Why key to a clean city lies in every household

Gurgaon: There are 9.05 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste lying at the Bandhwari landfill site, waiting to be processed. Municipal waste estimated to reach Bandhwari till the end of this year is another 3.3 lakh metric tonnes.
The state of Bandhwari, which National Green Tribunal ordered to be cleared two years ago and for which it slapped environmental compensation of Rs 100 crore on Haryana govt, is a reflection of the city's daily struggles with garbage management.Failure to designate alternative sites for a landfill and to reduce the amount of waste that needs to be collected and processed centrally has put the entire pressure of garbage management on the collection, segregation and transportation apparatus, which anyway is riddled with gaps and needs reform.
When it ordered Haryana govt to clear the Bandhwari landfill in Sept 2022, NGT had called for a "mission mode approach" to remove legacy waste from the site. Since then, the corporation has engaged different agencies to process the waste, but the same urgency has not been seen in arresting waste at source, which the civic body can try by proactively collaborating with RWAs.
Besides the heaps of waste that have become a common sight on roadsides across the city because of garbage mismanagement, Bandhwari also extracts a big environmental cost. It's a landfill spanning 28.9 acres encircled by Aravalis. A landfill there has for years led to concern about its impact on groundwater because it sits near a major recharge point.
The corporation recently informed NGT that it intends to clear all legacy waste from Bandhwari by the end of Dec. Accomplishing this goal will, however, need more proactive measures to be undertaken to decrease the quantity of waste being transported to the landfill because space constraints due to machines and fresh garbage deposits will delay legacy waste clearing.
What's the quickest way to reduce waste reaching the landfill?
The load will get significantly lightened if the corporation can incentivise bulk waste generators (BWGs) to manage their waste by recycling dry waste and plastics and setting up composting facilities on their premises. MCG had earlier classified those producing 50kg or more waste per day as BWGs but it has revised this to 100kg.
According to the 50kg classification, the city has 8,749 BWGs, which includes 1,531 residential societies, 1,959 educational institutions, 222 religious institutions and 177 industrial units.
"We need more waste entrepreneurs working in the city who will bring innovation and scientific technology in waste management. Indore has installed a bio-CNG plant and they are now using CNG produced from waste to run city buses. MCG needs to commission such projects and bring more innovation, which will eventually reduce the burden on the landfill. Waste entrepreneurs are also making furniture out of plastic," said Vaishali Rana, an environmental activist.
Reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills can also be achieved through decentralised processing. It is essential for the corporation to establish material recovery facilities in each ward or cluster for this.
"We have told NGT we will clear all the legacy waste by Dec end and we are going all out to achieve the target. Moreover, we have started sending notices to BWGs and imposing penalties on them for not processing waste. We are also handholding them and have empanelled agencies to assist them in waste management," MCG commissioner Narhari Singh Banger told TOI.
Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, clearly define duties of waste generators. It is to segregate waste into three separate streams – biodegradable, non-biodegradable and domestic hazardous waste – in separate bins and hand over segregated waste to authorised ragpickers or waste collectors. Urban local bodies, according to the rules, must decentralise waste processing and set up material recovery facilities (MRFs) or secondary storage facilities with sufficient space for sorting of recyclable material.
Environmentalists argue the city's problems stem from a flawed policy design. Contracts and work orders for solid waste management are based on a model that emphasises collection, transportation and tipping fees, which encourages the transport of larger amounts of garbage to a landfill. Segregation isn't done scientifically, so mixed waste ends up at the landfill. This affects both recycling and processing.
The areas most severely impacted are Jharsa, Sikanderpur, Sadar Bazar, Ghata, Southern Peripheral Road, Golf Course Road Extension, Chakkarpur, Kanhai and Khandsa. These locations are considered garbage vulnerable points (GVPs), where the frequency of solid waste being dumped exceeds the rate at which it is collected.