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Community Based Waste Management:

Some Key Experiences

Mrs Almitra H Patel, MemberSupreme Court Committee for Solid Waste

Management in Class 1 Cities in India

Ranchi, 16.11.2002

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The best way to keep streets clean is not to dirty them at all

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Open waste breeds half-wild dogs that bite kids, spread rabies

and attack village livestock

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What is the answer? First, minimise all wastes :

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Park and Garden wastes can be composted on-site or used as fuel

or sent to cremation grounds

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Managing all wastes at home is best. Keep kitchen waste

separate, and compost it at home

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Use potted plants or plant beds : waste put onto soil in thin layers decomposes soon and is fertiliser

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Apartment bldgs can compost their wastes in very little space

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Planter-composting over drains beautifies the street while

keeping leachate off the road

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Vermi-bins can beautify pavements but should not make

them too narrow to walk on

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Houses on a street can use common compost bins

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Common compost-tanks for a moholla need air and drainage

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Roadside dustbins are always dirty. Remove them and grow a garden

in that spot to keep it clean

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Moholla waste has to be collected door-to-door at fixed

times

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Handcarts can be of many types, but all should have bins to avoid

manual loading of waste

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It helps to have a shelf and storage space for sorted dry

waste

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“Dry” recyclable waste can be collected weekly in larger carts

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Moholla or City must provide space for Collecting and Storing

“dry” recyclable wastes

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Also space to collect truckloads of dry waste for shipment out

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Otherwise it will encroach on roads or even riverbeds

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Market waste is easy to compost

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Use space in Pumping Stations

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Larger quantities of waste are harder to handle

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and need costly mechanised equipment for turning & sieving

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Unturned dumps cause terrible pollution; leachate ruins soil & water

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Bulk wastes are composted with the help of cowdung-water + rock phosphate or low-cost biocultures

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Form waste into “wind-rows” and spray with bioculture

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Proper moisture control and turning is essential

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Such compost is used by farmers and returns nutrients to the soil

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But plastic wastes are a major problem in composting and need very costly machinery to remove

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Thermocole and plastic carrybags can be recycled if kept separate

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Citizens can help by keeping “dry” waste out of kitchen waste

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This is the law of the land now: daily doorstep collection of wet wastes for composting, dry wastes given separately