(a) whether the Government is implementing any scientific technique to tackle the ever-growing solid waste in various cities of the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether any progress has been made to move landfill sites, far away from the main cities; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)
(a) to (d) The Ministry had notified the Solid Waste Management Rules in 2016. The Rules prescribe that no waste generator shall throw, burn or bury the solid waste generated by him, on streets, open public spaces outside his premises or in the drain or water bodies.The Rules prescribe the waste generators to segregate the waste at source and hand over the segregated waste to authorized waste pickers or waste collectors.
As far as scientific technique is concerned, the Rules prescribes to setup material recovery facilities with sufficient space for sorting of recyclable materials; collect waste from vegetable, fruit,flower, meat, poultry and fish market and promote setting up of decentralized compost plant or bio-methanation plant at suitable locations; facilitate construction, operation and maintenance of solid waste processing facilities and associated infrastructure including the following:
i. bio-methanation, microbial composting, vermi-composting, anaerobic digestion or any other appropriate processing for bio-stabilization of biodegradable wastes;
ii. waste to energy processes including refused derived fuel for combustible fraction of waste or supply as feedstock to solid waste based power plants or cement kilns;
The Rules stipulate specific criteria to encourage the use of solid waste in the waste to energy plants. It has been mentioned that (i) non recyclable waste having calorific value of 1500 K/cal/kg or more shall not be disposed of on landfills and shall only be utilised for generating energy, (ii) High calorific wastes shall be used for co-processing in cement or thermal power plants.
The plastic waste invariably forms the part of solid waste. Therefore, for the plastic waste, the key technologies prescribed are (i) utilization of plastic waste in road construction, (ii) Co-processing of plastic waste in Cement Kilns, (iii) Conversion of plastic waste into liquid RDF (Oil) and (iv) Disposal of plastic waste through Plasma Pyrolysis Technology (PPT).
The Rules provides specification for sanitary landfills including criteria for site selection, development of facilities, pollution prevention, water and air quality monitoring etc. The Rules also provide criteria for closure and rehabilitation of old dumps. The solid waste dumps which have reached their full capacity have to be closed and rehabilitated by reducing the waste by bio mining and waste processing followed by placement of residues in new landfills or capping. The Central Pollution Control Board has also issued guidelines for maintaining buffer zones restricting any residential, commercial or any other construction activity from the outer boundary of the waste processing and disposal facilities.
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