Waste and Environmental Security

25 Jul, 2002    ·   806

Col PK Gautam calls for sagacious waste management


   Nature provides extensive ecological services to mankind by recycling waste. In natural process, what is waste for one is a resource for another. Agricultural and animal waste can be used as an input like manure and fuel. When cattle perish, their meat is either consumed by humans or by birds and animals. Their bones are used for making buttons, their skin for the leather goods we need. This ecological cycle has now been disturbed.

   In industrial practices and manufacturing, the problems of waste are different. Ever since the industrial revolution, 100,000 organic and inorganic chemicals have been added to the known list of chemicals. Each year 1000 to 2000 new chemicals are added. Polymers, which have saved the planet by providing substitutes for the voracious appetite for limited wood( forests) and are providing durable high technology material are also a big nuisance due to poor civic sense and administration in urban areas. Polybags, tetrapacks and wafer packs now dot the country side like some exotic flowering species. Urbanisation and the need and growth for easy packing material have led to a crisis which is slowly turning into a national disaster. Polybags of various types now clog the drains and country side and being non-biodegradable have blocked the pores of soil. Stray cattle, a familiar scene in any part of India, are known to be eating the left over food in the heaps of garbage and their stomachs are bloating with the polybags. Vets confirm that it causes excruciating pain to the animals. Only some military stations, due to inherent discipline and administrative powers in the bazaar area, have ensured their ban. The rest of the country does not have any control mechanism to check this menace. The waste generated by so called bottled drinking water and aerated drinks and disposable tea/coffee cups is also a serious hazard.

   Sewerage is another type of waste which is discharged directly to water bodies, thus polluting the river or the ground water.

   Waste can be classified broadly into the following:

(a) Industrial Waste. Waste generated due to industrial practices, production of electricity, transport and energy sector etc. Fly ash and soot from coal fired power plants is one example that many may be familiar with. Man-made Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), used in refrigeration and fire extinguishers, destroys the protective ozone layer. The world is united in recognizing this “waste" and has negotiated the Montreal Protocol to protecting the ozone layer by phasing it out with substitutes. Waste could also be hazardous or toxic. India is also a signatory to the Basel Convention. The Convention only regulates, but does not abolish transnational trade in hazardous waste.

(b) Nuclear Waste. Waste generated from nuclear power plants is a totally different discipline and governments take the best possible measures to have foolproof and safe practices. Attack by terrorists on nuclear waste sites like tailing ponds to cause panic is a live problem now.

(c) Domestic Waste. Domestic waste has been briefly referred to above. The modern management of this waste is equally important for human health and the ecology. Liquid waste, mostly untreated, is discharged into rivers or sea, thus adding to pollution of water. Solid waste, simultaneously, is increasing from 50 million tons (MT) a year to reach nearly 260 MT a year by 2047. The reason is urbanization, economic growth and population growth combined with consumerism. The pattern of composition of solid waste is as under:

Cities

Non

Degradable

Non

Degradable

Non

Degradable

Non

Degradable

Non

Degradable

Degradable

Paper

Plastic

Metal

Glass 

Ash and Earth 

Calcutta

3.18

0.65

0.66

0.38

34.00

47.00

Delhi

6.29

0.85

1.21

0.57

36.00

35.00

Bangalore

4.00

2.00

-

1.00

15.00

78.00

Mumbai

10.00

2.00

3.60

0.20

44.20

40.00

Composition of Solid Waste from Cities (%) (1996)

   A study shows that the average collection efficiency for municipal solid waste is around 70 %. Only non biodegradable waste needs to be disposed in landfill sites which are also in limited supply. It is non disposal of waste that attracts rodents and flies, pollutes and degrades land and water. Improper disposal at landfills also creates methane gas which causes global warming. Burning of waste like plastic and polybags mixed with leaves has become a routine in municipal practices. Burning of plastic can cause cancer. Similarly burning dry leaves in urban areas is a health hazard. This organic waste needs to be converted into manure rather than burnt, in the same way that agricultural and animal waste needs to be used as manure and not as fuel.

   Waste is now an important discipline of environmental security. Nature’s eco services are not in a position to dispose our waste. Industrial ecology is the challenge of the future and so are our civic practices. Waste must be used as a raw material rather than being disposed of dangerously and unsustainably as at present. 

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