MODERN TECHNIQUES OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
INTRODUCTION
Cities are considered as the driver of economic development and growth.Majority of these cities are located in developing countries.Urban planning and city management is a very debatable topic and are kind of ignored ones.Cities generally have a variety of demographic profiles.People from all across the country migrate to the city in search of job,good education,better health facilities etc.Cities are continuously growing and so does the waste production.Municipal corporations and other concerned authorities are still struggling with waste management.
THE PROBLEM
In cities,we have garbage bins provided at public places and also have a mechanism for collection and disposal of waste.But sometimes,these are insufficient to curb the problem of waste management.Garbage bins are overflowing no one(from the local authority) to take care of these bins.As a result,wastes overflows and gets spread near the bin area.These wastes are open to sky and readily available for the houseflies to sit.Breading of insects and mosquitos can create nuisance around promoting hazardous environment which may cause dreadful diseases. The sufferer are the passerby or the people who have their home nearby to these bins.They had to bear the stinking smell of these wastes.
But at places we do not have garbage bins.At that places,solid and non-biodegradable wastes like plastics are burnt in the atmosphere which not only causes air pollution but also releases harmful gases which are harmful for us.Around 40–50% of wastes are made of carbon which on burning releases carbon dioxide.In a study,it was found that some 1.1 billion tons of waste, more than 40 percent of the world’s garbage, is burnt in open piles,contributing more emissions.
EFFORTS BY GOVERNMENT
Government has trying its level best in the field of solid waste management.Government is aiming towards garbage free cities.Government has started a campaign Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission(in English) that aims to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India’s cities, smaller towns, and rural areas.
Local urban bodies responsible for waste management has come up with two dustbins system viz Green dustbin for wet waste and Blue dustbin for dry waste in order to segregate the wet and dry waste.
Now a days,government is coming up with several proposals in order to tackle the waste management problem more efficiently.
One of them is IOT based waste management using smart dustbins.IOT is internet of things which means machine to machine communication without human interference.
In this method,multiple smart dustbins provided with unique IDs will placed at various places of a city.The lid of dustbins will be opened automatically when it detects the people who wants to throw the waste.These dustbins are provided with a sensor which keeps tracking the level of waste and weight of waste in the dustbin.When the level of waste in dustbin reaches upto its saturation limit,sensor will detect it and once the dustbins are full,then it won’t allow further addition of waste in it.The device will send the data along with details like weight and unique IDs through internet to the concerned authority.And the concerned authority will send the vehicle to collect the waste from that dustbin.These dustbins also have LCD screens which will display the location of other nearby smart dustbins in case the former is full.It will also generate voice commands if the user places the waste on the floor.The smell sensors will detect the decaying smell and will sprinkle the harmless chemical.The chemical used is Baking Soda which will further prevent the smell of decaying waste.
Due to this,human effort is minimised.Overspilling of waste will be prevented.When the dustbins will be full then only it will notify the concerned authorities,thus reduces the number of trips of garbage collection vehicle which ultimately saves the fuel cost.There won’t be any chance of corruption or providing wrong data as all the data are recorded by the device and is sent to higher authorities.
EFFORTS BY INDIVIDUALS
KRRYP Garbage ATM:
Another smart dustbins or rather we should say Garbage ATM,developed by four young men from Nashik.
They had built a smart automated waste-bins called the KRRYP Garbage ATM.The whole system is composed of two dustbins and one LCD screen.The user will be provided with a card which needs to be swiped for the dustbin to work.Once the card is swiped,a general knowledge question will be generated automatically which will have two options viz A and B(A and B are used for the two dustbins).Suppose,user has given option B as his/her answer,then the lid of dustbin B will be opened and the user will throw the garbage in that dustbin.In this way,the system will keep the record of the number of correct answers given by the users.The user with maximum correct answers will be rewarded.in the form of coupons or money.This method is really innovative as people will try to give correct answers in order to win the reward and will throw the garbage in the dustbin.
REVERSE VENDING MACHINE:
This type of smart dustbins is already implemented in the countries like Australia,U.S.A,Germany,Norway etc.Sometimes,along with other wastes,plastic wastes is also thrown which we all know is non-biodegradable.So,it is recycled which is a costly method.Separation of plastic bottles from the garbage requires labour work which means cost and effort.
Sometimes,what happens uncrushed water bottles are thrown in garbage which is collected by poor small children who inturn fill that bottle from the nearby tap which contains contaminated water.And these water bottles are sold by these children in railway stations,bus terminals etc.Drinking water from these bottles is very detrimental for our health.Due to all this reasons,reverse vending machine is very helpful.These machines will be placed at public places.Instructions of usage of these machines will on the body of the machine.Due to the usage of these machines,manual collection of plastics can be avoided fully.Easier collection of plastic waste and proper disposal of plastic waste will take place.Also after disposal of plastic waste,users will get the opportunity to get rewards in the form of coupons,loyality points,movie tickets etc.All these will motivate people to use this Reverse vending machine and throw plastic waste into this.
CONCLUSION
Urban areas are socially,culturely and religiously diverse,they are principal locations of conflicts.Implementation of the above mentioned methods for better solid waste management and maintaining it for the long run might be a difficult task at the begining for the local authorites.But it will lead to one step closer towards clean India.There might occur the case of theft or damaging of smart dustbins by notorious people in the society like the one happened to the LCD screens provided by Indian railways in the premium trains but with the growing time and awareness about its importance,the above mentioned remedies could be beneficial for the society.
REFERENCE
https://www.gpsintegrated.com/smart-bins-for-smart-city
http://www.kscst.iisc.ernet.in/spp/40_series/SPP40S/01_Seminar%20Projects/053_40S_BE_2142.pdf
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/where-trash-is-a-burning-problem-17973
https://www.tomra.com/en/collection/reverse-vending
https://www.thebetterindia.com/95751/garbage-waste-segregation-atm/