbage area. The problem of Solid Waste Management (SWM) in India, and cities like Kolkata, when combined with rapid urbanization and unplanned development, is expected to be of such magnitude that significant reasons exist to initiate immediate action for improvement of this appalling situation.

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This would be achieved through studying the existing system of solid waste management, doing a literature survey after some field visits and come up with a suitable set of recommendations (including a feasible model) for future implementation.

Introduction Solid Waste Management Human activities create waste, and the ways that waste is handled, stored, collected, and disposed of can pose risks to the environment and to public health. Solid waste management (SWM) includes all activities that seek to minimize health, environmental, and aesthetic impacts of solid waste. Solid waste can be defined as non-liquid material that no longer has any value to the person who is responsible for it. The words rubbish, garbage, trash, or refuse are often used as synonyms when talking about solid waste. The term municipal solid waste refers to solid waste from houses, streets and public places, shops, offices, and hospitals. Management of these types of waste is most often the responsibility of municipal or other governmental authorities. Although solid waste from industrial processes is generally not considered municipal waste, it nevertheless needs to be taken into account when dealing with solid waste because it often ends up in the MSW stream. A typical waste management system in a low- or middle-income country includes the following elements: • Waste generation and storage • Segregation, reuse, and recycling at the household level • Primary waste collection and transport to a transfer station or community bin • Street sweeping and cleansing of public places • Management of the transfer station or community bin • Secondary collection and transport to the waste disposal site • Waste disposal in landfills • Collection, transport, and treatment of recyclables at all points on the solid waste pathway (collection, storage, transport, and disposal) In the past, these important elements of waste management were often regarded only from an engineering and technical viewpoint. It is essential to realize that these elements are embedded in the local institutional, sociocultural, and economic context, which is further influenced by national politics, policies, and legislation as well as national and global and economic factors.

Types of Solid Waste

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Solid Wastes are generally divided into the following categories:  Municipal: We have already discussed this above. This is further subdivided into Commercial Wastes (produced by government organizations etc) and Domestic Wastes (produced by households).  Construction & Demolition: Construction and demolition waste that is generated during the course of repair, maintenance, and construction activities comprises bricks, stones, tiles, cement concrete, wood, and so forth. Such waste is generally not stored by the waste generator within its premises until disposal.  Special Wastes: Wastes such as those generated by a hospital (bio-medical wastes, radioactive wastes) come under this category.  Industrial Wastes: Many cities and towns have small and large industries within the city limits. Those industries produce hazardous and nonhazardous industrial waste, which the industries must dispose of following the standards laid down under hazardous waste management rules framed by the government of India and following directions given by CPCB and by state pollution control boards.

Functional Components of Solid Waste Management An efficient SWM system can be broken down into the following sub-processes: 

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Generation: Refers to the act of production of wastes by human beings and activities carried out by them, including activities that result in waste production by animals. An efficient SWM system must tackle the issues at source (waste generation) so as to prevent any negative outcomes in future. Primary Storage and Collection: On site storage of wastes is essential for an efficient SWM system. Most households, shops, and establishments throw their waste just outside their premises, on streets, in drains, in open spaces, in water bodies, and in other inappropriate places. Because such waste contains high levels of biodegradable material, it attracts rodents and stray animals and thus contributes to the spread of filth and disease. Collection refers to transfer of wastes from the storage source (ideally the waste producers) to a waste handling system run by the municipal body for effective treatment, recycling and disposal later on. An important component of collection is segregation. This means keeping different types of wastes (based on its degradation properties) in separate places so that the handling system can manage those indifferent ways. There are two types of segregated wastes, which are- biodegradable and recyclable. Secondary Storage and Transportation: The wastes, after collection, needs to be stored at a common designate place for waste storage, to be utilized as and when the need for treatment and recycling is felt. This is so because any wastes cannot be sent for immediate treatment and recycling. Herein comes the process of secondary storage. Transportation involves the use of different vehicles (auto-rickshaws, hand carts, trucks, tractors, tempo etc.) for primary collection and subsequent transportation for treatment etc. Treatment and Recycling: Depending on the nature of the waste, different treatment options exist to convert the waste into a form suitable for dumping, extraction of energy or further 3

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processing into a useful product. Recycling is done when the waste can be utilized to obtain some useful resource. Treatment is earmarked for that portion that cannot be recycled or has no further use. Disposal: Post treated waste needs to be disposed of as it has no further use. This is achieved with the help of land-fills.

Preliminary Findings After a few field trips to the concerned area, we started our analysis by identifying and classifying the various waste generating sources which were present in the area. This led to the following outcome: St. Paul’s Cathedral

Special

Calcutta Medical Imaging Institute

Special

Academy of Fine Arts

Construction

Nandan/ Rabindra Sadan

Domestic

Nehru Museum

Domestic

Sisir Mancha Auditorium

Domestic

Restaurants, Eateries

Commercial

Birla Planetarium

Commercial

The idea was to identify the main types of wastes that was being produced in the area so that any recommendation or suggestion given later would incorporate the specificity of the concerned area and its problem. Apart from this, the following points were noted as suggestions for the different aspects of the SWM system after studying and analyzing the area.

Waste Segregation and Storage   

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It is important to address the solid waste issue from the generation of waste. Citizens, as the producers of waste, hence need to cooperate with SWM. No municipal effort can make a city clean unless its citizens cooperate and take an active part in waste management. Citizens must be informed, educated, and motivated not to litter on the streets so they develop the habit of storing their waste at its source in at least two separate bins (one for biodegradable waste and one for recyclable waste). Bins for shops and establishments should have 50% spare capacity over & above normal capacity. There are several large establishments in the area. These establishments may keep larger bins that are coordinated with the municipal transport system. 4

Primary Waste Collection Waste that is stored and segregated at households or other establishments needs to be collected following a fixed schedule. There are two main options for primary collection: door to door collection at preset intervals or community bin collection (known as the bring system). Upon our study of the concerned area, we were able to come to the conclusion that door to door collection would be far more superior because of the following reasons:  Outsourcing to NGOs: These organizations could be offered a reasonable subsidy (such as Rupees 10 per house per month) to assist them in appointing and financing their own part-time sanitation workers for the door-to-door collection service. NGOs can be invited to submit applications, and the agreement can be established through a memorandum of understanding. 

Personalized Service: The area we were working in is generally identified as a posh area of the city, with organizations that can afford to pay premium prices for an effective waste management mechanism. High-income bodies such as these expect more personalized service and may not mind paying higher fees for door-to-door collection. In such areas, sanitation workers will need to visit and collect waste from each house in the area allotted to them. The waste can also be collected on specific days or at specific times. This system reduces the productivity of labor, so more workers will be needed to cover the same number of houses in a four-hour schedule. Hence, the cost of collection will be substantially higher. The higher cost justifies higher fees from such communities. The fees could be set at rates that would help to subsidize collection in poor communities as well.

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Segregated Collection: The system will ensure that segregation of wastes is maintained throughout the collection process. This would ensure that the benefits of segregation are passed onto further SWM processes and an efficient system is ensured.

The community bin method, though useful in its own capacity, would fail to work in our case because:  Location and Lack of Use: Building such a bin location inside the cultural triangle will hamper the aesthetic beauty of the place, and once it is built outside the cultural triangle, there would be inherent issues of people not travelling to the location of the bin to dump their wastes. Even outside the triangle, the area is pretty packed and dense, and nobody would want a community bin to be located just adjacent or near their establishment/place.  Nuisance from Animals: The bin area would attract animals like stray dogs etc that would create nuisance and contribute in further spread of wastes and associated diseases.  Problem of illegal waste disposal because households find it inconvenient to carry their waste to the community bin.

Specific Considerations

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Keeping in mind the different types of waste generating sources are present in the area, we also decided to come up with specific recommendations for each kind of sources: Restaurants and Eateries

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Construction and Demolition Waste

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Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces

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Reuse of waste can be considered (animal feeding) High fraction of organic wastes. Recyclable waste post segregation has high value-might be collected by specialized waste collector Inert in nature- directly taken to landfill sites to be used as cover material Fill low lying areas in city Skip container best suited for collection Mainly biodegradable waste and litter Litter can be reduced by adequate awareness for tourists Organic fraction treated on site itself (compost)

Role of NGOs In the past 10 years, a growing number of NGOs in India have become active in improving the working and living conditions of rag pickers. Municipal services collect waste only from public bins; NGOs recognized the service gap and started offering door-to-door collection services to households. Knowing that recyclable waste should be collected at the source of its generation to maintain the value of the materials, NGOs tried to involve rag pickers in door-to-door collection. Several success stories show that such efforts have significantly improved the living conditions of hundreds of rag pickers Muskan Jyoti Samiti, a project in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, is working with 30,000 households. The services offered are door-to-door collection of waste and sweeping of roads twice a week. Currently, the project serves the upper-, middle-, and lower-income colonies. It charges different user fees in different colonies: Rupees 15 to Rupees 30 per household per month. It has employed about 900 rag pickers. Rag pickers are not paid any salary; however, they have a right to the recyclable materials they collect and, on average, they earn Rupees 1,200 to Rupees 1,500 per month from selling those materials. Similarly, the project initiated by Vatavaran caters to 150 households. Waste is collected door to door. The service area consists of both middle- and low-income communities. Through the efforts of the resident welfare association, the project has been successful in getting land from Delhi Development Authority for waste segregation and composting. Approximately 300 kilograms of waste is collected daily, of which 66 percent is compostable. A user fee of Rupees 45 to Rupees 50 per month is charged to the service recipients. An income of Rupees 5,000 per year is generated from composting, and recycling helps generate Rupees 2,000 per month.

Proposed Model for SWM 6

The following is the self-explanatory model involving the use of NGO in the SWM process. It involves all the four concerned stakeholders necessary for effective SWM: NGO, government, public and rag pickers.

Advantages Our model ensures that the following advantages are achieved:      

Former informal rag pickers become formalized waste collectors and are accepted by the households they serve. They have direct access to recyclable material, the sale of which adds to their income. Higher profits as they skip the intermediaries, sell directly to merchants. Paid waste collection can be given as bonuses to govt. employees (incentivize). Total cost of disposal decreases due to segregation. Ensures SWM at all strata of society.

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