Day 56 – Q 3. What are the sustainable strategies to address the problem of solid waste including e-waste? Discuss.
3, What are the sustainable strategies to address the problem of solid waste including e-waste? Discuss.
ई-कचरे सहित ठोस कचरे की समस्या के समाधान के लिए स्थायी रणनीति क्या है? चर्चा करें।
Background:
62 million tonnes of waste is generated annually in the country at present, out of which 5.6 million tonnes is plastic waste, 0.17 million tonnes is biomedical waste, hazardous waste generation is 7.90 million tonnes per annum and 15 lakh tonne is e-waste.
Only about 75-80% of the municipal waste gets collected and only 22-28 % of this waste is processed and treated.
Waste generation will increase from 62 million tonnes to about165 million tonnes in 2030.
E-waste in India:
- Even today, when India is among the world’s largest consumer of mobile phones with 1.5 million tonnes of e-waste generated in 2015, most consumers are still unaware of how to dispose of their e-waste.
- E-waste is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 30% in the country. Assocham estimated that e-waste generation was 1.8 million metric tonnes (MT) per annum in 2016.
Many developing and emerging countries are faced with the major challenge of improving their inadequate and unsustainable waste management systems.
Why we need sustainable strategies?
- Waste must no longer be deposited in residential areas and uncontrolled landfills or end up on illegal rubbish tips and in waterways.
- It accumulates in the world’s oceans as marine litter, and is blown across continents and pulverized by the action of the wind, sun and waves.
- Plastic waste in particular does considerable damage to flora and fauna and finds its way into the human food chain in the form of micro-particles.
- Since 80 per cent of the waste that ends up in the ocean originates from land-based sources, uncontrolled waste deposits in waterways and oceans are largely the consequence of non-existent or inadequate waste management.
What are the sustainable strategies to address the problem of solid waste?
A multi-pronged approach, including Technical, organisational and financial strategies for sustainable waste and resource management, is required.
Waste-to-energy technologies
In recent years, waste disposal companies have increasingly been offering partners in developing and emerging countries technologies for recovering energy from waste, based in part on their potential for climate change mitigation.
Avoidance of marine litter
Various national policy instruments are being examined to determine their effectiveness in reducing marine litter; models are generated to demonstrate their economic, environmental and social impact.
Electronic waste
Extended Producer Responsibility and “Reduce, Re-use and Recycle” are the best of available sustainable strategies for handling of Electronic waste.
Economic instruments
For local and national administrations, the costs associated with waste management are considerable. In addition to the traditional approaches to financing, economic incentive systems can be developed to avoid or recycle waste. The focus here is on concepts such as product taxation, deposit systems or user charges.
India’s Solid waste management rules, 2016 and E-waste management rules, 2016 are good examples of sustainable strategies to problems of waste management.
Some of the salient features of SWM Rules, 2016 include: –
- The source segregation of waste and Responsibilities of Generators has been mandated.
- Integration of waste pickers/ rag-pickers and waste dealers/ Kabadiwalas in the formal system
- Generator will have to pay ‘User Fee’ to waste collector and for ‘Spot Fine’ for Littering and Non-segregation
- New townships and Group Housing Societies have been made responsible to develop in-house waste handling, and processing arrangements for bio-degradable waste.
- Problems of construction and demolition waste, horticulture waste and garden waste and strategies to resolve them are also mentioned briefly in rules.
Some of the salient features of the E-waste (Management) Amendment Rules, 2018 are as follows:
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which put the onus on the producer for the management of the final stages of the life of its product, in an eco-friendly way.
- The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is the global best practice to ensure the take-back of the end-of-life products.
- A new arrangement entitled, ‘Producer Responsibility Organisation’ (PRO) has been introduced to strengthen EPR further.
Conclusion
- Waste disposal issues are exacerbated by changing patterns of consumption, industrial development and urbanisation; this in turn means that traditional systems for solid waste disposal and recycling are no longer appropriate.
- Strict implementation of the rule, creating adequate awareness, training for requisite skill sets and providing affordable technology to the informal sector could be a game-changer.
- Up-gradation of the informal sector to reach environmentally acceptable operations is need of the hour.
Best Answer: SID
Aniket Sachan
