It is quite apparent that India has mountains of garbage, and the cities are drowning in sewage. Is there any hope?

It’s not like the government has not been taking actions to handle India’s waste crisis. However, there is more that can be definitely done. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) was a massive city-modernisation scheme launched by the Government of India under Ministry of Urban Development. It aims to create ‘economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive Cities’ by a strategy of upgrading the social and economic infrastructure in cities. However, aside from that, there has been no national level effort found to address the problem.

This basically means that municipal corporations got their hands full and will not be able to deliver solutions right away. It should be noted that for about eight years, officials of Hyderabad’s municipal corporation have been conducting interviews with locals and were quite unsuccessful with their efforts. This can be attributed to the track record of dumpsite operations and maintenance in India making the task of finding new landfills in and around cities is nearly impossible along with the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon. What corporations can do however is to take measures in their own hands by reducing landfill fires and open burning, and control pollution which is the result of leachate and odor and vector nuisance. This in turn, provides the needed relief to adjacent communities and allows corporations some time to plan better. Working closely with the community is also of utmost importance as they navigate through this sensitive issue. This is made possible by increasing clarity and transparency over such issue.

Indeed, waste management is a shared effort and should not be handled by the government and corporations by themselves. The community needs to join with the cause by practicing proper waste management procedures in an effort to reduce waste. Of course, waste will not go away overnight but such activities will make sure that this lessens over time.

Waste management goes under different category that needs to be separated from each other. This in turn makes recycling much easier and more efficient than before.  For instance, BMW of Bio-medical Waste means any waste generated in health care processes like diagnosis, treatment or immunisation of human beings or animals. BWM needs to be handled in a timely manner not it causing any adverse effect to human health and environment. It also needs to be segregated in containers at point of generation and handled and disposed off in accordance with prescribed standards.

Another popular waste product that is used on a regular basis is the batteries. It should be noted that batteries that are not disposed properly can end up to leak with used lead acid batteries and their components which can be very dangerous. As such, the community is advised to deposit used batteries with dealer, manufacturer, importer, assembler, recycler, re-conditioner or designated collection centres instead of throwing them away. Cleaners services of plastic waste also needs to be handled effectively especially since plastic takes a very long time for them to decompose compared to other types of waste. Finding the nearest recycling center is able to make waste management activity much easier to handle. We can only hope for the best with India’s waste management problem.