The urban environment is an important factor in determining the quality of life in urban areas and the impact of the urban area on the broader environment. Mahesh Babu, Managing Director, IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services Ltd. (IEISL) interacts with Tejasvi Sharma about Waste Management solutions
Waste is one of the fundamentals of sustainability and there is lots of hue & cry about waste reduction & waste management. How serious is the government about this issue? What are the major policy initiatives in this direction?
The problem of waste management in the country has become increasingly serious with growing urbanization and scarcity of land in our cities to continue the predominant current practice of unscientific dumping. The country today generates over 70 million tons of municipal solid waste – of which less than 10% is disposed in an environmentally compliant manner.
SWM Rules were formulated and notified in 2000. In 2006, the National Environmental Policy was notified, laying down certain ground approaches. An Inter-Ministerial Task Force was constituted to look into the composting sector, especially, composting of city waste. The report, notified in 2005 was vetted by the Supreme Court in September 2006. Stringent standards were developed for compost and vermicompost (FCO 2009) as well as Phosphorus Rich Organic Manure (PROM) (FCO 2013). The JNNURM provided support to the sector a part of urban renewal and subsequently the National Urban Sanitation Policy was evolved.
Finally ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission) was launched in 2014. The initiative has brought focused attention to waste management which is resulting in concerted action both at the Central and the State level. A ‘Swachh Bharat’ Cess has been levied which should provide a significant corpus for Waste Management. Other government initiatives including the ‘Smart City’ program and the ‘AMRUT’ program have waste management as a cornerstone. There is also significant judicial and public intervention which is forcing city administrations to adopt scientific waste management practices.
What are the key drivers to improve waste management, stimulate innovation in recycling, limit the use of land filling, and create incentives to change consumer behaviour?
The key drivers to improve waste management are:
• Waste reduction and Segregation at Source (incentives & awareness to encourage the same). Inculcate these habits at the school going age by making scientific waste management a part of the curriculum.
• Mainstreaming waste management in all walks of our life as being attempted in the Swachh Bharat mission
• Building into the urban planning process and earmarking land for scientific processing of waste.
• Focus on scientific processing and ensuring strict environmental norms.
• Ensuring financial viability in the sector to encourage private sector participation.
• Adequate budget for waste management tipping fees and output based incentives to facilitate processing
• Monitoring of landfills
• Encouraging good private companies to participate the sector
• Capacity building in our urban local bodies
IEISL is involved with two major waste management projects in Delhi, the Art Compost Plant at Okhla and Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste management plant at Burari. Would you brief us about the processes at two plants and how these two plants would help to resurrect the Delhi environment?
Municipal Solid waste has different components – green or ‘wet’ waste (amenable to biological processing), ‘dry’ or combustible waste (which can be converted to energy) and Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste. Delhi currently generates over 9000 tons of waste every day. IL&FS Environment operates a compost plant set up on a PPP model with South Delhi Municipality at Okhla that has processed over 280,000 tons of biodegradable waste into FCO compliant quality compost. The compost helps improve soil productivity by restoring organic carbon in the soil. The Okhla plant has the distinction of being the first municipal solid waste composting plant in the world to receive issued Carbon Credits.
The Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste management plant at Burari in Delhi is a pioneering initiative of IL&FS Environment that has been recognized nationwide. A PPP project with North Delhi Municipality, IL&FS Environment engineered the plant to suit our characteristics of our C&D waste. The wet process adopted also controls noise and dust. The 2000 Tons per day facility has already processed close to
2 million tons of waste that would have otherwise been dumped illegally in the Yamuna river or in other eco-sensitive areas. The facility converts the C&D waste into aggregates, pavement blocks, kerb stones, manufactured sand and other construction products.
We have implemented an integrated approach, showcased in Delhi – a combination of composting (from biodegradable waste), producing RDF (primarily dry combustible waste) followed by conversion to electrical power (WtE) and processing of C&D waste in two plants. Three more C&D waste processing facilities are under construction. These five would take care of 75% of C&D waste generated in Delhi. The Ghazipur WtE facility will process 2000 tons of waste every day and generate 12 MW’s of electricity and will achieve the highest emission standards (Euro norm), necessary for setting up such facilities in or near human communities. This we are confident will dispel many of the myths and doubts that surround waste to energy in our country, especially from the environment and health angles. The Ghazipur project design has also mainstreamed the rag picking community as an integral part.
The cumulative benefits of our integrated approach will include – cleaning up of different components of the city waste, reducing air and water pollution, reducing Green House Gases (GHG), stoppage of dumping of waste, saving precious urban land, saving natural resources to name some of the benefits. Lack of proper waste management is a significant contributor to Delhi’s current air pollution problems and our operating waste management facilities are greatly helping in addressing these issues. This integrated approach to waste management can be replicated in other cities.
How well is the PPP model working in the waste management projects? Can you quote some examples?
The sector is still nascent and PPP models are evolving. Some examples include :
• Bangalore Municipality (BBMP) has initiated a new model on output based incentives for waste processing. The entire plant has been built by the Municipality and private operators have been invited for the Operation and Maintenance. Inputs on construction of the plant were taken from the selected private operator
• South Delhi Municipality (SDMC) has awarded a collection and transportation project where separate waste streams (MSW, green waste, street sweeping, drain silt, Construction waste) have to be collected and transported separately to avoid mixing of wastes. The project has a strict performance parameters and a robust monitoring system
• Delhi Government for instance has made it mandatory to use 10 % recycled construction materials in all new road projects – which will greatly help our recycling efforts.
India is going through the massive urbanization process, continuous urbanization also brings in a number of challenges especially in respect of environmental sustainability. What are the services offered by IEISL to face these challenges?
We offer a basket of environmental services – advisory as well as asset based. As mentioned above, we have facilities to actually process different components of city waste, generate electrical power. Our pioneering integrated waste management model will play a crucial role in realizing the ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission. In the advisory space we offer services in environmental and GIS space which again play a crucial role in planning for and addressing urban challenges.
The pollution levels in Delhi have surpassed the danger mark. What would be the broad guidelines for the Delhi government to counter the situation?
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report of 2014, 13 of the top 20 worst polluted cities of world are in India. Delhi occupies the top position among the Indian cities with the annual average of PM* 2.5 as 153 ug/m3, which is six times the WHO’s recommended maximum. At various times of the year, this number spikes to even higher levels.
On judicial intervention – Govt. of Delhi has banned plying of old commercial/ transport vehicles which are 15 years old and diesel driven taxis, buses etc. Usage of CNG is encouraged in NCR. Very recently from 1-15th January 2016, the odd-even policy was implemented on Delhi roads for the private car owners. Public awareness campaigns are being conducted to raise social consciousness about the environment. Travel using public transport is being encouraged.
As per the IIT Kanpur study submitted in December 2015, construction dust contributes about 25% to the air pollution (PM level).
In this regard, an advisory by the Govt. of Delhi mandates using of recycled products from Construction & Demotion (C&D) waste in the non-load bearing areas in all the constructions in the city. This will help in reducing dust/air pollution in addition to conserving scarce natural resources. Our pioneering Burari initiative to recycle C&D waste is considered as a role model by the city (3 more plants being set up in Delhi).
The other major pollutant according to the Study is the burning of municipal solid waste in the open. The National Green Tribunal has banned burning of waste in the city. Our waste management facilities will play a big role in reducing open burning of waste.
A very innovative project agreement has been signed with Mother Dairy, would you please share the project details with our readers?
The agreement with Mother dairy is based on realising the concept of a Circular Economy . Mother Dairy has a network of 350+ retail outlets that sell vegetable under brand name of ‘Safal’ and it sources vegetables from farmers around Delhi city. The compost made from the city waste will be supplied to these farmers directly by Mother Dairy through its own vehicles that go to collect vegetable from them, thereby realising logistics synergy. The compost will help the farmer get better yield for their crops. The compost made from segregated food, kitchen and garden waste in smaller packs will also be sold through their retail outlets to Delhi consumer for domestic use for potted plants and kitchen gardens.
Construction waste recycling plants help to reduce a significant load on the landfills. What sort of government initiative can help to encourage setting up of more such plants in India?
A supportive regulatory regime will greatly help setting up of more such plants. The Delhi Government has shown leadership by mandating usage of recycled products in their contracts. Other states can follow this example. Support in R&D and pilot plants for improving technology and financial as well as fiscal support in the initial phase of development will encourage setting up of new plants.
Almost all our cities require scientific waste management. IEISL is well positioned to address this challenge. We already have mandates to manage close to 4 million tons of municipal waste annually. IEISL will further consolidate its position in both the waste management and urban advisory space in the future
What are the current trends in the waste management sector in India & abroad?
The emphasis is on maximizing recycling and processing and minimizing landfilling, segregation of waste at source, involvement of different stakeholders are also considered critical.
What are the major growth drivers & challenges in waste management sector in India?
Our rapid urbanization and changing consumption patterns represents both a growth driver and a challenge. The ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission, ‘Smart Cities’, cleaning our rivers will all require scientific waste management. Municipal finances are stretched and private investment and operating expertise is critical for waste management. Also given the huge backlog to be addressed, the challenge will be the need to quickly set up scientific waste management facilities in all our cities. It is here that IL&FS Environment having implemented an operating replicable model engineered to our waste characteristics can play a significant role. All stakeholders – Citizens, Government, Judiciary, Industry, Media and NGO’s will have to work together to address the challenge of waste management.
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