Mainstream WeeklyWaste management has been a weak part of the development story of India, and within waste management inability to have proper waste segregation has been a particularly sad story. This is despite the fact that in some smaller initiatives, some brilliant officials working with community involvement have achieved very good results. However, such success at a wider level has been missing.
So it is good that new solid waste segregation rules are being framed for implementation in the near future. However, some important cautions and changes are needed in these rules.
In several news reports on this issue, it has been mentioned that glass is being included along with dry objects like paper and plastic. This is wrong, as there should be an entirely separate category for glass and other sharp objects, which can cause cuts, either in their present form or if they get broken in the course of rough handling of waste materials. Hence, objects like glass, glass bottles, blades, bulbs, knives, sharp-edged instruments and tools should all be in this category. Apart from the four mentioned categories, a fifth category should be created for this.
At present, a lot of harm is being caused to waste handlers as well as animals, as this waste often gets collected and dumped in a way that causes injuries to waste handlers and animals.
Secondly, it is important to ensure that once a lot of compostable waste becomes available in a segregated and ready-to-use form, we are ready to utilize this well. If we are not ready for using this segregated wet waste, problems will remain as mounds of this will remain unused at various places. So even before the implementation of new rules starts, widespread preparations to use the compostable material in scientific ways should be in place and for this, pits should be dug and the necessary technical guidance should be provided regarding how this should be used in gardens, kitchen gardens, parks, farms, etc. or collected for further processing.
Similarl,y there should be advance preparations for disposing of sanitation, hazardous and injurious waste that has been carefully segregated. There can also be preparations for sub-segregation beyond the first-stage segregation.
It is also very important to ensure that the livelihoods of various unorganised sector workers and cottage-scale entrepreneurs, who have been a very important part of waste management so far, are improved in the new situation, not harmed or disrupted. With proper segregation and processing, what happens is that various kinds of waste become much easier to handle, and in the new situation, various big corporate interests are also keen to take over parts of this work, often in more mechanised ways, which can displace some of the people earlier involved in various aspects of waste management.
However, the government if it plans well and is well-intentioned, can take advance steps so that the interests of traditional waste handlers are well protected. These waste handlers exist at various levels and can come from different communities. The rag picker may be at the bottom end. On the other hand the traditional raddiwala who collects old newspapers and paper or dry waste from houses belongs to a different category and may be better placed than rag pickers. Then there is the sanitation worker or the safaikarmi who has been collecting the daily waste from houses for long, often in unsegregated forms. Then there are several others in the waste management chain. They all deserve a better deal. They all have been performing useful social roles in more difficult and dirtier conditions. With proper segregation there are opportunities for cleaner and more creative work. In fact proper waste management is one of the most creative enterprises which huge potential for creative and useful work for millions and millions of people at the national level. This potential should be realized with careful planning for this.
(Author: Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071, Man over Machine and Navjeevan)