Circular economy or no future of cities

India cities generate over 1,00,000 MT of waste per day (CPHEEO). Resources being limited, with rapid population growth, urbanization, and development, cities cannot afford to lose all the waste that it creates. Just collecting and managing waste will not be enough anymore for urban spaces.

Waste management is an extremely important aspect of a society for it impacts lives and environment. It has rightly become a burning issue in recent times, especially in urban areas, owing to the huge amount of waste cities produce. This generation of technology and minds is largely relying on innovations to appear as solutions to challenges faced in management. For example, cities are beginning to introduce solar powered vehicles for door-to-door collection of waste, thereby introducing carbon emission free transportation, while simultaneously ensuring that waste is collected on a regular basis.
Waste management consists of transportation, disposal methods, recycling methods, avoidance and reduction methods. Reduction remains one of the most important aspects. Mahendra Singh Tanwar, Commissioner of Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation, had said in an interview with Urban Update that 5000 people can never be enough to manage and clear waste produced by over five lakh people. The ultimate responsibility lies on an individual to manage their own waste at the basic level, thereby making the process of sorting and managing easier as the waste goes through each stage in the management process.

Provisions and challenges

The Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules notified in 2000 by the Ministry of Environment and Forest dictate urban local bodies (ULBs) to collect waste in a segregated manner with categories including organic/food waste, domestic hazardous waste, and recyclable waste, and undertake safe and scientific transportation management, processing and disposal of municipal waste. However, most ULBs in India are finding it difficult to comply with these rules, implement, and sustain door-to-door collection, waste segregation, management, processing and ensuring safe disposal of MSW due to lack of funds. ULBs in India are in greater need of strengthening in terms of their authority and funds to be able to address issues like waste management.
The biggest challenge in India in the waste management sector remains segregation of waste. Even after years of campaigns, teachings and workshops in schools, offices, and colleges on segregating waste at source, ULBs continue to receive waste bags with a mixture of plastic, biodegradable materials, and e-waste. These bags of mixed waste are then individually opened and each waste is segregated by hand by waste pickers and segregators, thereby putting their health at extreme risk. Engaging the public by imposing fines has been found to be a good method in India, but ULBs need to be strengthened systematically to be able to do so.
Waste can only be treated and managed properly if it is considered as a box of hidden treasure by every single individual. When people think of the used product as ultimate waste, they overlook its potential that arises by reusing and recycling. Using biodegradable waste as compost, depositing or selling e-waste at processing centres, etc., are ways in which waste can be turned into treasure. Even recyclable plastics and aluminium cans can be recycled by processing plants. The problem remains that the waste never reaches the processing plants, essentially because presence of informal collection and transportation of waste often leads to all kinds of waste, including electronic waste, plastic, paper, and biodegradable waste, to go into landfills or get incinerated.
A humanitarian venture in Chennai, for example, hired local informal garbage pickers this year. Waste-pickers, who collect and sell scraps from all over the city, are an important part of the informal, unstructured waste management supply chain. Kabadiwalla Connect, an enterprise, injected technology into the mix by piloting artificial intelligence-powered solutions to connect waste collectors with recycling facilities and empower the informal sector to decentralise waste management. In order to tackle informal waste collection and management in Indian cities, corporations have given major thrust to door-to-door collection of waste. However, what is required is turning those informal workers into formal waste collectors and segregators to account for each bag of waste that leaves an establishment.
Some cities like Ghaziabad and Bhubaneswar have introduced door-to-door collection of waste. The Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board in October 2021 launched a mobile van at the divisional headquarters for door-to-door collection of e-waste. Noting the piling up of e-waste in this digital world, the city of Dehradun opened 51 centres specifically for collection, management and processing of electronic waste. But much needs to be done in terms of awareness campaigns for citizens on e-waste and metal waste.

3R or circular economy

Circular economy is a new model of production and consumption that ensures long-term growth. It extends the life cycle of products, reduces waste, and establishes a more efficient and sustainable production model over time. The city of Ljubjana has been using waste products like millings and chippings produced from re-surfacing its asphalt roads in construction/renovation of its street and sidewalks. The city is also known for converting its old bus seats into equipment for children’s playgrounds. Recently, Ljubjana became the first city in the world to produce paper out of Japanese knotweed, which is originally a pest illegal in most countries, and is known to cause significant damage to the foundations of buildings. Moreover, Ljubjana’s public waste management organisation is already cleaning the city’s pavements with recycled water. The city has been actively reusing the kind of waste no one would think was useful, and that is an essential part of 3R economy. If any Indian city is closest to achieving circular economy in waste management, it might be Hyderabad. In an effort to deal sustainably with plastic and dump yards in the city, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) cooperated with Bamboo House India to turn a former dump yard, which used to be a black spot in the city, into a dog park. The 4000 sq ft pavement outside the park was made up of 1500 recycled plastic tiles. According to the Swachh Survekshan Report 2020, Hyderabad’s urban local body installed a record-breaking number of 775 recycled plastic bins. In 2020, GHMC decided that it will implement a new plastic waste management strategy, with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) South Asia. ICLEI will assist with the installation of Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) for the collection of PET bottles and aluminium cans. Taking inspiration from Malaysia, where people can submit plastic bottles and aluminium cans and be rewarded with investment gold, GHMC has also decided to introduce users receiving rewards from outlets that will have tie-ups with the provider of RVMs.
Garbage management was a past of cities. Circular economy is the future. Cities are in urgent need of developing systems in a way to establish 3R Circular economy. Going by the speed at which humans are expending resources, there will soon come a time when there will be nothing left for our future generations. Every aspect of urban lifestyle is in dire need of being introduced to circular economy, and the time to act is now.