Data transparency, pertaining to waste is a massive challenge here India. As always, what does not get measured & monitored, does not get managed sustainably. From municipal waste, to hazardous, medical, e-waste & all sorts of recyclables, numbers are thrown out by the government & industry bodies, picked up by papers, consultants and quoted with little due diligence done on their part.
Measuring and monitoring different types of waste is the first step towards putting in place an effective plan of managing waste sustainably. But how does the government & various industry bodies come up with their numbers? Most rely on population metrics, dividing the population of the country, region or city into three categories. Low income, mid income & high income & then allocating waste generation metrics based on their purchasing power & consumption habits.
These are crude assumptions at best, as they fail to take into account various metrics such as waste generated from floating population of cities, tourists, slums, unauthorised colonies, waste that remains uncollected, illegally dumped, disposed in rivers, drains etc along with the change in consumption & spending habits of the population at large. Further, when it comes comes to waste, whether plastic. e-waste, hazardous waste or other recyclables, sub classification & measurement is completely missing. For example, how much plastic, what type of plastic, how much paper what type of paper etc is being generated from residential, commercial & industrial establishments? Same goes for E-waste & hazardous waste. Per capita generation of these types of waste is impossible to predict, because it’s not being measured, managed mostly by the unorganised sector & industry producing such waste, or selling it in scarp is not reporting numbers in a transparent manner.
Attack the low hanging fruit, For Example:
- Large bulk generators of waste, by first having them report category wise the amount of waste generated, disposal method & name of collection agency
- Target registered recycling units and have them detail how much domestic waste they have recycled & how much was imported category wise.
- Large & small GST registered aggregators can be tapped to find out how many recyclables have they traded category wise, from where did they receive the goods, and who were the goods sold too. GST billing can be used to track movement of goods along with random spot checks.
The toughest part of collecting data will be from the unorganised sector. But believe me, they keep an account of the amount of waste they have collected, as this is source of revenue for them (Generating revenues from selling recyclables). The great thing about the unorganised sector is that they segregate everything to the T & note it all down in a register. A crude form of accounting, but accurate in terms of providing precise waste generation data according to category.
The other challenge is of course, municipalities and their stated claims of collection, processing and disposal. In many of the non metro cities, waste is just collected & dumped by contractors in open dump sites where its not measured, let alone managed! In metro’s there is massive manipulation on weigh bridges on dumpsites, no classification on type of waste disposed & in what quantity, let alone capturing the huge amounts of waste being disposed illegally.
This data is gold! Not only will it help the government understand consumption habits based on type of waste generated better, it will provide information that can then be used to implement an effective plan to reduce and manage the waste sustainabilly. Not only that, it will provide information to the government to curb non essential scrap imports into the country disguised as recyclables. Characterisation of the waste, will asset in implementing better polices to tackle and put an end to certain packaging waste that is hard to recycle, along with introduction of better material selection and design practises when it comes to packaging material & consumer products such as electronics. Documenting and registering thousands of individuals, small operations, clinics, hotels, slum dwellers, unregistered processing units will start providing a real picture of how much waste is being generated, collected, processed & dumped.
This is massive exercise that our country must start to undertake now. Just like a population census, we need a waste census according to category to be conducted every two years, while implementing a automated system of reporting with counter checks in place from generators, collectors, aggregators, & processing units feeding into a nation waste portal available for one and all to study.
Waste needs to be clarified as a national resource. This will help move india forward in a self sustainable manner. It is criminal that a resource of such importance, that can help create millions of additional jobs (over and above the ones it already provides), reduce India’s dependancy on imported raw material, spawn a new dawn of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country is not being measured effectively, let alone being managed sustainably.
Start Up India, Make In India, Digital India, Incredible India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, you don’t need to think too much to realise that their success is directly related to how well we manage this critical resource that we call waste!
Jago India, Jago!
To End: Here is Quote From Our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi
“My experience in Gujarat shows that howsoever big a problem might be, it is not insurmountable if we have the will to act. ” Narendra Modi